Remembering CTY Forevermore
We asked five classmates at our CTY summer programs in Santa Cruz what they loved about CTY. Here’s what they said:
What will you remember about CTY forevermore?
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“Living the college life. Staying on a college campus, visiting different classrooms, living in a dorm, going to the cafeteria all contribute to a great environment to learn.”
— Jeffrey Chang, 15, Irvine, California -
“The teaching. Our class was always learning but we weren’t just learning from a book. To learn about descriptive language we went hiking and also went to a book store to observe people and write about them. It was so cool.”
— Janelly Jimenez, 13, Los Angeles, California -
“The discussions and debates. I love that at CTY there are a bunch of smart people with whom you could have intellectual conversations about current events and it wasn’t weird.”
— Sophia Kolankiewicz, 13, Hanover, New Hampshire -
“The amazing friends. I got to meet kids from all over the world and from different parts of the country who, like me, are enthusiastic about learning.”
— Joe Kaperst, 13, Bethesda, Maryland -
“The laughter. My friends and I love to joke around with each other and support each other no matter what. When one of us feels down, everyone else would try and cheer us up.”
— Christine Kam, 15, Shanghai, China
A Homegrown Home for CTY Alumni
Creating the place where far-flung former CTYers can unite online and engage in spirited discussions, share memories, network, and catch up on each other’s lives is an important job. We couldn’t just entrust it to anybody. That’s why we asked Charlie McGeorge.
In addition to being a talented programmer, he’s also a Forevermore. Between 2005 and 2009 McGeorge attended CTY summer programs in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. and Loudonville, New York, studying everything from cryptology and computer science to logic and writing. Now a sophomore at Johns Hopkins majoring in computer science, McGeorge has worked at CTY as a digital media specialist since September 2010.
How did you get involved with designing the new CTY alumni site?
In the spring of 2010, once I knew I was coming to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins, I contacted CTY because I had a lot of ideas for their alumni presence that I wanted to share. I met with CTY staff to brainstorm, and one of our ideas was to create a new self-contained social networking site for CTY alumni. We have a close community with no place to meet and I thought I could really help fill that void. I already had the programming experience, and being a CTYer myself, I knew what kind of an image the website needed to be successful.
Charlie McGeorge
So what’s the philosophy of the site?
I’m trying to take the excitement we remember from CTY and cast it in a new, slightly more grownup light. There’s this big cultural identity among CTY alums, and sometimes it comes in the form of quirky things we did together when we were younger that we remember today. But this site isn’t really about looking back, it’s about looking to each other. CTYers are really smart, interesting, engaging people. And when you put enough of them together in one place you’re automatically going to have awesome things happen.
It’s time to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Its name is Facebook. Is this site a replacement for Facebook and other social networking sites that alumni already use?
Facebook has done a wonderful job of becoming a habit for many people and we want to piggyback on its ubiquity. But I don’t want to compete with Facebook, and we’re not. What we’re doing is reframing our own community that already exists, and we’re doing it on our own site where you have to be a CTYer to log in. That said, we did build a connection to Facebook so that if a CTY alum has something interesting to say in a discussion on our site or posts a really great video there, you can set those things to come up on your Facebook as a reminder.
Can you tell us about some of the site’s features?
My favorite feature is the user profile. The profile design on our site is unique in how much it emphasizes creativity and genuine expression. This isn’t about filling out a text box or making a list of your favorite movies. You can really define yourself for the CTY community by making a video and more. Maybe you’ll sing a song, or read a poem you wrote. But it will be you. Another feature is the alumni index where you can easily browse by course, year, or site to find CTYers. And once you’ve established your identity on the site, found your friends, and seen these little snapshots they’ve made, you’ve got a giant discussion forum where everything else happens. The forum is way more dynamic than your typical discussion group; it’s more like a news feed than a bulletin board.
Besides connecting CTY alumni, and being designed by a former CTYer, what else is thoroughly CTY about this site?
This site is going to challenge users more than any other social site I know. And that’s appropriate. CTYers are so capable and so willing to be awesome. If you say to someone “make a video” or “write a creative piece about yourself” it almost sounds like an assignment for English class. Some people might hate that. CTYers are the type of people that will run with it.
Greetings to you, the lucky finder of this
CTY GOLDEN TICKET
Are you a CTY student or alumnus? Then claim your (modest) prize!
Simply email Derek Spahr, alumni relations associate, at dspahr@jhu.edu.
Include your name, mailing information, and a friendly hello.
We’ll verify you and send your prize out promptly.
Offer expires January 31, 2012
Are you a CTY alum age 16 or older? If so, watch
for forthcoming information about joining CTY’s new online alumni community!
Don’t miss out
Don't miss out when CTY’s new alumni site launches in spring 2012. Update your MyCTY account by visiting cty.jhu.edu/alumni