A Camper’s Outlook on CRS Amidst a Pandemic - Part II

By Nidhi, Anahi, Liv, Halle, and Lisandro

Day 7:

So, today we began with an activity that was actually pretty fun. By the way, yes, I am aware that today is Independence Day and a holiday in the US, where this camp takes place, but since we don’t really celebrate, the holiday, at least in the context of this blog, is kind of irrelevant. Now that I’ve addressed that, I should get back to describing Day 7 of camp. For this activity, we were given a statement and a spectrum that stretched from yes to no. We then placed our names on the spectrum depending on how much we agreed with the statement. This was really helpful because you could see what the range was like instead of just getting yes or no answers. I really appreciated that the activity let us see the world in shades of gray, instead of just black and white.

After that, we were split up into ten breakout groups. There were five articles, and two groups were assigned to discuss each article. All of these current events articles shared a theme of inequality. Eventually, we left the groups and began to discuss the articles all together as a whole. Tying the activity back to Day 5, we considered how intersectionality and power dynamics worked in these events.

Learning about Climate Justice.

We finished up with a lecture on race, gender, and sustainability. We spoke about how the three intersect. The lecture was very educational and interesting. I had no idea what climate justice was before today. Frankly, the lesson was super useful, and I hope we have more like it. Anyway, it’s getting kind of late, so I have to go now. Thanks for reading this!

• Anahi

Day 8:

We started our third camper-led day celebrating two occasions: The birthday of a camper singing “Happy Birthday” in several languages, and the 210th anniversary of the “Venezuelan Declaration of Independence” where we listened to an amazing speech given by Lisandro on behalf of his people.

Lisandro’s inspiring speech for Independence Day.

Today, I got to attend an Instruction about mental health and the stigma around it. I have a lot of anxiety, so it’s a topic that’s pretty important to me. We started by defining things like mental health and mental illnesses. I had never thought to define those terms before, though I think about them a lot. We also got to practice meditation as a group. As someone who gets yelled at because they don’t meditate enough, I definitely appreciated that. In the end, I think mental health is not talked about enough, and this Instruction helped me by showing me that the subject was not taboo.

• Anahi

Following our Instructions session, as a group we played a story telling game (I don't think this game had a name, or if it does I don't remember it). We all went around in a random order saying a word that would eventually create a story. Not only was the story very random, but the game was chaotic (in a good way). After this ice breaker, we split up into groups to play games. “The campers loved Mafia and among us, but I played Gartic and it was SO fun. Although no one wanted to stop playing the games, we had a little pick me up break and had some time with our project groups. Afterwards, we had time to share our talents, specifically musically. Not only was this portion of SST relaxing and laid back, it gave people the chance to get to know each other better. Lastly, we closed the day with a thrilling movie night that finished the day off very nicely.

• Halle

So, at the end of the day, we watched a movie called “Knives Out.” One thing you should know about me is that I am super squeamish. I have a very low tolerance for horror and murder in movies, so I originally was worried I wouldn’t like the movie all that much. I was definitely wrong about that. The movie was amazing. I loved it so much. Honestly, the whole mystery plot was so convoluted, yet was actually tied up very nicely in the end, with no plot holes. There were so many plot twists, making the film thrilling and exciting. The characters were well-developed, even though most of them were pretty horrible people, and the main character was wonderful. Seriously, I loved her so much, I just wanted her to be happy. I spent the entire time glued to my screen. I am officially obsessed with this movie and would definitely recommend everyone watch it.

• Anahi

Day 9:

After days of learning about and discussing the many facets of good leadership, our newly acquired knowledge was put to use with today’s action plan activity. After being surveyed, we were split into groups by issue we recognized in our local communities; each group was given a respective ‘situation’ pertaining to said issue.

Campers were challenged to understand multiple perspectives to the situation assigned. For example, in considering an area with a great deal of pollution due to the presence of a factory - how does one approach cleaning up the area’s environment while also ensuring the job security of the local population? We then were asked to create and present an action plan: a solution with a set goal, motivation, support system, and trajectory. 

My group, focused on socioeconomic status and education, was assigned to resolve a matter in which a school with a diverse array of students made budget cuts and could not properly prepare everyone for an important standardized test. While wealthier students could afford additional resources like tutoring and books, lower-income students could not. Furthermore, undocumented students could not use their score, regardless of how high, to obtain a scholarship. Our group’s approach was to organize a volunteer tutoring program, taught by faculty, college students, and academically successful students enrolled in honors programs - with the incentive of receiving volunteer hours/additional work experience. We also hoped to support students lacking the educational resources to study with book and resource drives. Finally, we planned to raise funds to host a school-sanctioned scholarship program for students who faced challenges obtaining scholarships elsewhere.

It was in our presentation, though, that we were able to draw upon previous lessons on intersectionality and race to justify the need for our action-plan. These ideas contributed to the understanding that a lack of educational resources (due to income) disproportionately affects students from racial/ethnic minorities; this ultimately prevents diversity of opinion and representation in many fields.

Being able to see the application of the knowledge gained in our brief time at camp in a real-life scenario was deeply meaningful.

• Nidhi

Day 10:

Today I joined Dev’s instruction about discrimination, specifically in sports. Not only was it informative and very impactful but it was a conversation that I really appreciated. As a high-schooler who has gone through discrimination and within sports as well, the topic was something very important to me. Not only were the topics of discrimination important, but it made me realize that these forms of discrimination have a trend and affect people that may not even play sports. There is a lot of work to be done in the world, but spotting these issues is one step closer to reform.

• Halle

In the instruction about "Policy recommendations" we learned about their definition, importance and how to develop them following some cases (Economic equality, War on drugs, Mental Health, Media Censorship and UN abuse of Power). It was an excellent topic to culminate the last instructions of the program, very enriching.

• Lisandro

Today was the last camper-led day and boy was it fun! Today we went through various activities, starting with an ice breaker! The only problem with the ice breaker was that I didn’t have any fun facts to say, so I just muttered, “I got into painting recently even though I hate painting landscapes.” What was that supposed to mean in the first place? 

Well, getting past that embarrassing moment, there were also instructions! More on that by Halle and Lisandro, but I went to a really interesting instruction about economic education. Super informative and really well made.

After that, we broke out into different groups and I got to play this game called Gartic! It was really interesting, I didn’t even know it existed until today. I hope that I get to play it again in the future.  

Secondly, we had a session about different languages that was not only well thought out but very informative and fun! I had such a great time learning about other languages outside of my comfort and learning new fun facts. 

Our final game of Mafia.

Lastly, we played our last game of mafia :(. It's a bittersweet moment, knowing that this was our last SST activity but we all had so much fun together and it was the perfect way to end the day. 

Overall, today was an exciting day and I'm sad that it’s our last camper-led day. Our last day of camp rising sun is tomorrow :(. Well, either way, I had a great time these past ten days and I hope you have a good day!

• Liv

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CAMPER TESTIMONIALS

Expectations and Conclusions from VCRS Campers

Collected by Lisandro Rosal

Austen Burnham from The United Kingdom ( Soccer, Rugby, Golf, Boxing and Cricket were invented there) wanted to experience more cultures and get to know people from all over the world, considering Camp Rising sun the most indicated place for this. And it was such a surreal moment being told he had been chosen.

He really liked the program, got to know some people very well and learned a lot about some really important issues such as intersectionality. For him, the best moment was when they were playing "Mafia" (during a SST activity) and having to ask for extra time because everyone was so into it and couldn't stand not seeing who were the mafioses.

After the program, he’ll continue to learn the topics treated and inform his friends and family about them. 

Carl Larsson is from Sweden ( the first country to abolish child abuse). With VCRS he was able to meet new people from all over the world and learn a lot of new things, but also grow as a person and as a leader. 

“I’ll remember a lot from this camp, but two things that I really won't forget were when I had my session and that it went so well with everyone participating and showing interest. But also, that Laura (The program Director) started day 7 (July 4) by acknowledging that the CRS camp is on land previously belonging to indigenous people and that also applied to the entire United States. This gave me goosebumps and my respect for this whole foundation went through the roof.

Rohan Nagi is from St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The main reason he applied to Camp Rising Sun was to interact with other cultures, meet new people, improve leadership skills, and go outside his comfort zone. “With what I’ve learned at VCRS I’ll try to push my boundaries by meeting new people and putting myself in new situations

Stella Xie from the most linguistically diverse city in the world (New York City) applied to Camp Rising Sun because she wanted to further develop her leadership skills and connect with campers from different cultural backgrounds. These motivations had remained the same in virtual CRS: “I was really excited to be selected by Camp Rising Sun! I had never attended an international leadership immersion program before.”
Diego Acosta is from Houston, Texas (He clarified that the United States doesn’t have an official language, very interesting). Initially he wanted to learn from others of varying cultures and share his opinions, but also discuss and challenge difficult global issues.

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Meet the Blog Team

Anahi

Hi! My name is Anahí! I’m a rising senior at Hunter College High School in New York City. I’m the leader of this blog project. While it is not my first experience with blogging, I usually blog about books, so this was, in some ways, new for me. I hope you enjoy reading this blog!

Liv Chung

Hey! My name is Liv, I am the other team leader of the blog team. I consider it a great opportunity to get some more experience in leading a team, especially about a subject that I have not had much experience with (writing blogs).

Nidhi Gosalia

Nidhi is a rising junior at Livingston High School with a passion for both the arts and sciences. 

Working on the blog alongside the talented young minds on the blog team has allowed her to rediscover her love for writing and preserve the memory of what was a transformative experience at camp. In her free time, she enjoys fencing, painting, and computer programming.

Halle Park

Hi! My name is Halle Park and I am a rising senior and currently live in Princeton NJ. I love to spend time with friends and family and I have a huge passion for education. I am very adventurous, I love to socialize and meet new people. Being a part of Camp Rising Sun and the blog team has been one of the highlights of my summer and I hope you enjoy what we have prepared for you!

Lisandro Rosal

Hello everyone! My name is Lisandro, from Venezuela. I’m a Student of International Relations and also, I´m a member of the “Venezuelan Association for International Analysis” (understanding the different situations that can arise in the world is one of my favorite things to do).
I had the pleasure of compiling opinions from the campers during the program and recording our experiences within “Virtual Camp Rising Sun - Session 2”