Fun, friends and edification: JBA hosts its 42nd academy

A multitude of young teenagers arrived on Truman State University’s campus this past summer for two sessions of Joseph Baldwin Academy, a summer camp designed to prepare middle-school-aged students for college life.

Participants are selected among highly talented applicants in grades seven through nine. When selected, students get to choose which of the three-week-long sessions they would like to attend and which class they would like to attend throughout the session. 

JBA also provides opportunities for current University students to gain leadership skills as a preceptor. Preceptors act as resident advisors for their assigned housing groups, help the professor of their assigned class and lead students in activities for social interactions.

Maddy Hall, a senior pre-MAE exercise science major, got to explore the classroom setting as a preceptor for the health and wellness through exercise science class. 

“I helped my professor, Melody Jennings, with multiple fun activities, such as water aerobics, line dancing, step dancing, DrumFit and so much more,” Hall said. 

Although several preceptors are in the pre-MAE program at the University, many preceptors from other majors and programs also found a love for working with kids. 

Emma Stanley, a senior political science and music liberal arts major, discovered this passion as a split preceptor for the popular culture and American history class (Session I) and preceptor for the class monsters in movies: fear, culture, and the creatures we create (Session II).

“It’s such a cool thing to see [the students] asking these deep, really thoughtful and insightful questions,” Stanley said. “It’s also really cool to see kids learning how to be independent on their own and getting to teach them, ‘Here’s how you do your laundry’ and ‘Here’s how you set an alarm so you get to class on time.’”

JBA helped the preceptors not only learn about themselves but also about the minds of young teenagers and how they express themselves individually, especially through their passions and interests.

Elizabeth Keeley, a second-year graduate student pursuing the Master of Arts in Education and the Master of Arts in English, was reminded of the importance of having multiple perspectives as a preceptor for the mythology class.

“I think it’s just a good experience for anyone who wants to be a teacher in general or you just enjoy working with kids to see things through a different perspective than what you’re used to,” Keeley said. “You can do hard things, you can do things you don’t want to do and just push your limits and be there for people when you don’t necessarily want to, because you’ll surprise yourself with the things you’re able to do when you put in just a little bit more effort.”