DDC-Vassar College Summer Program 2019

DDC-Vassar College Summer Program 2019 DDC is cooperating with Vassar College and launching a summer program at The British School of Beijing (BSB) Shunyi from 15th July to 2nd August, 2019. Please see information below.

DDC is cooperating with Vassar College and launching a summer program at The British School of Beijing (BSB) Shunyi from 15th July to 2nd August, 2019. Please see information below.

This summer, DDC is to cooperate with Vassar College, a highly selective liberal arts College in New York, USA, launching a summer program for high school students in Beijing, China. Vassar College is one of the top liberal arts colleges in the United States, ranked 11 in the ranking of all such institutions in the USA, according to US News and World Report. Notable alumni include computer pioneer Grace Hopper, poet Elizabeth Bishop, and actresses Meryl Streep and Lisa Kudrow.

The DDC-Vassar program will expose exceptional high school students to a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that mirrors that of Vassar College. The liberal arts model of education is one that exposes young people to a wide range of subjects, and encourages them to analyze and solve a variety of problems by drawing inspiration from the wide range of subjects to which they have been exposed.

This program provides high school students who are interested in the liberal arts and interested in attending college in the United States the opportunity to experience what it is like to be a Vassar student. There will be 3 courses offered this summer to high school students from 15th July to 2nd August, 2019.

Sound and Identity

Sound and Identity takes students on an experiential exploration of how the auditory environment shapes our senses of self and our connections to community making. Over the course of three weeks, students will learn about the interdisciplinary study of sounds – from environmental sound through digital sound design and audio narratives – and have opportunities to experiment with these ideas through media-making projects. These projects will include making soundscapes out of ambient sound recordings, creating new compositions by using mechanical noises, and creating a short narrative podcast. Projects will be a mixture of individual work and group work and will be shared with the class.

Theories from Confucius and Aristotle through Schopenhauer and Goodman have warned about the power of sound and made prescriptions for its proper use. This class approaches the study of sound, emotion, and subjectivity through making media. This experiential approach turns the learning experience into an interactive and cooperative pursuit, offering students the opportunity to learn about sound capture and design, the construction of narrative with sound and text, and a deeper understanding of the many ways that our sound environments inform our perception of place, space, and self.

DDC Vassar Justin

Professor Justin

Assistant Professor in Vassar College Music Department
PhD of Ethnomusicology with Doctoral Portfolio in Cultural Studies in The University of Texas at Austin
Post-Doctoral Professional Development in Center for the Advanced Study of Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University
Society for Ethnomusicology (Asian Music, Sound Studies, and Cognitive SIGs)
American Musicological Society
International Association for the Study of Popular Music
Mellon Creative Arts Across Disciplines Artist Residency Grant for “Sonic Cyborgs” (with Jose Perillan, Physics and STS), Vassar College
Carolyn Faye Grant Fund Award (for new course development), Vassar College

The Screen Artist

Through a series of creative writing and video exercises, we will explore the surprising ways in which the movement of sound and image can reveal the worlds within and without us. By using the expansive term "screen arts" we are acknowledging that whatever we once meant by filmmaking must now be understood in the context of our screen-saturated lives, where so much of what we do is mediated by smartphones, computers and the various new media forms that they facilitate (including social media, web-based video, virtual and augmented reality, and others).

One of our primary modes of creative practice in this course is the personal essay film—a form and tradition that challenges you to look deep into your own rich inner world of ideas, feelings, dreams, and memories in an effort to express who you are right now and to perhaps gesture towards who you might become. Fertilizing this process will be a study of what the history of cinema can teach us about looking outward—about seeing and listening to the people and the world around us, and the ways in which great works of cinema challenge and blur distinctions between self and other.

Some of the course activities, skills, and outcomes include: becoming better at developing your ideas into compelling cinematic narratives; learning about image composition techniques and sound recording strategies; screenwriting and the personal/lyrical essay tradition; learning about video editing by working with both recorded and found images; insight into how the film industry operates by an instructor who has shot and produced a wide range of projects.

DDC Vassar Shane

Professor Shane

Filmmaker and Assistant Professor at Vassar College
M.F.A. from University of Michigan; B.A. from Harvard University
Wrote, produced, and co-directed photography for The Seventh Fire, World Premiere at 2015 Berlin Film Festival and White House Special Screening Invitation
Wrote, co-produced, and edited The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández, a documentary broadcast nationwide on PBS; nominated for 2009 Emmy in “Outstanding Long-Form Journalism”
Produced The Wild Inside, one of 15 films nominated for Vimeo Best Documentary of 2018;

Psychology of Living Rhythms

Human activity is rhythmic. We engage in cycles of eating, loving, working, resting, walking, talking, learning, and sleeping. We multitask, nesting and switching cycles within cycles. Our activity entrains to cycles of the sun, moon, weather, natural and cultural seasons, and human-made devices. In this course, students will explore and write in ways that psychologists do.

Students will observe some of their own rhythms, interview others about their experiences with rhythms, and experiment with changing rhythms in a way the student finds helpful or interesting (such as what to eat, how to study, or different ways to walk!). Students will read from both popular and expert sources, help each other edit, and keep a journal of thoughts. The class will be a seminar format, with opportunity for student discussion of each topic.

DDC Vassar Carolyn

Professor Carolyn

A Developmental Psychologist
Associate Professor of Psychological Science at Vassar College.
A Feldenkrais Method® and Child’Space® movement teacher.
Developmental psychology Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota
A postdoctoral neuropsychology fellowship at the Drucker Brain Injury Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Conducts and publishes research on lifespan action development and embodied learning and teaching practices, and leads workshops on using movement to enhance learning, function, parenting, teaching, and creativity.

Admission Standards:

Students (G9-G11) who are interested in the course should submit the following materials:

Latest school year transcript or report
2 Teacher recommendation letters of related subjects (Template will be provided by the DDC staff)
TOELF or IELTS scores or other English level reports

Please send the above materials to ddcvassar@dd-learning.com. DDC would inform the results to applicants within 10 working days after receiving the complete materials. DDC may arrange interviews to students if needed.

Schedule

School time 09:00-16:00

DDC-Vassar Collge Program 2019.7.15-2019.8.2
G9-G11	Sound and Identity
G9-G11	The Screen Artist
G9-G11	Psychology of Living Rhythms
"G" refers to Rising Grade Level Accommodation is available at New Talent Academy (to be confirmed) School bus service available

DDC 2019 Summer Talented Youth Program Charging Policy
Tuition & Fees	DDC-Vassar College Program: RMB28,800/ session (Two weeks excluding weekends)
Discount	1. A 10 % early bird discount on the tuition for those who complete the registration and payment before Jan. 31st, 2019.
	2. RMB500 discount on the tuition/person for Three candidates and above who register together.
	3. RMB1000 discount for DDC returning students
Note	The above tuition includes course fee, lunch, break time snack and insurance, not including accomodation and school bus fee Accommodation Fee: RMB4000/two weeks/student; RMB 6000/3 weeks/student (From Sunday night to Thursday night only. In addition, residential students could also choose the separately charged stay for Weekends with scheduled activities). Accommodation at New Talent Academy (to be confirmed). School bus fee: RMB1500/ 2 weeks/ student; RMB 2250/ 3 weeks/student (Not Applicable to Discount). Discount 1 and 2 could not be used at the same time.