Caleia: Today’s Musicians, Tomorrow’s Authors

Caleia Worthen is a high school junior in SOUNDS Academy. She plays the cello and is a member of The Collective Vocal Ensemble. During the school year, she took a chance and applied to a summer writing program at Brown University. After being accepted, she took a summer adventure to Providence, Rhode Island where she learned a lot about writing, Brown University, and herself. Check out this blog post about her experiences this summer and how Leadership, Resilience, and Perseverance played a key role in her success!

This past summer, with a scholarship from SOUNDS Academy, I was able to participate in Brown University’s Summer@Brown program. Brown is currently my dream college so I was beyond grateful for this experience. I had the opportunity to travel to Rhode Island and experience life as a student at Brown. I was initially drawn to Brown’s creative writing programs so I chose a course that focused on poetry. Through this course, I made friends with people who are passionate about writing, just like me, and I got to explore places like the RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) Museum and the Archives at the John Hay library.

On the morning of July 13th, I landed in Boston and took the commuter rail to Providence. Initially, I found myself regretting the decision. Was I really ready to do this? I had taken college courses before, that was no problem, but navigating a new city across the country all on my own? That was new. And to make matters worse, I seriously underestimated the walk between the train station and Brown’s campus. According to Google maps, it was a 15 minute walk; what I failed to realize was that the walk was entirely uphill.

I arrived at check-in sweating, frantic, and far later than I’d planned. As you can imagine, I wasn’t thrilled when I found out that my dorm would be an extra ten minute walk from the check-in location. But, luckily, after a hectic first day, things started to go uphill. For two weeks, the sharp inclines and declines of the Rhode Island landscape became my normal. Along with the absurdly high humidity levels and being fully in control of my own schedule.

The Summer@Brown on campus structure works like this: you enroll in a course and you’re assigned a dorm. You have access to RA’s (Resident Assistants) and other resources to help you in case of an emergency but otherwise, you’re on your own. You have the freedom to attend events or stay in your dorm, to explore the city or stick to Brown’s campus, to go out and meet new people or experience things solo.

With this great power comes greater responsibility. I had to set alarms and write out my schedule to remind myself what events I had signed up for while balancing class and a social life. When it came to assignments, I had to take initiative and reach out to my professors for feedback or to answer any questions I had. It was my responsibility to take care of myself and, despite initial fears that I’d fail or stumble, I thrived. In some aspects, I really just got lucky. The first friends I made were brave enough to reach out to me first. In other aspects, like sitting down to read a new book every night or waking up at 7:30am (4:30am Arizona Time) for breakfast, I had to put in active effort and reach out to those around me for help.

I was driven by my excitement and passion so, despite the difficulties, I pushed through because it was something I really wanted. Through each trial and challenge, every metaphorical and physical hill I had to climb, I learned something new about myself and the world around me. There were times I could have taken the easy route, but instead of seeing the hills as an obstacle in my way I prepared myself for the climb and took each step without looking back.

Like I imagined when I first applied, I was able to learn so many things and meet so many amazing people. But, I hadn’t expected the opportunity to meet myself. I am so glad to have been able to participate in Summer@Brown and I am immensely grateful to SOUNDS Academy for helping me get there. This experience has changed me and I will be using what I learned for many years to come.