Looking back on our experiences, I’m really grateful to have been a part of this program. Not only did I get to spend time doing something that I love with some of my closest friends, I also learned a lot too. I learned about refrains and verses, collaboration and careers, recording and mixing, and...
Continue readingSouth Jersey Service, Day Five: South Jersey Food Bank
– Zak B. Today we saw how much progress has been made as far as service across the nation. We saw a visual timeline of the development of the Food Bank of South Jersey, and it was truly astonishing how much progress they made. However, myself and others realize how much work can still...
Continue readingSongwriting, Day Five: Adventuring With Songwriting
Today we toured the Gradwell House Recording Studio and learned a lot of new stuff about recording music. We learned about the basics of recording work, how to make a good recording of live instruments, and how to make a high quality sound track along with the conditions needed. The studio is in Haddonfield,...
Continue readingSongwriting, Day Four: Song Completion, a Cookout, and a Conference
When we met in the band room, we gave each other feedback on our completed demos. We were given a paper with feedback guidelines and questions that could help us give the best comments to help improve our songs. On the paper, it gave space to share what was great about it, what didn’t...
Continue readingSongwriting, Day Three: A Day in the Life of Songwriting
On day three of Songwriting IL we continued on our songs made with the refrains and started to add a melody behind them. Some people left the classroom to work in different rooms and hallways to record, and others stayed in the band room and worked with headphones on. After we did our melodies...
Continue readingSongwriting, Day Three: Instrumentals and Meeting a Songwriter!
Today we started the morning off with sharing our songs that we wrote yesterday, as well as giving critics and suggestions. Throughout the day, we worked on composing and matching instrumentals to our lyrics. For my music, I used Band Lab with the alternative pop genre as my inspiration. Later in the day, we...
Continue readingSongwriting, Day Two: Creating Rhythm and Rhyme
Creating the lyrics for my song enhanced my ability to completely understand how to make a “part” of a song and how much creativity and work goes into a small part. Overall, I felt as if today, we made a lot of progress toward creating our song. Today, we continued progressing through learning how...
Continue readingSongwriting, Day Two: Refrains and Verses
For our second day of IL we learned about refrains and how to use them in a song. With our new-found knowledge of refrains we began to create our own short “songs” using refrains within them. Everyone was working diligently on their songs, and we were told to think of a melody we wanted...
Continue readingSolar Energy Day One: Ohm’s Law, Circuits, Solar Cells, and Solar Ovens
During our first full day we got a basic understanding of Ohm’s Law and the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance. We built and explored wired breadboards and series and parallel circuits with resistors and light emitting diodes (LEDs). We learned how to solder wired circuits together as well as PCBs (printed circuit boards)....
Continue readingCommunity Empowerment Through Service Learning: Final Reflections
This Intensive Learning taught me a lot about the Camden community. Moving forward with my volunteer time going back to Camden is a good possibility. I really enjoyed volunteering at the soup kitchen and seeing all the grateful people and how happy someone can be, despite being in the position they are. I would...
Continue readingSouth Jersey Service: Youth Engineering and Science
Exploration: something that everyone desires, but only a few get to grasp. So many people aspire to spend even a fraction of their lives exploring places, ideas, memories, yet barely a handful of them find the lucky key that unlocks the time for exploration. Today, the key was handed to us, as well as...
Continue readingInvigorated by Service, Then Salsa
Wednesday, March 29 Today we woke up at 8:30 to eat breakfast and get started on the exciting day we had planned. After breakfast, we split into two groups. Most of our group went outside to the street in front of the church to unload a bus carrying 312 cases of Bibles for the...
Continue readingAsian Culture: Service Day in Philly’s Chinatown
After yesterday’s trip to New York’s famous Chinatown, the Asian Cultures Intensive Learning group journeyed just across the river to Philadelphia’s own Chinatown to continue our study of East Asian culture. Since Philadelphia is so much of a closer trip than New York, we had time to begin our day with an in-class discussion...
Continue readingWrapping It Up: The Final Knot
On this last day of Quilting, we spent the day cleaning up and finishing up some projects. We saw a 7th grade Intensive Learning play. Afterwards, we went home with our mini individual projects, such as: pin cushions, pillows, etc. Our long week of hard work has finally come to a close....
Continue readingDog Days, #5 — Kennels, Terriers, and Dachshunds, Oh My!
Today we switched groups. Half of us stayed back and repeated yesterday’s dog friendliness assessment of Moorestown and then kept working on their projects. The other half of the group went back to the Animal Adoption Center, but this time we went much earlier so we’d be able to help clean the kennels. We...
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