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2008 - Ojai Campus
Everyone here is amazing at something and most people seem like they are good at everything. It doesn't take long to feel like you're a small fish in the vast ocean, but it is just as easy to make friends and feel like you don't belong anywhere else.
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Charlotte Hotchkiss
SSP defies description and expectations equally. All you need to know before experiencing it is that you will love it.
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David Steinberg
What's the best thing about SSP, the most surprising, the most life-changing? All the same answer: the people, the people, the people.
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Christine Chang
When I applied for SSP, I was expecting a rigorous science camp. I had been to academic camps before, and I was imagining something similar. Maybe smarter kids, maybe more difficult work. What I got was the most intense six weeks I've ever experienced. Faced with challenge after challenge, I was forced to learn more about myself than I ever wanted to know, all the while alongside 35 other fascinating people, all going through the same process as I.
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Andrew Tracer
SSP is.. the most amazing and intense six weeks of my life. SSP is amazing people, amazing memories, power naps, philosophizing in the telescope dome at 3 a.m. SSP is unforgettable.
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Maria Altyeva
SSP solidified my interest in science and gave me a college-like experience that I'll never forget.
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Santhosh Balasubramanian
It's better than RSI ;-). In SSP, you can experience the true meaning of working hard and playing hard. By the end, you will have friends from across the world who shares your memories. SSP also greatly expands your knowledge in various aspects of science other than astronomy and helps you identify your interests.
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Zi-Peng (Hunter) Zhao
SSP is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that is unique because of its culture and traditions and which really gave me an insight into college life.
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Aniruddha Bapat
I discovered that I could work really really hard and have a really really beautiful, amazing, stress-free time doing it. Plus, for once a peer group where you can unlock your inner-nerd and be welcomed with open arms.
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Avanti Shrikumar
SSP has taught me so much about math and science, but it's taught me even more about myself: where my limits are, what I can do and how far I can go!
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Sarah Wyss
SSP is one of those experiences that one remembers for the rest of their life. The tired students that assemble at the amphitheater on the first day have the capability to do college graduate level work and one day might lead the science world.
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Syed Saleh
The best thing about SSP is how, by spending time with such amazing and talented students, you discover more about yourself and learn where and what you might be in the future.
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Yunke Liu
You will get exposed to and learn about so many interesting subjects in science here through lectures, guest speakers, and field trips. It's strange to think of where I started and where I am now. I know so much more about astronomy, physics, programming, college and a bunch of other random things I never considered before.
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Dana Dement
For 95% of activities here, there will be another student here who is better than you at it. But everyone will find their own 5% of excellence.
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Jack Goetz
The real value of SSP is that it pushes one to the limit, forcing one to learn and think at a rate far above the demands of our modern education system.
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Pearson Miller
In no other place can you be with 35 other brilliant people doing and learning about topics you are actually interested in...thanks SSP for one of the best summers I have ever had.
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Stephen Liu
SSP has been the most amazing experience of my life. Now it's hard for me imagine a life without SSP. I would never be able to forget the all nighters we pulled programming and seeing all the students falling off to sleep during the lecture the next day. I would never able to forget the intense frisbee matches and latenight parties. SSP has carved in me a new responsibility that will let me help this program so that many more students can have even better experience at this place than me. SSP has made me believe that six weeks can change your life tremendously and that there is no limit to which a person can be challenged. I will try my best in the future to help this program flourish.
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Adnan Khan
Getting to work with quirkiest and most plucky people you'll meet on the most grueling yet strangely inspiring project--that is SSP in a nutshell.
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Alan Xie
SSP was the most socially rewarding and intellectually stimulating experience of my life.
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Arun Saigal
The best part of SSP is the sense of community and the people I met from everywhere and really got to know between staying up till midnight doing homework to observing to playing cards.
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Kayla Meduna
SSP is a academically and socially stimulating environment that would create a lifetime memorable experience for anyone.
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Derrick Liu
Ojai is said to mean "nest". This was our nest, of those who searched for the stars every night, who searched for knowledge every day and who searched for ourselves every time. It is shocking how much you learn about yourself, and not by a sudden realization, but from the conversations you have with other people. It is meeting these amazing people that helps you discover more things about you that you would ever imagine.
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Iulia Neagu
I was surprised at how SSP challenged us all at some point or another, and how we made close friends within a few short weeks and also at how fulfilling it is to be able to use our own data and programs to generate the equatorial coordinates and orbital elements-which was the goal of the program.
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Kanika Pasricha
2008 - Socorro Campus
SSP was much more than a stepping stone in life, it was a pair of wings that flew to new heights, an engine of discovery, and a social experience like no other.
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Wesley Leung
SSP greatly changed my life. Not only did I determine what I want my profession to be when I grow up, I also learned about the wonderful aspects of teamwork and collaboration. I loved the work environment here, which is similar to those at top-tier colleges and the scientific and engineer world. SSP truly prepared me for college and life.
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Tsung-Ju (Jeff) Lu
The best thing about SSP is having the chance to work with 36 of the most interesting people you've ever met, on problems that are always intriguing. It becomes more than just a summer camp - it becomes a community, and you never forget the people you meet here.
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Jeremy Steeger
I wish I could spend my senior year with everyone from SSP!
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Stephanie Thompson
The social experience at SSP is unique. I've made friends that have changed my outlook on life and academics, friends who motivate me to do better.
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Jacklyn Nagle
SSP taught me about independence, challenging yourself, and staying up really late.
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Chad Bustard
SSP is an incomparable experience, it's a mix of pain and pleasure, and you can't leave it without feeling changed for good.
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Joanna Robaszewski
SSP is the most challenging, most rewarding fun you'll ever have in your life!
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Hannah Walker
SSP is intense, both academically and socially, and I know that what I have learned here will follow me throughout life.
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Hannah Kowen
SSP is the place where you work hard, play hard, and never want to leave. Each and every person here is incredibly talented and incredibly intelligent, and surprisingly not as "nerdy" as you'd expect. It's shown me that there people as dedicated as me out there, that I can handle a lot more than I thought I could, and that I can have an amazing social experience and an amazing academic experience at the same time. I wouldn't trade this summer for anything.
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Ioana Florea
SSP will help you understand just how little of the world you've already seen.
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Erika DeBenedictis
SSP was a crazy rush of intellectual activity that bound you to your fellow campers; by the end of the program it felt like it'd only been a day instead of six weeks (possibly because I'd stayed up all night for a two nights getting my OD done).
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Paloma Tamminga
SSP is a balance game between sleep and work, socialization and work-induced isolation, time and accuracy, and most importantly, work and play.
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Mi Deng
SSP is like all great educational experiences; it's a lot of work, but if you really want to, you'll learn more than you ever have before.
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Wesley Verne
There are only a few experiences in life that one could call truly amazing. For me, SSP is one of them. The camaraderie created in the classroom, on the basketball court, at Etscorn Observatory, in the computer lab, and in the dormitory can never be truly replicated. Whenever I think back on summer 2008, I will truly be able to say that SSP has been an exceptionally enriching experience.
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Michael Lee
Both the academic and social aspects of SSP are important; it is necessary to find the balance between the two. And remember, this balance does have to include sleep, if only once is a while.
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Siheng (Sean) You
At SSP I experienced all the best sides of being surrounded by 30-some geeks and absolutely none of the unpleasant ones.
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Konrad Komorowski
SSP is an experience that melds several aspects new to everyone who attends and that will stay with them for a long time.
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Joey Jachowski
I can only hope college will be half as fun--both in academics and in its social life--as SSP.
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Ryan Handoko
SSP makes you humble toward greater people, greater knowledge and the greater world that you have never seen.
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Yi-An Lai
It's made me into a better person who can analyze questions in a clear fashion and be able to account for my own actions.
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Juhee Bae
SSP is the most thrilling academic and social experience that many of us could ever have in life. It is the kind of experience that any young rising scientists around the world should consider.
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Yuting Chen
It's a program that is as hard as you make it, as fun as you make it, and educational as you make it; and I recommend you make the best of everything.
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Richard Yoon
2007
I've been to many other academic summer programs that the average SSP applicant might be interested in. As somebody with those similar experiences, I can honestly say that I believe SSP was the most fulfilling program I've been to, from the academic component to the social atmosphere. It met all my expectations and more.
-Connor Stokes
When I first arrived and was told, "The SSP community is much like a family," I was skeptical...It turned out to be more true than I ever could have imagined.
-Russell Slater
My best SSP experience: lying under the stars at 4 AM with five friends from all over the world, experiencing what we learned during morning lectures, and making sense of all that we see in the night sky.
-Alexander Beltes
Science first, beach second, each other above all.
-Thomas Harris
SSP championed everything I knew and loved about science: hard work, challenging problems, good teamwork, but showed me a level of social bonding I had never felt before. I firmly believe the friendships made at SSP will be among the best and most beautiful of my life.
-Gabriel Cadamuro
When a group of people strives towards a common, difficult goal, facing and surmounting countless trials and tribulations, they learn more about themselves and each other than they would have in any other situation.
-Adam Arthurs
I cannot take SSP out of my mind, nothing compared to SSP seems now good enough. I changed more in 6 weeks than in 4 years of high school. I thought that finding the orbit of an asteroid concerns only about normal, well-known, even boring Newton mechanics... I didn't know anything... SSP turned out to be even academically the most exciting experience I've ever had. The friendships that I found in SSP are true, genuine, sincere and deep. I wish I could spend I lifetime with them all. SSP taught me many important lessons, both academically and socially, that I will treasure for the rest of my life. Can I attend SSP again next year?
-Eda Gjergo
SSP was like a wonderful dream that I did not want to wake up from. I loved simultaneously working with and having fun with my fellow geeks.
-Mary Beth Yu
SSP provides you with the amazing feeling of scientific achievement after many, many troubles...
-Hasan Onder Polat
SSP challenges you to the absolute limit of your intelligence; that is what's so awesome about this program.
-Joyce Chai
I found SSP extraordinarily valuable not just because of the intense curriculum, but because of the shared spirit of inquiry and academic excitement that unites everyone who chooses to come to the program.
-Jason Pollack
Wow. SSP was the experience of a lifetime for me, where else would you be excited about staying up all night in the middle of the summer, picking out an asteroid from a plate full of stars and programming a physics scenario.
-Wendy Lin
Before SSP, I never would have guessed that staying up until three am for observation, tumbling into bed too exhausted to even think about homework, and then waking up at six the next morning to finish could be one of the most exiting and fun experiences of my life - but it was. From sleepovers in the dome to stumbling into Saturday morning lectures, SSP was a most intense, amazing experience.
-Todaro Susanna
An intellectual challenge beyond any I've ever had; friendships deeper than any I've ever forged; six weeks' worth memories that I will cherish for a lifetime; an experience that is truly one of a kind: this was my SSP.
-Daksha Rajagopalan
SSP was an amazing experience, because not only were we having fun observing actual asteroids and galaxies in the sky, but we also met so many people and I liked every one of them.
-Ilona Phipps-Morgan
At SSP, the work is hard (but rewarding), the people are brilliant, and the memories are unforgettable.
-Magnus Haw
From the first time I set foot in the dorm to the last time I gazed fondly at the campus, these six weeks have been an unending epoch of discovery.
-Elliott Jin
SSP was the best six weeks of my life - and the saddest part was letting go of the memory of a lifetime...and reminiscing with lifelong friends about the wonderful, wonderful program!
-Rik Sengupta
In being in an environment where everyone was smart, I saw it as a challenge, a test of my own abilities. I was forced to push my mind to try and match the kids around me, and in doing so I realized how much potential I had.
-Nathaniel Fox
SSP has changed my life forever, it showed me just how hard I could work and just how little sleep that I could live on.
-Daniel Dahan
SSP was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. It was great because I not only spent 90% of the day awake, but I also learned more than I could have even imagined.
-Liam King
WOW! Time of my life!!!
-Sydney Goings
SSP was the most amazing thing that happened to me. The cultural variety and all the people here was the best thing about it. I've had some of my greatest experiences here.
-Udbhav Singh
I knew I'd be staying up late, but I never realized that I would chose to do so just for fun so often.
-Sarah Cheng
SSP combines challenge and fun in such a way that you can always tolerate not to sleep...
-Oyku Akkaya
SSP proved to be the most socially rewarding and academically comprehensive experience that I have ever participated in, as the cooperative atmosphere fostered great thinking and helped all of us reach our potential.
-Benjamine Liu
It was one of the greatest experiences that I have had.
-Pelin Dogan
I've learned more science here than I have in any other six weeks of my life. SSP is so challenging and fulfilling in all aspects that it's a pity school takes up so much time when we could be doing something like this.
-Jayson Lynch
SSP is what happens when you set a bunch of brilliant people in a room for six weeks and see what happens. Even the highest expectations will be surpassed. SSP allows one to understand not just the equations of science, but the life of a scientist. It's thrilling in a way that not even the most eloquent formula can adequately describe.
-Jacob Shenker
SSP pushed me harder intellectually than I've ever been pushed, and the experience taught me that I can assimilate more information than I ever thought I could.
-Becky Jensen-Clem
I enjoyed meeting like-minded people. I hadn't met any psychological clones of myself before SSP. I was expecting a harsh, stressful academic experience. The relaxed, friendly atmosphere surprised me. SSP has motivated me to pursue the physical sciences more seriously.
-Dmitri Gekhtman
SSP is awesomeness wrapped in delicious wrapped in delectability wrapped in a yummy tamale sheath.
-Samuel Markson
SSP was truly an amazing academic experience. It was challenging, fun and unique. The tremendous intensity and rigor are unrivaled by any high school curriculum. SSP also assembled a close-knit group of highly talented students from around the world to partake in this experience together, which gave us all a taste of the kind of collaboration that real science is about. I will never forget what a great program this was, and I hope to remain an active member of the SSP community as an alum.
- Senan Ebrahim
This was my first six weeks of college: I learned much about the world and myself through the academic environment and the people here, something that cannot be had in an ordinary high school.
-Aaron Wong
The most important thing about SSP is not what you're learning, it's the environment in which you're doing it. The friends you make at SSP are a lot more like you than most other people you meet. The common academic challenge instills a sense of camaraderie that you don't see at school.
-Paul Hobbs
SSP is a place where you don't have to worry about fitting in; at SSP, even if you don't try to, you get sucked into the community instantly, and you'll enjoy it all the way.
-Michael Murphy
The most challenging academic coursework I have ever encountered balance by the best people I have ever met.
-Mitchell Alan
Hard work but a lot of fun; a really great experience.
-Dylan Scott
SSP showed me that there are lots of amazing, interesting people who like science and math as much as I do. I now can't wait to go to college!
-Kate Alexander
SSP is an experience in which you are driven to extreme conditions, academically as well as socially , with 35 amazing peers.
-Daniel Kim
I will never forget the close knit group of friends that I have formed here and cherish the time I spent at this program learning from both professor, TA, and student alike.
-Sasha Rohret
SSP stands for "Splendiferous Scientific Phenomenon" or "Splendiferous Scientific Party"
-Greg Challener
SSP may be "nerd camp" but the people here are the most fun, interesting and intelligent people I have ever met.
-Elizabeth Rust
SSP is the first place I have ever been where doing homework is almost a social event; people work very, very hard, but it's fun at the same time.
-Rebecca Rapf
At SSP, I learned a lot and was required to work harder than I'm used to working. The people were amazing and made the experience not only bearable but fun. I feel infinitely more prepared for college now.
-Deepa Chari
SSP is a chance to spend six weeks with thirty or forty of the most amazing people you will ever meet, doing everything from hanging monkeys all over the common room to programming until 2 A.M. You will never forget it because it helps you to discover who you are and what you want.
-Jamie Tayar
SSP was an amazing experience that not only taught me advanced physics and astronomy but also gave me a taste of college life, two things I would never have experienced at my high school.
-Diana Lee
The best thing about SSP is getting to spend six weeks in a community of people as motivated and as interested in science as you are.
-Dan Strassfeld
SSP has a very diverse range of people, and you will have an experience and make friends that will change your character in many different facets.
-Frank Wang
Believe me when I say this will be one of the most exhausting and exhilarating experiences you will ever have. Be ready for it.
-Morris Huang
Imagine some of the most eccentric, friendly, and intelligent people you'll ever meet, stick them all together in nerd camp, and that's SSP; you'll make the most amazing friends and memories to last a lifetime.
-Xiaotong Li
SSP offers the student the chance were be surrounded by fellow intellectual endeavourers and to experience for the first time that he/she still has a great deal to learn in the realm of academics.
-Colton Willig
SSP was the most bizarre, incredible, fabulously intense experience I've ever had, filled with the some of the most extraordinary people and best friends I've ever been able to work with, and exponentially increased my love and interest in scientific research.
-Mary Davies
SSP is the most challenging thing I have ever done. Calculus in five hours, late-night observing, sleep deprivation, total non-comprehension of six hours of material...but it is also the most fun I have ever had; gorillas attacking during lecture (don't ask, they hushed it up), field trips, late-night card games, just sitting around talking with people that you can really relate to - it's incredibly rewarding. I loved every second of it.
-Ginny Cochran
SSP gave me an incredible experience for six weeks; it was generous enough to also give me memories for a lifetime.
-Jerry Yeh
SSP was the most rewarding social and academic experience that I have ever had.
-Sam Grondahl
If you forget everything you learned in the six weeks packed of lecture, you'll be ok, so long as you remember the fun you had doing it. Because in the end, that's what it's all about. Having fun.
-Natalie Bedard
SSP has expanded my horizons and better prepared me for college
-Michael Akenhead
SSP is a mixing pot of all sorts of ways of thought. Don't forget to bring some way of defending your own!
-Jeffrey Lin
I loved pulling late nighters with my friends doing the math homework and having the most comical time in my life.
-Alan Salkanovic
2006
The best thing about SSP was the chance to meet brilliant people from all over the world. I was surprised by how much these students have achieved already in their academic life. I decided to work harder in my high school senior year, to achieve my goals. I was from a small town in New Mexico with small concept, but not anymore. SSP brought me a step closer to achieve my dream.
-Heeho Park
When you are surrounded by geniuses, you have no choice but to get smarter.
-Adrian Melia
I found out that there are people out there as eccentric and odd as I am.
-Peck Yang
Cooperation, individuality, and rigor falls short of describing SSP. It is more than that... SSP is a place where one rediscovers his/herself, where one's mind is challenged to its limits and beyond, where one's character is tested, and where one learns the true meaning of "leadership is not a quality it is a way of life."
-Lambert Wang
I loved working to all hours of the night with my peers and the feeling of genuine camaraderie that was present in everything we did. I learned that working in a group can be fun and that it is a great motivator. I will always remember this experience and never forget what it has taught me.
-John Scrudato
I learned more in 6 weeks at SSP than I did in an entire year of some of my classes back at home.
-Hannah Clevenson
SSP is swing dancing for three hours before heading straight for the computer lab to finish a programming assignment. It's only at SSP that having fun can motivate you to do more work.
-Michelle Chang
SSP was the hardest academic challenge I've had. I loved it.
-Alison Lu
I thought I would grow tremendously intellectually here at SSP - and I was right, but I found that the priceless part of it was being with my SSP family and growing the most socially and as an individual, which was unexpected but definitely fruitful.
-Fakhra Khalid
I can't imagine what my life would have been without SSP and the academics, people, and 3am Denny's trips that came with it.
-Luwen Huang
Before coming to SSP, I thought that SSP would just be another summer nerd camp. It is one of the most social programs I have ever been to. The information you pick up here is infinitely helpful and the relationships you make here are priceless.
-Liu James
It's not a coincidence that SSP alumni keep such strong ties to the program - a program so academically rich and allowing you to meet so many other people as intelligent and passionate about math and science as you are is bound to stick in your mind for the rest of your life.
-Erik Madsen
There is one thing you won't be able to do at SSP: you won't be able NOT to make friends. Someone once said that SSP was like drinking knowledge from a fire hose. Well, it's true. I drank from that fire hose. Believe everything you've read in the testimonials about this program.
-Daniil Feldman
SSP is the epitome of social interaction and intellectual stimulation, a place where you will meet the people who will shape you forever.
-Ahra Cho
Meeting these incredibly intelligent yet also social people has just made me so excited about college... I hope that the SSP environment will carry on into my college years.
-Joy Lin
This program is short and sweet -- nothing else that I might have done this summer could even compare to blast I had here while making friends from all over the world and learning college level material.
-A.J. Eldorado Riggs
Before I went to SSP, I read through the quotes on the website. At the time, I thought they involved a lot of cliché and exaggeration. I did not take them seriously at all. Yesterday I was reading through the quotes again, and I realized that all of them were completely correct. SSP really is intense. It really does change lives. And you really don't want to miss it.
-Kimberly McManus
SSP has proven to be one of the most enriching experiences of my life. I honestly enjoyed the very challenging work, and I am walking away from SSP knowing some of the greatest kids I have ever met.
-Sonya Makhni
SSP is literally life x 1000. That's the only way I can describe it.
-Yuen Henry
SSP will stretch you in more ways than you've ever experienced and teach you so much about yourself.
-Levi Dudte
The quality of people I met here, the friendliness of the staff, the incredible beauty of the surroundings...all of these have lead to an experience that I will remember forever!!
-Robert Wainblat
SSP gave me a lovely social environment, an incredible learning experience and a dent in my sleep schedule.
-Carol Shen
The people here are amazing, simply that. The faculty are geniuses, but always join in our fun. The students know how to get work done, but more importantly, they know how to have fun while getting the work done.
-Danielle Piskorz
SSP is the most unique, hardest, and most rewarding summer program available both academically and socially.
-Matthew Yankowitz
We worked and played all night long.
-David Gee
SSP makes my anticipation of college ever greater. It has exposed me to more serious academics and greater freedom.
-Christopher Wong
SSP is the only place where I have met so many interesting people who enjoy the same things that I do. It's also the only place where I have looked at my watch after 15 hours of programming and said to myself, 'Hmm. 1 AM. Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight.'
-Jenna Caldwell
Before coming to SSP, I wasn't sure whether I would be happy devoting my life to science. Now I'm pretty sure I would be.
-Dougal Sutherland
The most intense summer of my life: in between measuring, midnight basketball, and early morning programming, I have made memories here to be cherished.
-David Tsao
The OD Project from the first day of observing is like walking through a dark tunnel without a light, but there is always light at the end of the tunnel -- only after several 4 AM mornings with your slightly (perhaps very) giddy teammates. Having "Chariots of Fire" played at full blast past midnight when we finally finished measuring is something I will never forget.
-Chris Su
SSP was an excellent opportunity to bring my interests in math and science together into a research project that has much more meaning than anything learned from a textbook.
-Russell Wolf
SSP has been the most wonderful and craziest experience of my life; both socially and academically I have done more than I ever expected possible in six years, let alone in six weeks! I have learned so much about not just physics and astronomy, but also about myself. I would not trade my experience at SSP for anything.
-Suzanna Piatt
Being around such amazing people for those short six weeks altered my outlook on life. At SSP, I found people that care not only about academics, but really care about each other.
-Andy Lyon
In school there's only a handful of individuals who are truly interested in academics and pursuing something great in life; at SSP, there are thirty-six.
-Jonathan Finn-Gamino
2005
I made some of the best friends I ever had, and I can't bear to leave them. Best of all, I learned how much I absolutely love science.
-Mary Masterman
The life change per day rate was higher than I ever imagined it could be. Thank you, you have profoundly affected my life for the better.
-Matt Bowes
… the epitome of camaraderie
-Allen Yu
I have learned more than I ever thought possible. It was hard but it was also very exciting. I wish I could spend every summer at SSP.
-Sarah E. Stanley
SSP has changed my life. It has opened my eyes to the wide and deep field of astronomy and astrophysics.
-Dmitriy Yakovlev
SSP is a great opportunity to learn a lot of cool things about science and an even better way to learn about yourself.
-Andy Eck
Six weeks of work for six little numbers = the best summer I've ever had. -Patrick Holvey
SSP makes you aware of the bubble you may have been living in, and breaks you out.
-Calvin Lee
The people here are truly amazing. It feels like I've known them way longer than six weeks, and simultaneously as if I should be here six weeks longer.
-Anna deBakker
I learned how to pick two out of sleep, study, and social life.
-Masha Baryakhtar
SSP rocks my socks.
-Laura Chanan
2004
What amazed me most was the people here. They weren't all nerds and geeks! I learned that you can be really smart but cool at the same time! -Teressa Van Diest
SSP became who we are, and we became SSP. -Shuo Han
SSP has been an amazing experience for me. Here I have made the best friends I could ever make and have found out that my true career does indeed lie in science. Thank you SSP!! -Jyotsna Venkataramanan
SSP was the most amazing social experience I have been privileged to have. It also manages to be a model for the way learning really should be pursued. -Camilo Brokaw
I'm sorry. I've failed you. I am incapable of summarizing SSP, my experience here, and the impact it's had on me in even several sentences. -Emma Lipari
When I came here, I was a little skeptical; how could your whole life change in only six weeks? Now I know firsthand that it is possible. These past six weeks will be part of me forever. -Nichole Clarke
Every morning I would wake up and think, hey, I'm going to work, doing what I love, with people just like me! -Renuka Ramanathan
You're in another universe for six weeks - where you learn about everything, about life - then you go back to earth and carry that experience inside of you everywhere you go. -Helen You
SSP has been a life-changing experience. There is nothing else like this in the world. I will remember it forever. -Marshall Fox
It's a world where people are people and science is cool. -Jameson Neff
SSP has changed my life. (Yes! The cliché phrase!) There is no way I'll return home and look at my life in the same way I did before. Simply knowing that people like this exist (and being surrounded by them for six weeks!) is amazing. My interest in astronomy has been renewed; as soon as I get home, I'm going to take out my telescope and explore. -Irene Toro Martinez
An experience like SSP cannot be put into words. It's exhilarating, exhausting, emotionally uplifting and simple incredible. I've just finished the most amazing six weeks of my life. -Ariadne Medler
2003
Whoa! A "flip you upside down shake you and pour more knowledge in until you like it" kind of place.
- Chris Christensen
SSP has by far exceeded my expectations … by how much? Infinitely.
- Anna Ly
They were right when they told us that we'd learn more than we ever thought possible. But I had no idea how much fun it would be, and how great it would be go to through it with others just as excited as I was.
- Eve Burstein
Why can't school be like this?! Finally I'm doing real challenging work, not just busywork.
- Alex Early
At SSP, with every step, you feel you are developing. First week, you try to see in the dark; last week you can see in the dark!
- Ahmet Kizilay
You can never fully prepare for SSP. The experiences, the friendships, the work, and the sleep deprivation are unlike anything you've ever experienced. And you can never "recover" from SSP. You'll remember it for the rest of your life.
- Nathaniel Major
SSP is a lot more fun than I expected, which is saying a lot, because I expected to have a blast!
- Peter Combs
SSP has had an astronomical impact on my life.
- Michael Moseley
For the first time in so many years, I am motivated and inspired to learn - I was challenged and I enjoyed interacting with such fun, smart people!
- Kerry Eskenas
SSP is like a black hole ... if you get to it you won't let go forever.
- Alex Phelps
I never knew learning could be so challenging or so exciting.
- Melissa Latham
SSP is a community of scholars where you push yourself not to keep up with your peers, but with yourself.
- Laura DeMare
SSP was an absolutely amazing experience. Not only did I learn, study, and observe at a frantic pace, but I also got to enjoy the company of my bright and funny classmates.
- Greg Chanan
SSP changed my life. It pushed me so far beyond the limits of a high school education and experience that I feel as if I do not need another year of high school. SSP is the turning point in my life.
- Evelyn Cheung
Never before had I realized you could be brilliant and confused at the same time, but now I know that's the norm.
- Karen Brown
2001
The program was a really, truly amazing experience, it was the best experience of my life. Some of the people who came were so brilliant. One of my goals is to get someone from Traverse City to go every year.
- Jim Kreft as quoted in the Grand Traverse Herald (Michigan)
It's been only about 3 months since the end of the program, but boy am I ready to go back. I would love to be a TA ...
- Rasvan Ungureanu
I am extremely thankful for being one of the lucky few students that were part of this program. Over the 6 exhilarating weeks, I was both able to challenge myself academically with the interesting topics discussed in lecture and meet many intriguing people in an atmosphere of concentrated and elevated intellectual activities. The experiences I had at SSP will never be forgotten.
I thank you for granting me this opportunity to be part of this program and for making this program possible. I hope this program will continue successfully into the far future and provide a transient but memorable education opportunity for the best and the brightest.
- Tian Xia
"I've never been challenged like this before," Tarter said. He viewed the intense training as an opportunity of a lifetime. "It was the best six weeks of my life," said 15-year-old Tarter.
- J.B. Tarter as quoted in the Times-News of Twin Falls, Idaho
2000
SSP gave me an entirely different perspective on life. In a way, you can say that it "expanded my horizons".
Enclosed is a donation for $30 to the SSP fund. Please use it anyway you see fit to further the Summer Science Program.
As for recruiting new students for the program, I've told many of my friends of the experience I had at SSP and they seem deeply interested. I will refer them to the website and I am confident that many of them will apply. Thank you again for the wonderful experience I had at SSP.
- Chris Day
1998
For me, the Summer Science Program was an unforgettable experience. Its goals and its participants' goals were identical, which as a public high school student was a new concept for me. There was no hierarchy, and everyone was brilliant. The SSP experience gave me insight into the minds that will someday be the innovators of our world.
At the time I had nothing to compare it to, but looking back it was a lot like attending college.
- Zak Cotler
1997
I had arrived with a sense of "oh-god-another-summer-nerd-school"; a really bad attitude and a cynical personality. I left raving about SSP to all of my friends at school. The honor code instills responsibility on campus, and one really learns to trust everybody else. It becomes a small community.
Every SSPer is a testament to the life-changing experience of the program. The sense of accomplishment (and relief) of finishing the impossibly difficult orbit determination and overcoming 72+ hours of sleep deprivation makes a lasting mark on every participant, whether that student decides to go into JPL or agriculture.
Having been to numerous summer programs, I can safely say that SSP was the best experience of all.
- Joanne Chang
1994
My parents took a huge leap and said they would make it happen because they felt it might be of great importance to my life. Boy were they right! The risk they took has shaped my life and put me on an amazing path to success. As I start grad school, I owe a lot of where I am to SSP. I am slated to become the first person in my entire extended family to obtain my doctorate.
- Andrew West
1989
To be immersed in a science experiment working with your peers, to discover that there really are other teenagers who like science as much as you do, is a wonderful experience. To have it happen in a positive, supportive atmosphere is truly a blessing. My experience at SSP gave me confidence in my abilities and helped teach me the joy of an intellectual challenge. The friendships I made there will last a lifetime.
- Bonnie Valant-Spaight '89 and TA '93
1986
SSP was one of the greatest programs I ever participated in. It helped me establish sound study habits so that I could succeed in medical school.
- Kerry Green
1985
The Summer Science Program is the best educational experience I ever had. Anyone who has ever been in contact with the electric atmosphere of the campus as teams of students successfully complete orbital element calculations knows that The Program must survive. Future scientists deserve the chance to learn in this wonderful place, too.
- Lara Salamacha
1984
Although I was taught science incomparably well there, truths I discovered on my own were the most remarkable. I found that the right company could make any place ideal, and I no longer needed the big city. Further, I found how marvelously wild and free I could feel, being perfectly myself. In short, I seem to have found the quintessence of everything that summer.
- Laden Malek
College would be much more difficult without that boost SSP gave me. I regret only that I shall never have such an opportunity again.
- Ken Kelley
1982
The impact on my life has been tremendous. Being with such creative minds challenged me to seek my own limits and capabilities. I cannot speak highly enough of my own experiences at SSP.
- Carol D. Bronsdon
1981
I discovered my passions and lost my intellectual virginity at the SSP.
At first, my roommate and I shared no common ground. Within a week we were good friends. He helped me with calculus, helped me pull off wild pranks. We left the program as great friends and stayed connected in college. In those six weeks, our asteroids' trajectories overwhelmed most cultural differences between the students.
Working much of the day and night on an interesting problem is a luxury which everyone ought to experience to see if science is for them. It surprised me how naturally we devoted much of our free time to pursuing and deepening the intellectual challenges offered at SSP. SSP taught me that bright people with shared purpose can accomplish anything if given the environment to succeed. - Charlie Zender
1980
SSP was certainly a major factor in my decision to become a physicist. And watching some of the initially introverted students make friends and become involved in the SSP community was quite rewarding.
- Elizabeth Simmons
The greatest and most valuable exposure to true genius I experienced in my six weeks at the SSP was to my fellow students. It was at the Summer Science Program that I truly learned to appreciate and gain from the brilliance of my peers. As an undergraduate at Caltech, I found myself well prepared by the SSP to enjoy and appreciate my classmates' intellectual abilities, rather than feel compelled to compete with them. There is much to be admired and learned from those around us.
- Charles R. Barrett, Jr.
1979
Never before had I met such a group of motivated students. I enjoyed their company not only because so many of us turned out to be nocturnal creatures, keen on problem sets, bull sessions and practical jokes, best between 3 and 5 A.M. They also provided a preview of what I could expect at college (I went to Princeton) in terms of a stimulating, motivated peer group. Moreover, the camaraderie that took three years to develop at college seemed to blossom at SSP in less than six weeks.
The feverish excitement of the last two weeks showed me firsthand how thrilling it could be to do science. And the notes I brought back turned out to be helpful in Princeton honors physics.
- Steven Dickman
1978
SSP remains one of the most important events of my life. It gave me the courage to apply to Harvard, and to go there once I was accepted. While I have ended up pursuing a career in business, I have only ended up where I did because of SSP. The idea of working in teams to complete a group project is as important in business as it is in the scientific community, and the work at SSP was invaluable in this area.
- Mike McKay
SSP was my first exposure to a national peer group of students and teachers to loved learning, who revered science, who felt passionately about humanity, who dealt compassionately with people, and who knew all the lines from Monty Python.
The Program had a profound impact on me, intellectually, professionally, and personally. It has been of such significance to me that the "Education" section of my professional resume lists my Ph.D., my B.A., and my S.S.P.
SSP is aptly named as the Summer SCIENCE Program, not the Summer Celestial Mechanics Program. Maybe it should be called the Lifelong Science Program.
- John K. Kruschke
1977
Surely there are other students now who are in the same position as I was. They desire to know, but their high schools cannot supply the knowledge. They have not had the opportunity to work in a team of equally bright students under the supervision of trained scientists. I hope that SSP can continue to provide all this.
- Steven Allen
1976
After SSP, I was fortunate to go on to some other astronomy experiences that were tremendously important to me, but I have to wonder: would I have made it, without SSP as such an inspirational stepping stone, at such a difficult and impressionable time in my life?
- John W. Briggs
I think that one of the most useful aspects of the program is that it gives bright students a chance to see how interested they are in science. Some students choose to study other things in college based on their experience at SSP. As it turns out, the program increased my interest in math and physics, and convinced me to attend Caltech, which I think was the perfect place for me to go to college.
- Eric Korevaar
1974
The Summer Science Program has had a significant and positive effect upon my life. It is not that I was led into a career in science. In fact, after receiving degrees in physics and engineering I decided that I would prefer to be an historian. However, what I learned at the Program applies every bit as much to the humanities as to the sciences.
After years of enforced mediocrity in the secondary schools I learned that knowledge is a wonderful thing, well worth seeking regardless of tangible reward, that excellence requires hard work, and that I need not be ashamed before my peers of my curiosity.
These are lessons far more valuable than any equations. They are lessons not taught in most schools. SSP teaches the exhilaration of learning. The Program is wonderful. I honestly believe that you would have a difficult time finding a single alumnus or alumna who would dispute that claim.
- David Fullerton
I can honestly say that not a month goes by that I don't think back with fondness toward the six weeks I spent at SSP. I made many close friends while there. But I suppose the most important memory and the reason why SSP is so valuable is that for the first time I was on my own and surrounded by thirty-five equally committed and equally intelligent people but with thirty-five different backgrounds from which I could learn. I cannot to this day tell you the excitement that a seventeen-year-old can feel when, placed in that environment, he becomes challenged to the limit of his intellectual capacity for the first time, and working with other talented people, solves a problem which at the start of the program was completely incomprehensible.
Although I am now a lawyer, there really are many aspects of The Summer Science Program experience which are still useful to this day. My clients frequently present me with impossible problems, they do not give me sufficient data to use, and they place unreasonable and impossible deadlines on me to accomplish their goals. SSP was much the same, and the techniques of problem-solving are the same, in astronomy, medicine, or law.
- Ricky D. Balthrop
1969
I was immersed in an atmosphere of intense intellectual stimulation and challenge. Exposure to such an environment is critically important to the development of any bright, young student, regardless of whether or not that student ultimately chooses science as a career. It certainly had an enormous impact on me. I am utterly convinced of the value of the Summer Science Program to science and education in this country.
- Richard P. Kubelka
1968
The U.S. has junior Olympic camps in athletics, it trains some of the best athletes in the world, and it MUST train the best and most creative thinkers. The SSP role in that regard is NATIONAL, and remarkable. While judging at the International Science Fair earlier this year I had dinner with a number of Nobel prize winners and many high school students. I could (and did) say truthfully that SSP is the best of any pre-college program in the U.S. I know of.
- Douglas Duncan '68 and TA '74-'76National Education Coordinator,The American Astronomical Society
I cannot think of a more valuable experience for students.
- David W. Warren
1967
Another benefit was to meet a lot of other people who were just as smart as I was; this was a chastening, and valuable, experience. I well remember several graduates in my year announcing that the experience had convinced them not to go to college in science. The value of this was brought home to me when I went to a technically-oriented college, and watched people making the same decision after spending a year or more going in what turned out to be the wrong direction.
- Duncan Carr Agnew
We got to know scientists working in the field as people - interesting, quirky, and personable. I am always proud to tell people that the man who discovered quasars used my baseball glove.
- John Press
1966
Attending SSP was an intellectual and social watershed for me. The feelings of isolation many academically talented teenagers experience can be mitigated by a program like the SSP which encourages positive social interactions as well as intellectual growth.
Over a decade later I founded and led Lotus Development Corporation. Without doubt, SSP was a material positive influence on my later progress.
- Mitch Kapor
It was one of the greatest experiences of my high school existence.
- Douglas Richstone
1964
I personally credit SSP with waking me up intellectually, and therefore with one foundation of my success. The incredible confidence the faculty had in all of us, including many who had never risen to a challenge before, changed my perception of what I was capable of doing.
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