US Performing Arts Camp

Finally! I got this site to upload my blogs! Okay, so here's the deal, this past week since Thursday, I have been incredibly busy with training and my first week at UCLA.

The summary of my job this summer is working as a mentor to over 50 kids as they go week-by-week taking theatrical classes that range from acting for the camera and digital film to animation and musical theatre conservatory. As a mentor, my job is to look after the kids throughout the day, as well as be a guide as they learn new skills in the area of the arts.

The training days went very well, although they were quite long and tedious. We would get up at 7, and be in the mentor lounge as we would be given manual after manual and we would role play different scenarios that we may have to deal with throughout the summer. There are currently 10 mentors including me and we each had 10 students this first week.

The first week went wonderfully as my group was incredibly sweet. It took them awhile to warm up, but they finally broke the ice with each other. My group was the Digital Film crew and their assignment was to shoot a film with several different scenes and types of shots. I got the honor of being in two of the films that will be shown tomorrow at the showcase. The kids loved the assignment because it sounded like they were gaining so much more knowledge than they had previously.

Different activities throughout the week outside of class include Monday: pizookie night which entails having a cookie sized pizza with ice cream, Tuesday: a guest speaker comes in (Stephen Rider came this week) to talk to the kids about the industry, Wednesday: we take the kids to the Westwood area that includes shops and restaurants, Thursday: Talent Show which means the mentors put on a talent show in front of everyone (I did a poetry slam), and Friday: a "Works In Progress" day that shows off the work of the groups from the week.

I am having a wonderful time and look forward to these next few weeks as we continually gain more kids.