OHIO undergraduate, graduate students form the backbone of the Summer Arts Program

Lindsay Eakins cried on the last day of the Summer Music Academy this year. It was not due to the stress of her position as head resident advisor for the camp, nor was it because she didn’t enjoy her experience. In her own words, the senior music education major “enjoyed every second of it…it was just so much fun.” 

Eakins is just one of a fleet of students enrolled in one of the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts undergraduate or graduate programs who made OHIO’s Summer Arts Programs successful. With a plethora of camp offerings spanning multiple age groups and each of the College of Fine Arts disciplines — Art + Design, Music, Theater, Dance, and Film — OHIO students help mentor and lead the next generation of artists. 

“OHIO students get a chance to work with students, make a little bit of money over the summer while they're here, and then also get a chance to apply the things that they're already doing in the classroom,” Wendy Blackwood, the coordinator of the Summer Arts Program, said. “It is experiential learning at its very core.”  

RAs like Eakins walk program attendees to their classes, create enrichment and group bonding activities and stay in the dormitories with the high school students for the duration of the program. Other students, like third-year MFA Acting candidate Phil Hoeschler, serve as instructors for the camp. Hoelscher was the lead instructor for the Summer Arts Theater Intensive. 

Hoelscher’s approach to theater and acting centered his students’ experience in the roles they took on, something he learned to embrace as part of his education at OHIO.  

“The most interesting behavior you can possibly give is something that's truthful to yourself,” Hoelscher said. “You have a whole life of experience and history and, just these things that you can fall back on that is going to be way more informed in reality than something you can try to manufacture in a character. Seeing in students' faces that, like, ‘Oh, I am interesting and I have something interesting to present in any play that I'm in’ is really fun to see, because they just light up.” 

Other student staff members found new avenues to connect with campers outside of the classroom. Caitlin Bock, a senior music therapy student, reminisced on some of her favorite moments watching program attendees as the designated RA for the OHIO Voice Intensive’s campers. 

“Every day at lunch and dinner they would sing their harmonies that they had learned in class,” Bock said. “They were super excited about it and I think that was really fun to get to see them grow as singers and then grow as friends together and just become more confident in what they were doing and we worked through a lot of emotions.” 

Several of the program’s student staffers have found themselves coming back year after year, often getting recommended or invited to apply for their respective positions by College of Fine Arts faculty members. This continuity has led people like Chuck Sipps, an MFA candidate in the film program, to not only teach multiple years but also see campers become OHIO students.  

“Seeing kids that I taught in the summer program being in the actual film program afterwards, maybe a year later, ‘Oh, you're here, you're doing it’…just seeing that enthusiasm kind of beginning and then they start working, it's pretty fun, I love that,” Sipps said. 

Program staff members love seeing familiar campers on campus, but some are even graduates of the program. Christian Garnes, a junior music education student, attended the Summer Music Academy before becoming a student at OHIO, allowing him to have a full circle moment over the summer.  

“I love to share with them how great our School of Music is, about our amazing faculty which they get to work with while they're at the music camp,” Garnes said. “I love just getting to talk to them about that. A lot of them are interested in the marching 110, which I was also a part of, so I've gotten to share my experiences with the 110 with them.” 

Across the past seven years the programs have existed in their current form, Blackwood has heard a sweeping range of positive feedback from former OHIO student RAs and instructors. 

“The students who we've had teach and assist in the programs over the years, many of them have written to me saying that their experience over the summer led them to decide, yes, this is really what I want to do,” Blackwood said. “It's confirmation for them that they are in the right field.” 

“Ultimately, students enrolled in any of the College of Fine Arts academic programs should take the leap and apply to work for their complementary Summer Arts Program if they’re even slightly interested in working for the program,” Eakins said. “It can be a little scary, but it's the best way to start getting involved and taking a bigger role in your career…The things that you can learn, the connections that you can make are incredible.”

Programs for youth (ages 4-13) are in music, art and theater. High school programs are art, dance, film, music and theater. Pricing for students can be found on the Summer Arts Programs website.