Dance, Drawing, Drama, and DIY Catapults: Summer Together Initiative Spotlight on San Francisco High School of the Arts
By Dr. Sherry Zhang
In the summer of 2021, DCYF worked with philanthropic partners to secure over 2,500 free placements at more than 25 private summer camps and programs. The San Francisco High School of the Arts (HSArts) created new summer camps at their school specifically for the Summer Together Initiative, and served hundreds of San Francisco children and youth.
The HSArts summer camps offered to the campers of the Summer Together Initiative were designed to provide a sample of what HSArts has to offer: high quality arts immersion; Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM); academics; and Chinese language. Campers explored a variety of activities, ranging from the arts of dance, drawing, and drama, to the wonders of STEAM engineering and coding experiments, to immersing into Chinese stories and songs, poems and idioms. We hope the campers enjoyed our school facilities, indoor and outdoors, loved our charismatic camp counselors and dedicated teaching staff, and had lots of fun!
Very early on, we discovered what the city learned: while online remote learning was a great tool to continue our efforts to educate our students, ultimately it cannot compare to in-person learning and social interaction in a safe environment. The goal of our summer camps with the Summer Together Initiative was to directly combat the difficulties and circumstances presented by the pandemic over the past year. Stuck at home, our youth have been confined indoors and denied access to the interactive and teamwork aspect that our schools provide. Engaging in group assignments, participating in group activities, and even just having fun conversations during lunch and recess were out of the question. Many kids spent their days talking through a microphone into various screens, watching Youtube or playing games.
At our summer camps, the campers spent the day in groups of up to 20 kids with various camp counselors leading the way. The majority of the activities required our campers to work together, build camaraderie, and interact in order to achieve something greater than what one might accomplish alone. From group dance pieces involving props and formations, to theatrical scenes and dialogue written by the campers, to group songs and poetry recitations, to building catapults and cannons in small groups, our campers worked very hard and worked together in all kinds of activities. At the end of each session, our campers put it all together for a showcase for their families.
The feedback we received from parents meant a lot to our team. Natalie’s mom commented that “Summer Camps at HSArts is different from other programs because it’s full of dancing and art for whole day. That’s awesome!” Siyuan’s parents noted that they liked how “there are indoor activities like coding or hands-on classes, and kids also had outdoor activities which was great for them.” Junxian’s family pointed out their favorite activity was “to draw, go out and explore with the classmates.”
The response we received was overwhelmingly positive, and all of us were so touched to be able to reach out and connect with so many of our San Francisco youth through the Summer Together Initiative. The pandemic has been hard for our agency, and every agency, so for us it has also been a cathartic experience to provide the opportunity for our next generation to explore the arts we offer in a safe and fun environment that fights back against the challenging circumstances brought about by the pandemic.
One of the main reasons why the founders of our school chose San Francisco was because of the city’s history, culture, and connection to the arts. As an international city, there’s so much inspiration to be found along each street and around the city, with influence from all around the world. Our school was founded upon the mission of providing quality education in arts and academics to foster hardworking students, skilled artists, and good people, and to inspire the next generation to positively contribute to the world. San Francisco was a natural fit for us.
It’s important to continue evaluating the situations that San Francisco’s children and youth are in, and constantly look for more ways to help our youth stay on track in their education and development. It’s great that the government can recognize and adjust the guidance when new information is discovered or provided. The focus should be to find ways to safely allow students to continue learning in person and in school environments, for learning efficacy and from a sociological and emotional standpoint.
The Summer Together Initiative has been great. Funding doesn’t come around often like that, but if there were programs that could support studios and schools such as ours, that will allow us to reach more families and provide the support and quality programming that everyone deserves the chance to take. Our school may be relatively new, but our community believes in our mission and direction strongly. It would be tremendous if more families could find out about our school and be given the opportunity to explore the arts and discover their passion.
Summer was not easy. It was our biggest summer camp programming and one of the biggest endeavors we’ve undertaken. But the smiling faces on our campers and their parents seeing firsthand their performance and artwork on display certainly made it worthwhile. That may sound cliche, but how can you beat a child’s smile? All of our camp counselors, teachers, and support staff worked tirelessly to ensure a fun and fruitful experience, and we only hope that the students were able to have fun, make friends and memories, and learn something along the way.
What is a song that comes to mind when you think of Summer 2021?
“You’ve got a friend in me” by Randy Newman from Toy Story.
Toy Story is a classic, and a feel good story, and a tear jerker. This song embodies the spirit of that movie: friendship, companionship, youth, innocence, purity, teamwork, etc. This summer really highlighted the importance of providing support for our students, whatever they need. The childhood innocence, wonder, that light, that sparkle… that’s what’s precious and what we need to fight to keep for them. Everything our school does is for them, for our students; they’re our future. This summer, our summer camps, and the Summer Together Initiative, was our way of telling the kids that we’re their friends and we’re there for them. Always.
