The LU Blog

Our May newsletter is out!  Read about Chris Kennedy, a graduating senior from MIT, upcoming programs, plus what we’ve been reading.

We don’t know either.  We think our blog logo got lost when we transitioned to our new server.  Hopefully it’ll be back soon!

Our April newsletter is out!  You’ll hear about Northwestern Splash, our Parents’ Program at Stanford Splash, Ripple, and get a list of upcoming programs nationwide.

“You are witnessing something remarkable.”  That was how I started off a two-minute introduction this weekend at Ripple, the conference on creativity in education run by Splash! Chicago, the LU chapter at the University of Chicago.  It is already remarkable that the undergraduates at the University of Chicago put on educational programs for hundreds of high school students each year, drawing heavily from the South Side of Chicago; but now they have taken it a step further, organizing a conference attended by teachers and principals, students, professors, and leaders of thought in education.  It was a discussion that is really needed, and it was a discussion organized by college students who don’t think they have to wait to graduate in order to have a big impact.

If you want to get an idea of the phenomenal program they put together, just browse the workshops and speakers.

Congratulations to everyone at Chicago who put together this conference.  You’ve outdone yourselves.

Stanford Splash drew 929 students this weekend, surpassing our projections by a good margin!  It ran smoothly, in gorgeous weather (sorry, Boston and Chicago folk), and with the most excited students and parents I’ve seen in a while.  I can’t express how much more energy I have since seeing that Splash.

Indeed, before the program I was terribly nervous, because LU was running its first parents program.  I’d never done a program for parents before and had no idea how it would be received.  We certainly had a lot that we could bring to the table: we’re young, so close in age to the kids, and we know a great deal about the education world and what opportunities are available.  But on the other hand, none of us are parents!  Well, I’ve never seen so many people thank me so much for anything.  We hit it out of the park, and I feel like we did such a service for the parents and their kids.  Thanks to all who came and helped make it successful; look for it to be even better next Splash!  (And if you weren’t there, we’ll put some resources, including the slides from my talk, on the website.)

So let’s see.  Splash is now doing great service for kids and parents, growing bigger every time, and continuing to have outstanding, exciting classes with outstanding, excited students.  This was a great weekend.

Northwestern had an outstanding program today. It was a free Splash, with classes running 10am to 5pm, free lunch, and a lot of fun. I think University of Chicago Splash students got a lot out of visiting the Northwestern campus as well. In all, a great day!

…is tomorrow!

So far, their preparation has been really smooth.  I’m definitely looking forward to it.

More details here.

Our March newsletter is out!  Find out about Duke Splash, upcoming programs, and more.

Our next newsletter is coming soon, and we’re trying a new feature called the “Amazing Web Link.”  They’ll be opinionated links, but we’re not taking sides: regardless of if we agree or disagree with the ultimate point, if it’s thought-provoking and entertaining, we’ll pass it on.

So that brings us to the first link: this TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson about creativity in schools.  (TED is a conference about “ideas worth spreading” that has found great success and attracts some really top thinkers.)  It is entertaining and, certainly, thought-provoking.

Have something to share?  Feel free to leave a comment and we’ll see if we can get an LU discussion going.

The Heights, the student newspaper of Boston College, just ran an article on MIT’s Spark and on the plans of Hanyin Cheng, former MIT Splash student and now BC undergrad, to start a Splash at his college.  It’s a great article that captures a lot of the program, although it does get the numbers wrong (1100 students pre-registered, but roughly 800 actually attended Spark).