Cool Things My Friends Do - Jax at Stanford

Each Friday on this blog I enjoy highlighting some of the cool things my friends do in their personal and professional lives.

(Can my kid be the subject of "Cool Things My Friends Do"?  Ummmm, it is my blog, so I get to select anyone I want to write about for these Friday posts!!!  And I do think this is way cool...).

Today completes three weeks we have been without our 16-year-old kid in the house (she gets home in just a few hours).  Earlier this year Jackie applied for, and was accepted to, a summer program for high school students to study Topics in Business and Entrepreneurship at Stanford University in California (The Education Program for Gifted Youth, EPGY, Summer Institutes offers a variety of academic topics, but business is her subject of interest).

Wow, what a cool opportunity for her!!!  But were we ready to have her gone for that long?  Was it worth the money?  Could we make it all happen around other summer commitments for vacations, dance camps, etc...?  The answer was yes.

While she had never been away from home for any extended period of time, she was excited to go off to a college environment, if even for a short period of time.  I was nervous about it, but she was ready.  

I can tell from our conversations that this was a great experience, and she loved both the academic and social aspects of the program.  It was a good peek into the future to be living on a college campus (in a sorority house) and being taught by college professors .   And I know from having lived in Northern California that Stanford is amazing...and getting out of the Texas heat in July is always a good thing!

I was jealous of the all that she was learning (I want to take a class at Stanford) and the great fun she was having with the other kids in the program.  Everyday she seemed to be fully engaged in something.  

While in the Bay Area she also had a chance to visit with her grandparents (my dad is 98, so he cannot travel to visit us in Texas anymore - thus a visit with him was extra special), two of her uncles (my brothers), some of her cousins and her god-father (and his family). 

This was a "cool thing" for her and I can tell that she does not want to come home.  I am sure she wishes she was leaving for college this year, not having two more years of high school.  But I am confident that this program will have a positive impact on her future. 

I am proud of her for how hard she works in everything she does and I am excited to hear all the details of this adventure. 

Have A Great Day.

thom singer