Summer Institute Showcase 2021
The Pre-College Summer Institute is a dynamic and challenging program for high school students. This summer, students gained solid foundational skills and college-level training while working with the university's expert faculty.
For two weeks, young actors, dancers, musicians, artists, designers, writers and entrepreneurs from across the country explored new artistic ideas through the Summer Institute 2021 online program. This gallery celebrates the focus, creativity and initiative of these students, showcasing how they were inspired to think like artists and designers—with imagination, insight and fiercely individual vision.
High School: Freedom High School
Hometown: Chantilly, VA
Summer Institute Program: Portfolio Prep, Animation
Abigail "Abby" Shockley is from Chantilly, VA. She has been making artwork since middle school and is a rising senior in high school. Some common themes and ideas in Abby's work are the idea of childhood, observation, color, nature and creativity. She also tells stories and makes the viewer think through narrative artwork using a variety of media. Abby has been inspired by animation ever since she was a child and is now pursuing animation as a career. She dreams to create works that inspire others just like how she was inspired when she was younger.
High School: Bloomington High School
Hometown: Bloomington, IL
Summer Institute Program: Animation
Alyssa Clark is 17 years old and currently lives in Bloomington, Illinois. For as long as she can remember, she loved being creative, writing fantasy stories and composing pieces of music. During the pandemic, she was inspired to pursue animation by watching cartoons like Steven Universe, She-ra and The Owl House.
High School: The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Summer Institute Program: Dance
Amalia Magee is a dancer from Philadelphia, PA who learns to thrive in her techniques and to also have fun. She has been dancing since she was three years old. From then, along with dancing ballet and jazz, she has studied modern/contemporary dance and improvisation which has taught her to be comfortable with the unknown and has helped in accomplishing her dream of becoming a contemporary choreographer someday. Amalia is very open-minded and not afraid of what she wants to express.
High School: Cherry Hill High School East
Hometown: Cherry Hill, NJ
Summer Institute Program: Theater
Asha Maisuria is from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. She enjoys acting, singing, dancing and visual arts. She hopes to share her art with others and inspire them to follow their passions.
High School: Archbishop John Carroll High School
Hometown: Drexel Hill, PA
Summer Institute Program: Creative Writing
Bridget Grazel is a 16-year-old writer born and raised in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. She enjoys writing fiction pieces and her work is highly influenced by crime, drama and dystopian novels. Bridget plans to continue pursuing writing into adulthood, and aspires to one day become a published novelist.
An excerpt from "Edge of the Pier" by Bridget Grazel
I stood still as a statue, eyeing the flashing lights before me and hearing the deafening sirens. Red, blue, red, blue, the lights danced in front of me like a mocking jester. The colors blinded me and I remembered the red blood spreading through the murky blue water which raged below, just the night before. I thought about the events of the evening prior and wondered how it would end for me, and how I transformed from a lowly nobody into the girl with the biggest secret in town, in just a blink of an eye.
High School: Cambridge Rindge and Latin School
Hometown: Cambridge, MA
Summer Institute Program: Dance
Brooke Hugot is a dance artist based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her goal is to create meaningful, accessible work that blends experimental research and performance.
High School: I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM and VPA
Hometown: Burleson, TX
Summer Institute Program: Dance
Dakota La Penna is 16 years old, and is from Burleson, Texas. She is a junior at I.M. Terrell Academy for STEM and VPA where she practices ballet and horton. Dakota is a member of the Dallas Cowboy's Rookie Squad, I.M. Terrell Dance Ensemble, and a company member at MovZ Dance Company.
High School: Interboro High School
Hometown: Norwood, PA
Summer Institute Program: Writing & Drawing for Comics
Dylan Smith is a 16-year-old artist from Norwood, PA. He has been writing and illustrating his own comic books since a very young age when his dad first introduced him to comics. His style is most influenced by comic artists Jack Kirby, Kentaro Miura and Eiichiro Oda. Dylan plans to attend college and pursue a career in comic book illustration, video game character design or animation.
High School: Sheridan AllPrep Academy
Hometown: Portland, OR
Summer Institute Program: Dance
Elizabeth Abel is a 17-year-old rising first-year college student. Raised in Portland, Oregon, she started dancing at age five. Having finished her third and final year with Bodyvox’s pre-professional company, Junior Artist Generators, Elizabeth will continue her dance education at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in the fall. She has trained in multiple dance genres including: tap, ballet, contemporary, modern and hip-hop.
High School: JJ Pearce High School
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Summer Institute Program: Animation
Emma Chien is from Dallas, Texas, and was nudged to take an animation class in high school by a friend. Her interest in animation grew and was influenced by her love of Star Wars. She loves the Star Wars stories and hopes to tell her own make an impact on others.
High School: Pennsbury High School
Hometown: Yardley, PA
Summer Institute Program: Animation
Eugene McIntire is from Yardley, Pennsylvania and is an artist who likes to branch out into many mediums. His art takes influence from unsettling concepts and the bizarre with a focus on things that cannot be created in real life.
High School: Philadelphia Performing Arts: A String Theory Charter School
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Summer Institute Program: Theater
Faith A. Matesun is a 16-year-old born in Philadelphia, PA, and originally from Nigeria. She gains inspiration from the themes she sees in real life, and portrays them through her writing.
"My Manifesto Poem" by Faith Mateson
Stick together, they say,
we are a team, they say,
no need to stand out or scream, we all have dreams, they say
We support you, they say
but we do remind you that you’ll never succeed, because you don’t meet our requirements, not to be mean, of course, by the way
humor me for moment as much as your willing,
But can you imagine a world where Black people don’t only book the villains
Where men play realistic roles on stage, no more head of the family, macho man nonsense, but roles that show that in the middle of all the chaos and commotion, it’s more than okay to have and to show their emotions
Where people don’t have to give away the thing that makes them, them, simply because they don’t have the money
A world where it finally clicks, that people of color can play more than just the cute but comedic sidekick
that altos, basses and baritones can play other roles than the antagonist
While this prejudice might exist in other parts of life, art is supposed to be the place we unapologetically express ourselves, this isn’t right
In place for weirdos that we so struggled to find, even here we still have to hide
We claim that the arts is an all inclusive, equality inducing, beautiful community
But the same people who say those things couldn’t even begin to tell you the definition of unity
I’d like to imagine a world of the arts where
Within a cast there are no cliques, no creepy directors asking for pics, no more people making fun of the way you express your art form just, for kicks,
Where instead of being bitter people are genuinely happy for others when they get lead roles
And where whether people respect you or not doesn’t depend on how many show tickets you’ve sold
If you would allow me to be so bold, I have to tell you that we need to fix this
I know you would rather me put on a blindfold, and to blindly do what I’m told, to take your hand ,so you can force me not to stand, but I demand that you understand
that we need to fix this
And though I would love to point fingers and say that this is the “big” people’s strewing, I know that we the community are partly responsible for our undoing
And I know that this is a difficult topic to discuss but,
I imagine a world in which the arts is not an I, a me, or a mine, but an US.
High School: H. H. Dow High School
Hometown: Midland, MI
Summer Institute Program: Creative Writing
Gabe Vannette is a writer who lives in Midland, Michigan. He has no bonds to places.
High School: The School of the Arts
Hometown: Tacoma, WA
Summer Institute Program: Dance
Hana Carlson is a dancer in Tacoma, Washington. She went to Grant Elementary, where she was introduced to the arts and tried it all: dance, music and acting. Dance took full force and so she started studying dance at the Morgan Family YMCA under the direction of Kelly Lynch and Lynn Wilmot-Stenehjem. In 2018, she received a scholarship to the summer Ailey Experience intensive, where she worked with Martell Ruffin and Marcus Williams. That year, she furthered her studying of dance at T.U.P.A.C. (Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center) in ballet, West African and flamenco, under the direction of Klair Ethridge and Julie Tobiason. During the pandemic, T.U.P.A.C. made an internationally recognized award-winning film Harriet: The Black Swan, in which she played spring Harriet. As a rising senior attending SOTA (The School of the Arts), she has had the opportunity to explore creating her own work. She has choreographed four pieces for the school that have revolved around climate change, Blackness, identity and love. Outside of being a student she teaches dance at her church and her dance studio, and plans to continue teaching in the future.
High School: Cheltenham High School
Hometown: Elkins Park, PA
Summer Institute Program: Animation
Hannah Greene is a 14-year-old artist based in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. She mostly illustrates characters but has also worked in animation. She is influenced by numerous art styles ranging from that of the game Hades and the show Naruto. Her goal is to work in the game industry as a game artist.
High School: South Florence High School
Hometown: Florence, SC
Summer Institute Program: Theater
Jada Hunt is 16 years old. She lives in Florence, South Carolina. She has had lead roles in plays such as Fiona in Shrek and Nala in The Lion King.
High School: Camden County Technical Schools
Hometown: Blackwood, NJ
Summer Institute Program: Dance, Music
Julia Doyle is 17 years old and lives in Blackwood, New Jersey. She is an upcoming senior at Camden County Technical School where she studies vocal music. She has studied singing, dancing and acting at Mainstage Center for the Arts, Music Theatre Philly and Walnut Street Theatre School, and has taken Ballet X classes. She also takes private voice, tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, contemporary and musical theater classes. Julia enjoys playing the piano at a beginner level and loves reading books in her spare time.
High School: Englightneum Academy
Hometown: Briggs, TX
Summer Institute Program: Comics & Characters, Illustration: World Building
Kendyl lives in Briggs, Texas. She was inspired to do art by video games such as Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest. She loves to draw and likes to create music.
High School: West Catholic
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Summer Institute Program: Dance
Keyani is a dancer raised in Philadelphia. Keyani started her dance journey in 2014. Since then, she's gone off and won awards from dance competitions such as Take Centerstage. In addition to UArts Summer Institute, she's attended Anthony Burrell's Breaking Barriers. As she's gotten older, her passion for dance has grown. Dance has taught her to be confident in herself and her craft, to always reach her goals, that there’s always room for improvement and you can never stop learning. With good things come hardships. Keyani has asthma, so she couldn't dance to her full potential without feeling winded and starting to make movements look sloppy. However, she learned to live with her asthma and dance at the same time. Now, she can successfully dance to her fullest potential.
High School: Science Leadership Academy
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Summer Institute Program: Creative Writing
Lara Rosenbach is a sophomore from Philadelphia, PA. She mainly writes poems and fantasy fiction. Lara writes poems loosely based on events that took place in her life. She uses her emotions as a primary influence for her writing.
An excerpt from "Earworms" by Lara Rosenbach
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I purchased a shirt that quoted Albus Dumbledore, from Harry Potter. It read, “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
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And yet, there was no switch. I was fumbling around blindly, lost to myself.
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My world fades away, and I hear that song again, focusing on the speaker my grandma got me for my birthday. The song’s tempo changes, and I see again the rug, you on top of me, rubbing your body against mine. The song, playing quietly in the background.
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The beat dropped.
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I remembered why I liked this song so much: I was covering up a hole, a wide, black hole that was formed that day on the rug with you. I still am. I am always just about to fall into the ink black chasm, always peering down into the bottomless abyss of my mind. If not for these songs, I would be drowning in the black void.
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I remember a tale from the D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths. It was about the underworld and how for people who had had something terrible happen in their life, there was the river Lethe. It made you forget. At the time, I felt pity for those people. I still do. But now, I feel a kind of empathy.
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Their songs are similar to mine.
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I suppose it is sometimes better to forget to the point of only vaguely remembering. It is better to forget to the point of looking at that memory like a passing cloud.
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I often look up at the stars, wondering if you still remember, and then I only wish to forget. I hope I find somewhere in between. What you could be doing right now. Do you remember our song.
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Probably not.
High School: Pottstown High School
Hometown: Pottstown, PA
Summer Institute Program: Creative Writing
Leah Smith is going into her junior year at Pottstown High School in Pottstown, PA. She has always had a flair for writing. Inspired by comic book writers such as Scott Snyder, Chip Zdarsky and Grant Morrison and fiction writers like Stephen King and Leigh Bardugo, Leah felt more influenced by creative writing and wanted to explore more of her skills. She is in the middle of crafting a Batman trilogy titled, Batman: As Above, So Below, and fleshing out her original fantasy tale, "The Phantom Slayer".
The prologue to the upcoming Batman trilogy Batman: As Above, So Below by Leah Smith
To whoever reads this letter, my name is Alfred Pennyworth. I have been under the employ of the Wayne family for many years. I have known Master Bruce Wayne since he was a child, he was a bright young boy, if only I were to see the young man he could’ve been if tragedy hadn’t struck him at such a young age. He vowed to his parents the night of their murder to seek justice in the city of Gotham, thus conceived the identity of the Batman. I thought at first it was a fool’s errand, but he takes his job very seriously and does as he promised. Criminals are indeed a cowardly and superstitious lot. I pray everyday that he doesn’t cross the line between justice and injustice. I fear that day may be soon.
With regards, Alfred Pennyworth
High School: Abeka Online Academy
Hometown: Wake Forest, NC
Summer Institute Program: Comics & Characters
Lillian (Lilly) Funderburk is an aspiring illustrator and character designer from Wake Forest, NC. There are many things that influence her art. The main inspiration is her training in fine art and in-depth studies of color theory. Common themes in her work include details and bold colors.
High School: Odessa High
Hometown: Townsend, DE
Summer Institute Program: Illustration
Lyden Doyle is an artist from Townsend, Delaware. Some themes and influences of their art are 50s–60s pop/rock music, and early 2000s video games.
High School: Neenah High School
Hometown: Neenah, WI
Summer Institute Program: Dance
Marcella Schneider is a 17-year-old choreographer, dancer, singer and artist. She’s studied tap since she was six years old and experimented in different disciplines such as musical theater dance and ballet. She has choreographed numbers for the high school production of Sister Act and is currently working on choreography for Legally Blonde and 42nd Street. Most of her inspiration comes from the senses, with sounds and colors, visualizing them coming to life. Throughout her entire high school career, she’s been in competitive show choir and has traveled around her home state of Wisconsin. She was originally aspiring to be a musical theater major but recently, she has taken interest in choreography as a career. While training under Corrie Buela Kovacs and Kathleen McCurdy, she’s learned to create, to not copy and learned that “loud mistakes are better than timid perfection.”
High School: Covenant Christian Academy
Hometown: Beverly, MA
Summer Institute Program: Comics & Characters
Maya Porter lives in Beverly, Massachusetts. Her art is based on the things around her, her identity as a POC and making an impact in the future with the art that she creates.
High School: Abington Friends School
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Summer Institute Program: Creative Writing
My name is Orla and I live in Philadelphia, PA. My writing mainly focuses on childhood, the questions and uncertainties of life, and the beauty in all the changes in our natural environment.
"Waning Into Another Light" by Orla Maxcy
1.
A child of the moon. The mother that watches me from
Above, and from a different perspective. She has seen
The best of me, and the worst of me. “We are all like a
Bright moon, but we still have our darker sides.” (Khalil Gibran)
She comes out when my outer shell is at
Rest, but watches over my spirit, which would always
Be awake.
Even if we don’t see her because she isn’t
Having her brightest of days. Still, the moon
has taught me that you are still whole no matter
What phase you might be in. Even when you're
slowly waning, it is only the beginning towards the
Journey to become your fullest self.
3. Sometimes, when the sun starts to set, I sit on
My roof and wait for her arrival, and when she arrives,
I tell her about the course of my day, even when
She’s not at her fullest. I tell her my secrets, knowing
They are not hers to tell, not even to the stars around her. I
Tell her because without hesitation, I know all she’ll
Do is listen, even when I have nothing to say at all. “Sometimes
Silence is the loudest kind of noise” (Bassey Ikpi)
4. They say the loneliest people only have conversations
With the moon. They also say that the loneliest people
Are highly observant with what is around them. Well, maybe
the moon is an independent part of nature, who watches and
Observes the world from above. I may not be completely alone,
But her company brings light upon the dark night—even when I
See her slowly waning away.
High School: Pitman High School
Hometown: Pitman, NJ
Summer Institute Program: Dance
I create what feels right with my body. I move in a way that feel right with my body. Sharp, fast movements tend to be my go-to, representing my fast-paced life. I base my movements off the abstract, the quiet, the inconsistent beat in the back of the music, the syllables of the lyrics or the nothingness of the music. I am never resting. I don't rest until the dance is over, just like I don't rest until the day is over. I've always been a hard worker, striving for perfection in all aspects of my life. It took me a while to realize there is no such thing as perfection, but rather to find the beauty in the imperfections. The beauty is in my stumbles, my sickled feet and off-balanced turns because I am learning. Next time, I'll work towards fixing those because that is what life is about. Living and learning.
High School: Zion School
Hometown: Bogotá, Cundinamarca
Summer Institute Program: Dance
Sara Maldonado was born and raised in Colombia, Bogotá, where she currently practices and studies dance. At the age of 12, she started attending ballet, jazz and contemporary classes at the Compañía Colombiana de danza. Dance was only hobby to Sara but in 2018, she began to choreograph her own dances for presentations. Through movement, she found a genuine way of connecting with people and made dance a part of her life.
High School: Homeschooled
Hometown: Media, PA
Summer Institute Program: Creative Writing
Seth Casel is a writer, tabletop gamer and Magic-The-Gathering-certified nerd. He is a high school student from Media, Pennsylvania. Seth is currently working on his first full-length fantasy novel that was inspired by a Dungeons & Dragons campaign he was lucky enough to play in his dreams. He lives with his parents, younger brother and a corgi whose temper is as short as his legs.
An excerpt from "Crown Jewels" by Seth Casel
“Pair of swords,” Lucretia said, a smirk crossing her face as she splayed her three-card hand on the table.
Krazlat, whose red-scaled form took up half the room, grinned, a bit of smoke coming out of the dragon’s snout as he did so. “Got your number again, bloodsucker,” he commented, flipping over his own hand. “Pair of crowns.”
“Why must it always be me?” the vampire said, roughly shoving her cards towards Arabelle, who dutifully shuffled the cards back into the deck. Arabelle also gave a slight smirk at the vampire’s misfortune and doled out the hand’s rewards. “11,590 gold pieces to Krazlat.” She pushed the gold to its winner, who gave Lucretia another draconic smirk before his claws scraped his winnings towards his substantial pile. The group used astral tokens for most of their currency dealings, since manually putting in at least 1,500 gold pieces each hand would have been extremely cumbersome. 15 astral tokens would have been much easier to keep track of.
That was what Arabelle mused about as she dealt the next hand, the cards shuffled by her own hand, that was in fact fair, contrary to Lucretia’s opinion on the matter. Lucretia, in fact, was the first to receive her cards, giving them but a glance before sighing and flicking them back towards the deck before sighing, leaning back in her chair and taking a small sip of her drink. Her doing so had unnerved Arabelle at first, given that she knew exactly what it was, but she’d learned to take it in stride after the eighth or ninth session. Besides, Arabelle had never been one to turn down business.
The demon Braziel on Lucretia’s left was the first player of the five who liked his hand. “Thirty-five,” he enunciated, shoving that many astral tokens into the middle.
“You drive a hard bargain, demon,” Krazlat said from the next seat over, flicking his cards into the middle.
High School: Philadelphia High School for Girls
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Summer Institute Program: Creative Writing
Sierra Lynn Guilmartin is a writer and musician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her poetry is inspired by poetry books she's read by Samantha King, David Levithan and Ellen Hopkins. She also enjoys reading the horrors created by Amy Lukavics and the mysteries created by Hannah Jayne.
An excerpt from "There is a Family Now" by Sierra Lynn Guilmartin
I usually don’t like being here
The sun beats down upon me
I can’t remember if I put sunscreen on my scalp
We’re still holding hands standing in the ocean
And it’s not awkward at all
She drags me out further than I’ve ever been
It looks like she’s not stopping anytime soon
My fear of the water is washed away
High School: New World School of the Arts
Hometown: Miramar, FL
Summer Institute Program: Animation
Tristen Mendoza is a visual artist based in Miami, Florida. She takes many of her inspirations from seeing the culture around her and her family. She wishes to break the stereotypes towards Hispanic females and create works to promote diversity in the field of art.
High School: Pullman High School
Hometown: Pullman, WA
Summer Institute Program: Theater
Violet Eiland is from Pullman, Washington and was so excited to create art in the Pre-College Theater program. She had so much fun working on the "Usher" monologue below.
"The Critic" is a manifesto calling on everyone to stop discriminators from destroying the joy of theater.
High School: Northampton High School
Hometown: Northampton, MA
Summer Institute Program: Animation
Wyatt Ramsey-Lohmann is a high-school student in Northampton, Massachusetts. Their work is visually influenced by the media they consume while being thematically influenced by their experiences and the experiences of their peers. They work experimentally by using combinations of subjective and objective color to portray meaning. They are most comfortable working digitally and enjoy experimenting with various software.
High School: Virginia Academy
Hometown: Sterling, VA
Summer Institute Program: Graphic Design
Art is something that is all around us. Some objects that inspire me to make art are nature and physical copies of music. Bright colors, large typography and abnormality push me to continue doing art. Visiting art museums and galleries are an amazing way for me to observe pieces done by other artists so I can create my own. The impressionism, neoclassicism, pop art and cubism movements are themes in art that I love to explore because they all have something unique about them.
High School: Ewing High School
Hometown: Ewing, NJ
Summer Institute Program: Animation
Za'Niya Mims is a 17-year-old Black artist who resides in Ewing, New Jersey, but grew the most in North Carolina where she lived for three years. Many of Za'Niya's inspirations come from the world around her, specifically music—a lot of indie rock and pop beats through her ears. The impact of today's news and changing world constantly riddle her mind and in some way, slithers through her work as she creates what the world could be. Za'Niya's personal work is greatly stimulated by the world she has created in contrast to the world around her.
High School: Danbury High School
Hometown: Danbury, CT
Summer Institute Program: Theater
Zoe Kirkness comes from Danbury, which is a small town in Connecticut. As a young girl, she dreamed big about becoming an actress and is hoping to show others like herself that if they themselves dreaming big, then they to can follow their dreams.
Animation Demo Reels
Explore the work of Summer Institute Animation students.