User:Lukepf04

Luke Farrell

Emperor of Session 2 Saratoga Springs 2017

• 13.2 SHD: UNAG
• 14.2 SAR: POLY
• 15.2 SAR: LOGC
• 16.2 SAR: MICO
• 17.2 SAR: MIND

I like you. I love you. I CTY you.

A Little Bit About Me

Hi. As you probably guessed it, my name is Luke. I have been going to CTY for three years now and it has been a great experience. I was at Mt. Holyoke for Baby CTY in 2013 and have gone to Skidmore in Saratoga Springs for the last two. I have had a lot of fun in my past years and why not I explain why. Let's start with Mt. Holyoke.

Baby CTY at Mount Holyoke

Course: United Nations and Advanced Geography: UNAG

Instructors: Elyse and Katy (TA)

Hallmates: Kyle, Nate, Nick, Tony, Jihoon, Mike, Jake, Daniel and Kevin

RA: Andrew

As my first year at CTY like many kids I was nervous. Being away from my parents for three weeks seemed like a good thing, but it was scary at first for me. Below are the highlights and memories of my first year at CTY.

UNAG

UNAG was an eventful course to start off my CTY journey. Elise and Katy had been a fantastic duo together along with my crazy classmates. In the class, UN siulations are done on real world topics and situations. My countries included Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and [entrer other country]. One great thing was Katy would grab copies of the New York Times for everybody to look at and investigate. I was not the biggest into crosswords at the time, but it was good to look at. One memorable instance of the class was having my Ra Andrew be a representative from Syria concerning the Civil War in the country and trying to determne soultions for the conflict. We also watched a great documentary called "The Island President" in which the President of the small island chain of the Maldives sught to save his country from climate change that was sinking his islands.

The Green Ball

When I first arrived at CTY, I had brought a green ball wiht me to outdoor activities and before class started to have fun. A volleyball net was on the side of the quad outside Rockefeller and so my hall would end up plaing Volleyball with it. One time during transition to activities, one of the RAs told me to not bring it back on the weekdays. The activity in question was, of course, "Cloud Watching".

Avatar: The Last Airbender

During a rainstorm at any CTY site, students will go into their auditorium and watch programs or play quizzes. That was the case at SouthHadley, but it had gone a bit to the extreme. The first programs that were watched were educational documentaries, but the students wanted mre and so the SRA had turned on Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Everybody loved it and they really, realy wanted to see it again. We had managed to get all the way to the Winter Solstice episodes of Book 1. During a Tennis activity, students were hoping for rain to happen that they had prayed to Katara, who is a waterbender in the show, to make it rain. Suprisingly, it did end up raining with a lovely rainbow in the sky. However, the rain did eventually stop and activities continued, but the memory of A:TLA still lives on.

The Beads

In our hall, Andrew decided to give out special beads for good acts. The maximum you could get (and should get) was two. It would always be a good recognition if he had seen you help somebody or he saw you perform well in class. It would always be announced at the hall meeting who received the beads. I was able to obtain my beads for my birthday and on the last night together we all got one. They still hang around my lanyard everyday to remind me of that good old time.

Saratoga CTY

Saratoga really is an unbelievable campus. Not only does it have a great history as a town, but also some exclusives at the site for CTY. The big one are the town trips, which are awesome. Whether it's Comic Depot, Ben & Jerry's (Vermonsters), or Starbucks (Yes, you heard me), there's something for everyone on the trips.

14.2

Course: International Politics: POLY

Instructors: Rupa and Amanda (TA)

Hallmates: Henry, Duncan, Avi, Greg, Suraag, Chris, Chris, Grayson, Kevin

RA: Mike

Well, as the same as Baby CTY, you really will not know that many people walking into it. I sure know I didn't. I had Mike Tedesco as my RA for the year and that hall included two emperors (Suraag Srinivas of that year and Duncan Freeman who is emperor of 16.2) and had International Politics (awesome course). When I went to the dances, I was very inexperienced with the traditional dances. (Tunak, Tunak, Tun, Time Warp) but the one I knew was American Pie. Thanks, Baby CTY!

15.2

Course: Logic: Principles of Reasoning LOGC

Instructors: Andrew and Evan (TA)

Hallmates: Johnathan, Janpal, David, Tyler, Derek, Daniel, Alvin, Cameron, Henry

RA: Dan

This year was a blast. I had Dan Bell's (States Rights!!!) Hall, and it was better than Mike's. Of course, in Dan's hall that year there was the Mad Spooner, but don't worry I was not it. It was actually very creepy though because you would go to sleep and then the next morning there were spoons everywhere. It was a lot easier at CTY this year considering being here before unlike the prior year.

16.2

Course: Fundamentals of Microeconomics: MICO

Instructors: Irakli and Yolanda (TA)

Hallmates: Albert, Kevin, Avi, Ky, Quincy, Janpal, Sachin, Chris, Ryan, Ben, Luke and Adway

RA: Peter

16.2 at Saratoga has got to be the best year I have had. My time was great. I did the lip sync at Casino Night with "Bicycle Race" and got to be the opening act at the Talent Show. Peter was a great RA, but he had a terrible collision during the staff v. Student Soccer game when he collided with Alejandro. He's alright now. My Microeconomics class was great, along with some of my hallmates above. Emily, Celine, Erika and Maiya you are all awesome and great. Irakli and Yolanda were the best instructors and to top it all off I became an Emperor along with Franz O'Hanna and next year will be the best year!!

17.2

Course: Philosophy of Mind: MIND

Instructors: Andrew and Olta (TA)

Hallmates: Riik, Peter, Andrew, Dorrian, Kyle, Gabriel, Andrew L., Andrew Q., Edward, Derek, William, Alan, Liam and Eric.

RA: Mike L.

My last year at Saratoga was another eventful and fantastic year. I was able to become Emperor and have an unbelievable time filled with Vermonsters, Gauntlets and Passionfruit sweatshirts and speeches. Philosophy of Mind was a tiny class with only 5 students, yet it was led by the legend of Andrew Higgins, with his 12th year at CTY. Dances and Socials were filled with jam packed music and good times. The cherry on top was that I got to meet the Executive Director of CTY, Dr. Elaine Tuttle Hansen and her husband Stan. I do hope that Saratoga will be able to stay open for many future CTYers to experience the wonders of Skidmore and the town of Saratoga Springs. I will no doubt visit and come back once again and 17.2 was an amazing way to end my student career at CTY.

To be continued (2020)....

My Birthday

July 31, 2000. What's so special about that day? Well

• It's my birthday and
• It's on CTY

That's why I normally went to session 2 for CTY. On my birthday I usually got something special from my hall or the site community itself. At Mt. Holyoke, Andrew and all the kids from the hall went into my room and threw paper confetti and then Andrew made them pick it up. Ha! Also at the end of the session, the dining hall made a cake with everyone's name on it that had a birthday during the session.

At Skidmore, Mike gave my cupcakes and he starting spraying silly string at me which, not only got over me, but the wall as well.

Dan's hall actually didn't do much, but the rest of CTY did. I got a Birthday card from Maeve Brammer who then made people sign it and give it to me. It was really nice. Also during the dance (coincidentally on my birthday that year) they all started singing happy birthday to me and I heard someone yell (I think it was Christophe) "Someone pick him up!" Thankfully, that did not happen.

2016 was not the most eventful birthday at CTY. I had not alerted my fellow campers in the days before because that day was also the Town Trip. They would be too focused on Vermonsters at the time, which I could completely understand. WE went all the way to Congress Park and then it started to rain. We headed back to Case Center and waited for about an hour before we could go back to the dorms. I still was able to get celebratory cupcakes from SRA Geoff and enjoy the day.

2017 was one of the best birthdays that I ever had. Being my last year, I made sure to let people know it was my birthday, turning the big 17. It had started with plenty of birthday singing on the quad. I had then gotten a lovely card from Daisy Fernandez and other things. My birthday also fell on the TAPS Frisbee Game. Although we had gotten blown out (8-4, blew a 3-0 lead), it was still a great experience playing in a Student-Staff game. The day ended with night quad and then more celebratory cupcakes which were shared with the entire hall.