Session One: A Full Schedule

Session One Abbey Road Blog Post

By Anne Derrig (Program Director) 

FREEDOM TRAIL 

It’s not every day that a modern-day Bostonian (however temporary that Bostonian designation may be!) has the opportunity to trail around a man dressed in Colonial garb--but that is exactly where Abbey Road students found themselves last Saturday. Our tour guide, gesturing towards bronzed statues and pointing almost accusingly at Paul Revere’s grave (who he cited as “famous only because of a poem”), held a highly interactive tour. He quizzed our group on historical facts (which a student in the Abbey Tour group could quickly answer!), pulled old maps and printed war propaganda out of his pockets, and called upon the parade behind him to guess, say, how many famous historical figures were buried in one grave site or another. He had a massive crowd weaving and winding behind him almost silently--we were all so engrossed in the historical moments he made come alive with details and flourishes.

The tour was followed with a trip to Quincy Market, a bustling market brimming with the smell of cuisines ranging from barbecue ribs to donuts to, yes, Starbucks. The students tucked into all the wide-ranging cuisines with gusto. And post-lunch? There were, mysteriously enough, several antique cars displayed outside the building, which several students took a moment to appreciate. The things you stumble upon in Boston!

On the Freedom Trail

MIT

There is a hallway at the Main Building at MIT called “The Endless Corridor” and the students got to experience first-hand how very endless it is. We strode down the Endless Corridor for several minutes before finally reaching the offices of a representative of the Mechanical Engineering Department, who sat down with the Abbey Road students for about half an hour to discuss what life would be like should the students choose to enroll at MIT. Each student was able to ask questions specific to how his interests would fit into MIT expectations and demands-- “Would I be able to study the physics of music?” one student wondered--and we all walked away with booklets detailing the coursework and internships available to students new to the Mechanical Engineering Department.

We then trekked over to the MIT Museum, which is a truly unreal accumulation of robot parts, perpetual-motion machines, off-beat photography with a science bent, and the like. The students were able to experiment with light-capture photography, watch videos of scientists constructing robots with the ability to play a soccer-type game, view recent MIT thesis projects, and, of course, raid the gift shop, which was full of geeky delights.

Hands-on exhibit at the MIT Museum

Rapt attention at MIT's campus

EMERSON

By Kieran O’Connor (Abbey Road student)

Our experience at Emerson began with a fancy looking ID card and a ride up to the top floor of the dormitory. Looking out the window I saw that our common room, fourteen stories high in the air, had a beautiful view overlooking the historic Boston Common, where in the coming days we would spend much of our free time. Whether we were exploring the duck pond while eating burritos from Boloco during lunch break, the Common was the ideal backdrop for our time on the Emerson campus.  Of course, being a group of perpetually hungry high school students, much of our time was devoted to exploring the many restaurants in close proximity to the dorms. Frequently we would take walks towards Newbury Street, never knowing exactly what we were looking for, and sit down for a group lunch or dinner at the first place that struck our fancy.

However, after taking multiple ACT or SAT tests each week, learning the ins and outs of college essays, and frequent late nights of homework, we sometimes didn’t have the energy to go out and explore the city all night. On these days, when we all gathered in the common room chairs to relax, Netflix became our best friend.  After exhausting all of the offerings the local movie theater had to offer, we began a nightly tradition of late-night movie marathons.