Splash Biography

Why does it seem like some people are so good at school and others aren't? What makes people smart or successful? Why do some people seem to give great presentations, develop great ideas, or make perfect scores on tests, while others try just as hard, are just as smart, and accomplish little? How can I use AI in a way that helps me learn and reclaims my time instead of destroying my last few brain cells? In this class you'll learn the Ivy League study strategies preferred by Cornell students and educational professionals alike that will help you become a more powerful learner, for your classes and your life. This course will be most relevant to high schoolers intending to go to college.

When applying to college, many high school students feel alone. Sometimes guidance counselors are just too busy to provide personalized college application assistance, and teachers can sometimes give conflicting messages about what colleges are looking for and how to be admitted to your dream school. In this class, you'll receive an introduction to the holistic college application process that is unique to the United States and gain brief insights into how to strengthen each area of your college application to make you stand out a little bit more. Using pertinent examples of past successful applicants, we'll try to take some stress away from the process by covering what you should articulate in your essays, how best to present your achievements, whether or not to report your test scores (or even to take the SAT/ACT), and that painful question of, do I need to have already started a $5M business at 14 years old to get into Harvard? (hint: no) This class is best suited for high school sophomores and juniors who are beginning or in the process of their college hunt. Freshmen who are looking to start early may also find the class valuable.

If you've ever been sitting in class and thought to yourself, "When am I ever going to use this?" then you're not alone. And you have a point. As the complex political, social, and economic landscape of the 21st century continues to develop, schools are increasingly outdated and irrelevant to the demands of the future, training students in a way that seems more suited to the 1970s than the 2020s. In this course, we'll discuss some of the history of how the US education system came to be, why it looks the way it does today, and what school is even for. By the end of the class, you'll have developed new ideas about what school should be for and what your place is in the layered, messy, sometimes beautiful system of education we have in the United States. You'll also learn to position yourself inside of the school system in a way that ensures your future success and reclaims learning as a powerful force for meeting your own goals, rather than as hoops to jump through to get a diploma. Finally, we'll explore some ways we can redirect our flailing school system to get it back on track. If you are interested in becoming a teacher, this class is a must-take. This class is best suited for high school students and will be taught at a high-school level, but will welcome seventh and eighth graders with high level interest in education or history.