6 students’ summer plans

By TINDRA JEMSBY, 2026

Coppery sunlight streams through the windows of the AAA building as excited chatter fills the halls between classes, heralding the imminent arrival of summer break. Here are some activities students are doing this summer.

Claire Ewing

Horseback riding, rock carving and secret ceremonies are only some of the activities held at Teton Valley Ranch in Dubois, Wyoming, according to seventh grade student Anita Kunsman. She’s attending the camp for the third year in a row this summer.

The camp is activity-oriented, and it has a social side as well. “You mostly hang out with your cabin, but… you still spend time with others every day,” Kunsman said.

A four day horseback riding trip and a three day backpacking trip are the highlights of the experience for Kunsman, but she looks forward to the food and “just the camp activities, day to day.”

Swift

Next up, Swift performed “Enchanted” from her album “Speak Now.” She wore a stunning, shimmering ball gown and delivered a magical performance that pulled heartstrings and “enchanted” the audience. My one complaint was that she only sang one song from this album.

‘Folklore’ Era

Swift started the concert with a thrilling, colorful performance of hits from her 2019 “Lover” album. Within minutes, the stadium was screaming along to the fan-favorite bridge of her song “Cruel Summer.” Other highlights were the rainbow pattern of the crowd’s light-up bracelets during “You Need To Calm Down” and Swift’s power dance moves during “The Man.”

‘Fearless’ Era

Next was “Fearless (Taylor’s Version).”

The moment I heard the nostalgic first notes of the album’s title track, I screamed

This was one of the best moments of the show. Hearing Swift capture the gut-wrenching feeling and nostalgia of her song “august” while sashaying around the stage in her stunning flowy white dress was unforgettable. Not to mention the way she immediately transitioned into the bridge of “illicit affairs,” ending up crouched on the floor singing with note changes that somehow made it even more agonizingly beautiful.

In her three hours onstage, Swift never once tired. Her incredible endurance to sing and dance was exceptional and admirable. She managed to keep the whole audience captivated and surprised the whole night, song after song, whether simple and acoustic or with a massive show. Swifties and non-Swifties alike can agree that the Eras Tour is an unforgettable experience.

Freshman Claire Ewing will attend Top Rank, a soccer camp in Potomac, Maryland. It’s a camp for all age ranges and levels of experience, though Ewing says that she falls in “the older age range and the lower experience range.”

The week-long camp is not sleepaway, as Ewing found out at age 12 that she was homesick at camp. Now, she sees camp as “a pre-pre-season” where she can spend time with a friend group outside of school. She looks forward to improving her soccer skills, but doesn’t really know what to expect. “I’ve never been, so we’ll see what it’s like,” Ewing said.

This summer, junior Gabriel Piris wants to “find different ways [he] can view the world” through a summer program at Brown University. He is participating in two week-long courses in astronomy and ancient art.

“They’re both things that I don’t really want to do with my life, but I think it’s just a fun way to explore interests,” Piris said.

Being surrounded by people who are “knowledgeable, in some aspects” is part of the appeal to Piris. Summer programs, for him, have always been about “find[ing] people that speak to you.”

Seventh-grader Jonathan Gardiner is returning to Camp Coda this summer, a music camp in Maine which he attended last year. The six-and-a-half-week camp is “music-focused but also balances traditional camp activities,” including swimming, sports and arts and crafts.

Gardiner chose to attend the camp because his mom also attended it several years ago. Though it’s a commitment, he said that the sign-up process is low-pressure. “You don’t even have to be good at [music],” he said.

Amidst the chaos of post-high school summer, senior Nora Galizia will continue an experience she has been participating in for more than six months: volunteering as a Montgomery County EMT. “I started looking for volunteer opportunities in the medical field, [because] that’s what I’m interested in, starting in ninth grade,” Galizia said.

This year, she heard from WIS alumna Mia Chao about the Montgomery County Fire and EMS volunteer program, and she decided to apply. Because volunteer slots on the ambulance are full, she works on the fire truck, tending to patients, checking their vitals and bringing them to the ER, among other tasks.

Meeting every Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Galizia admits that the schedule is tough. “With the IB, it’s kind of brutal,” she said. “You just have to decide how you want to spend your time.”

But the experience, to her, has been priceless. “It’s not something that can be classroom-taught,” she said.

Madeleine Fine

Finding a camp can be as easy as reloading a website. In fact, that’s how sophomore Madeleine Fine found out about the Sciences Po summer program she’s participating in this summer. “It’s in France [and] it teaches political science; that’s a pretty good combo right there,” she said.

Fine is one of 100 high schoolers from around the world attending the three-week camp, and she’s looking forward to going in depth into topics like economics and political science.

“Although school classes are interesting, you don’t get to focus on topics that are as narrow as something like political science,” she said. “I’m excited to just get a 100% focus on that discipline.”