This past indicator, Lexy Pryor ‘21 and Irina Romanova ‘21 participated in Fall Sprout at Yale University. For those wondering about Fall Sprout, it is a program for three Saturdays, September 28th, October 5th, and October 12th, where these students had the opportunity to take classes to further their education.  

Dr. Nadire sent out an all-school email offering the program to students, and Pryor and Romanova were eager to sign up. Signing up allowed Pryor and Romanova to choose classes they were interested in and as Iriana said, “I just wanted to take some classes on specific things I’m interested in, like Neuroscience, that Kent doesn’t necessarily offer but Yale students taught us.”   

Furthermore, Pryor explains, “Dr. Nadire wanted me to do it for the Pre-E certificate but there were also some classes that I was interested in.”   

This program took place all day, and students received a schedule based on the classes they signed up for. Students can take three or four hour-long classes each Saturday. Pryor describes how there were some lecture-style classes and also some discussion-style classes. The girls explained that they took two classes every Saturday and the other two were “elective” classes. In these classes, Yale students, usually sophomores, teach the courses. Pryor describes, “They were mostly undergraduate students, so you had people close to your own age teaching you, which was pretty cool.”

Both of them described the experience as fascinating. Romanova expressed that it “was a very interesting experience because it was about topics I was actually interested in, and the students teaching were really passionate about the topics they taught.” She also explained how it was at a high enough level that she was learning new things, but also able to fully understand.  

As Pryor says, “I took a lot of English and history classes that I couldn’t at Kent, so it was very interesting for me to learn about.” Romanova adds, “I would highly recommend signing up for this program because it was a really good opportunity to travel to Yale and see the campus and also learn about things you enjoy.” Pryor finally notes that “as a junior it made me think a lot about college and what I want to do, which was really helpful.”