Mikhail’s Testimonial
I wasn’t sure what was in store for me last summer at the Princeton-Blairstown Center (PBC). I truly did not know what to expect. As I finished my first year at Princeton, I was encouraged to look at internships for the summer. The only issue was I had no prior internship experience and did not know what to look for. However, as I scrolled through a list of internships provided through the University, PBC caught my eye.
The place looked beautiful, and it gave me nostalgia for the summer camps I attended during high school. Furthermore, as a low-income student from a small town in upstate NY, I loved their mission to dedicate their work to kids from under-resourced communities and give them experiences they may have never had before. Reading the description of the problem-solving activities to help build social-emotional skills sounded like such a fun and rewarding job. I decided to apply, and I was ecstatic to receive the position.
I believe from the camps I attended and the camping trips I’ve been on, that being in nature is the best environment to learn and become closer with the people around you. Even though I am a big fan of the outdoors, several people asked: what does this have to do with computer science major? A Princeton Alumni I met at PBC’s Family Camp put it best when I told her the job had nothing to do with my major, she responded, “Well that’s exactly why you do it!”.
To be honest, in the end, it did have something to do with my major. Building such great connections with the kids made it not even feel like work. It just felt so fulfilling to know I’m making a lasting impact on their summers and hopefully their future educations. I really enjoyed devising new ways to deliver the different team-building activities and literacy lessons so that they were enjoyable for all the kids. I used some creative freedom, but I loved how the activities were made to be so inclusive by default. Each activity was designed to ensure that everyone got involved and allowed kids with different strengths to shine in different leadership roles. Oftentimes, I saw the active kids do great with the physical part of each activity, but they wouldn’t have been able to succeed without the kids who like to think and problem solve. Seeing the impact I can make in a teaching role, makes me want to involve education in my career with computer science.
I respected PBC’s commitment to work with these youth over the summer. Due to COVID, we weren’t able to host them on PBC’s campus for a residential program. However, PBC completely changed its normal summer plans by bringing Summer Bridge to students’ communities in Newark and Trenton, New Jersey. I felt the program we provided was on par with previous summers, if not better in some respects. For example, it was so eye-opening to do the STEM lessons in their own backyard. Having them compare water and soil samples from their parks to PBC’s campus made the kids much more cognizant of the importance of environmental awareness and education.
Believe it or not, my favorite part of the whole summer was the first week of the program. There was this quiet little girl who on the first day hurt her ankle and didn’t enjoy the program. I helped her become more involved, by setting up the activities in ways where she could excel as a problem solver for her team and sat with her at lunch when I noticed she was sitting alone. I learned she was very similar to me when I was in middle school: shy, quiet, and curious about everything. I learned about her interests, which included computer science and skateboarding. What impressed me the most is she already knows she wants to go to Harvard as a rising 7th grader. I didn’t even know Princeton was in NJ until I got accepted. Even though she was in my group every day, she didn’t say much and gave one-word answers or just nodded. On the last day, I told her to have a nice summer and she had done awesome this week. She replied, “I’m gonna miss you,” which made me feel good. At that moment I definitely knew I made the right choice with what I wanted to do over the summer.
PBC is truly a place to grow. I saw this in both the kids and in myself and none of us will ever be the same.
Mikhail Troyan is a computer science major at Princeton University. He spent the summer of 2021 as a Facilitator with the Princeton-Blairstown Center’s award-winning Summer Bridge Program. The Princeton-Blairstown Center is a 114-year-old youth development organization that serves young people, primarily from historically marginalized communities, by nurturing their social-emotional skills through experiential, environmental, and adventure-based programming.
