I spent three weeks at the UCLA VIPs program over the summer, and I learned a lot while having a terrific time. I took a writing course that was inspired by African American literature and gave me college credit. One of the readings we did was Jason Reynolds and Ibram X’s book “Stamped,” which taught us about the actions taken to secure the freedom that African Americans were due. The book’s humorous commentary kept the reader’s interest while remaining highly educational. Many students from different hugh schools, like myself, stayed in the dorm rooms on the UCLA campus.
Everyone got to stay in the same room with two other roommates until the program’s end.
I really enjoyed my time there even though there were some challenges. Due to being on a schedule all day I had to adjust myself to working on a schedule which is something I usually don’t do. Although this was difficult it did help my time management skills and helped me get better at organizing the stuff I needed to get done.
We would start off our days early, around 7 a.m. so everyone had time to get ready. Then we would go to the cafeteria on campus to eat breakfast. Everything was always enjoyable and when we finished we would make our way to class.
The class was 3 hours long everyday but right after we would go get lunch and make our way to our second and last class. This class was more of a hands on class where we would do a lot of activities working with others. After this class we had “recreation time” which for us meant that we could have free time to do what we pleased. Students could stay at the dorms and rest or go out and workout or even go swimming. Some days we would get the chance to go to the stores off campus and go shopping.
After recreation time we would go to dinner and then make our way to to homework time. During this time we are given 2 hours to complete any assignments given to us from the day and ask questions if needed.
Overall the experience was very good and I would recommend this program to others interested. I am very grateful for all the friends I met through this program and everything I’ve learned. I had an amazing time at the program and I hope to participate again next summer.
