Eat in a dining hall. Go to the grotto. Stay up until 2 a.m. talking in a dorm room.

These are some of the experiences that prospective University students want. But they get so much more from the Summer Experience program.

In addition to taking classes from professors, they also visit the Universitys nonprofit community partners, like the Center for the Homeless andRobinsonCommunity Center. One-day field trips toChicagoare also de rigueur.

We want them to have the whole experience,says Joan Martel Ball, director of Pre-College Programs,and part of that is realizing just how closeChicagois with all of its opportunities for learning.

Since June 26, some 200 Summer Experiencers have converged on campus for two weeks. In addition to the off-campus activities, theyll take classes in one of eight subject tracks: business and entrepreneurship, film, life sciences, literature, policy/debate/public speaking, psychology, pre-law, or theology.

These are top students in their high schools, says Ball.We aim at students who could become students here. That means looking at their grade point average, their ranking in their class, their test scores and the rigor of their program. And, we have become more selective every year.

The program started the summer of 2000, with prompting from University Provost Nathan Hatch.The University wanted to start some academic programs for outstanding high school students,says Ball.There were already so many summer sports programs on campus.

The program is so much more than going to class. Film students make their own short films. Business students visit the Mercantile Exchange in Chicago. Students can learn, in a separate workshop, how to becomehighly effective teenagers.There are also just-for-fun activities like bowling or rafting down the East Race.

The students come from all over theU.S., and this year there will be 12 from foreign countries includingItalyand thePhilippines. The primary source of marketing is the pre-college program website (http://precollege.nd.edu).About 60 percent of our students have found us on the Internet,says Ball.I have never done a printed brochure.

During a three-week period in July, Pre-College Programs will also welcome another 120 students to its three Leadership Development Seminars. Each seminar helps 40 high schoolers confront issues with a Catholic social perspective.

The Global Issues seminar (July 24-31) will explore the prospects for Christian-Muslim dialogue, and the challenge of living in a post-9/11 world. The director is George Lopez, professor of political science and the Senior Fellow of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace 91ÊÓƵ.

The other two leadership seminars are the African American Catholic Leadership Seminar (July 17-24), which includes a trip to the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago; and the Latino Community Leadership Seminar (July 10-17), which includes a trip to The Resurrection Project, a Latino community-building project in Chicago.

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A barber whomakes house calls.

A photography studio thatknows what young people want.

These were some of the ideas presented by area high school students at the third annual Invention Convention Youth Business Plan Competition, April 21 in the Mendoza College of Business. The student presentations, augmented by flashy Power Point displays, culminated a yearlong program that matched staff and students from theGigotCenterfor Entrepreneurial 91ÊÓƵ with youth entrepreneurs affiliated with the Robinson Community Learning Center (RCLC).

Some of the businesses have already been launched informally; the high school entrepreneurs just lack the time to devote to them. But in the past year, theyve refined their ideas by forming aggressive marketing plans.Theyve come up with financial data and strategies for dealing with competitors, and even determined how their businesses could contribute philanthropically to the community.

They learned these kinds of organizational structures in part through a Web-based curriculum provided by the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). TheGigotCenterunderwrites the cost of the software and training for its staff, whose members work with RCLC staff to teach it to high school students. TheGigotCenteraugments the program with visits from other members of theCollegeofBusinessfaculty.

Among those trained is Gigot staff member Jessica McManus Warnell, coordinator of the Invention Convention, who worked with the high school students at theRobinsonCommunityLearningCenter. An associate adjunct professor in theBusinessCollege, she says she enhances the NFTE curriculum with lessons on the psychology of entrepreneurship, orwhat would motivate someone to start their own business.

Bob Drevs, who teaches a University class on Internet marketing, guides the would-be inventors on the importance of Web marketing and shows them how to build effective, customer-oriented Web sites.

TheGigotCenteralso assigns six University student mentors who meet regularly with the high school students.We call it ‘championing them through the business process,says McManus Warnell.They would meet at the center, or bring them here on campus.A lot of it was one-on-one.

Members of the Notre Dame Entrepreneur Club served as judges for the final event. Questions focused on how each business would distinguish itself from whats already out there. The six high school students who presented survived three rounds of competition.

According to the judges, Dexter Brown, a student atAdamsHigh 91ÊÓƵ, had the best concept, winning first place for his Dexter Brown Photography presentation. Don Robertson of Washington High won second for Michiana Floor Cleaning, and Willie Jones ofAdamswon third for Upper Cutz Barbering Services.They received cash awards of $500, $300 and $200, respectively.

Almost all of the high school students intend to pursue higher education, even while nurturing their entrepreneurial aspirations.

Luther Tyson,associate director for technology programs at the Robinson Center and an NFTE teacher, says the goal of the competition was not only for the studentsto develop businesses, but todevelop an entrepreneur mindset, and to know that they are never, ever a prisoner of the economy.The goal is to open their minds so they can meet consumer demands and translate opportunity into entrepreneurship.

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How does one provide lighting for a play thats about ideasnot action?

That was the question keeping Kevin Dreyer awake at night prior to the recent opening ofArcadiaat theMarieP.DeBartoloCenterfor the Performing Arts.

As lighting designer for the play by Tom Stoddard, Dreyer felt challenged by its various abstract scientific and mathematical themes, and by its many sitting-and-talking scenes.

The play explores such topics as the second law of thermodynamics, which says disorder will increase until all energy, light and life are gone.Studying such theories can either drive you mad or enthrall you, making your days both timeless and timely.

Its wanting to know that makes us matter,says a character in the play.Otherwise were going out the way we came in.Added to this portent are love and sex, mystery and abstraction in art, all colored by British social mores.

To provide stage lighting for this heady mix, Dreyer, associate professor and director in the theatre program, was able to draw upon his experience in the realm of dance theater, in which movement conveys a broad range of ideas.

A freelance lighting designer whos worked forChicagos Joffrey Ballet, inChicagoand on various tours including recent performances inAmsterdam, hes been able to work with dance professionals from all over the world.

In addition to being somewhat abstract, dance lighting is also psychological.Dryers latest project with the Joffrey wasDark Elegies,a 1937 Anthony Tudor piece about accepting loss while knowing that life goes on.It helped Dreyer hone what he calls adelicate touch,which he employs for the intricate ideas that develop inArcadia.

People like big, bold, action designs, and this one (‘Dark Elegies) was not,Dreyer says.I learned how to let the design envelop and hold the artistic event, instead of defining it.You have to give it a place in which it can exist.

As a teaching exercise,Arcadiagives students experience in hanging lights, focusing them and then operating the light board in accordance with a written lighting plot compiled by Dreyer. They learn that a lighting plota roadmap to the location of every single lighting instrument in the playhelps communicate theatrical ideas, but also helps the designer organize his or her thought process, he explains.

Timing, color, hue and angles can bepushed and pulledin the abstract, beyond traditional limitations, and the equipment in the newDeBartoloCenteraffords considerable flexibility. For example, the theater department now has five times the number of dimmers it had while housed in Washington Hall.

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Two individuals sway around each other in the middle of the room. One reaches out with his foot to trip the other, only to fall, caught off-balance because he has been cleverly dodged.But the would-be tripper is unfazed, and hurls himself into a backwards, fluid cartwheel. Observers who surround them play a role as well, as they sing, smile and laugh at the contenders.

This is capoeira (pronouncedka-poo-AIR-ah), a Brazilian art that fuses dance, sport and martial arts to produce a pantomime of fighting. It is both a personal and scholarly passion of Greg Downey, assistant professor of anthropology. A student of capoeira for 13 years, he teaches it twice a week to faculty, staff and students. His experience as a practitioner is at the heart of his bookLearning Capoeira:Lessons in Cunning From an Afro-Brazilian Art,released this month by Oxford University Press.

Capoeira developed in 19 ^th century Brazil from the practices of African slaves who merged rural dance formsinfluenced by religion, rhythms and social dancesand an urban-combatchallenge dancingthat used razor blades and sticks. Urban gangs comprised of freed or escaped slaves, people of mixed race and Portuguese sailors embraced the art. By the late 1880s, when the Brazilian monarchy fell, capoeira was declared illegal by the leaders of the new republic. One could be arrested just for knowing how to do it.

The art survived and began to flourish againin the 1930s, when a capoeirista calledmestreorteacherBimba challenged anyone to come toSalvador,Brazil, and beat him. Boxers and wrestlers answered the call, but Mestre Bimbas nickname became Three Blows because he usually needed no more to win.He later opened a school, and ended up attracting elite members of society to the art.

As a writer and an anthropologist,Downeyis making the point that a complex, socially intricate practice such as capoeira exemplifies human culture and anthropology.Culture does not stop at the skin, nor does it reside solely in the mind.Taking seriously how different ways of standing, moving, and acting animate us, informs our perceptions, and enlivens our sense of ourselves.

As a teacher,Downeyhopes to instill that how one performs within the roda (song circle) has implications for how one lives outside the circle.Training a person to play capoeira, ideally, transforms the students visceral sense of self and the way he or she sees the world,Downeynotes.

Capoeira teaches how to stay calm and fluid, how to react gracefully and with humor.As an urban art, it teaches practitioners how to remain relaxed, yet always alert to what is happening around them.

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Stay here, inIndiana, after graduation? A lot of students arent thinking in that direction.

Its LoriAnn Edinboroughs job to interest them in the possibilities.

There might very well be a national or international company here inIndianathat they couldwork for,she says.There are Fortune 500 companies in the state and there are others that may not be a name you recognize, but it may be one that does give you that kind of exposure and experience that the nationally known companies can.

As program director for Indiana Careers at Notre Dame (INC@ND), Edinboroughs challenge is to help students find quality jobs inIndianathat have promising career paths.The program, which is part of The Career Center, is beginning the second year of a four-year, $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to combat statewidebrain drain.The program would turn the tide of college students who get their education here, then take jobs out of state after graduation.

Indianaranks 14th in producing college graduates but a dismal 44th in the nation for numbers of college graduates living in-state, says Edinborough, quoting well-circulated figures. Undergraduates fromIndianacomprise about 11 percent of Notre Dames student body. But only about 4 percent remain here after graduation, according to senior exit surveys.

INC@ND educates students aboutIndianas corporate richness, including multinational businesses. It also offers incentives, such as a monthly stipend to graduates who commit to work here for two years. The money is awarded much like a scholarship, with an application process that includes an essay, faculty reference and interview. For graduates who are weighing an Indiana-based job offer against a more lucrative one in an attractive out-of-state setting, the stipend equalizes the competition.

Edinborough and INC@ND program coordinator Jackki Bolstetter also work with companies to provide internships for college juniors. INC@ND can provide funding for what otherwise would be an unpaid internship, and helps employers create or improve internships to attract Notre Dame juniors in specific fields. Students who find internships on their own also can turn to Edinborough to see if funding can enhance the opportunity.

Edinborough also is looking to Indiana Notre Dame alumni to support students as mentors and to serve as a source for jobs or internships.

INC@ND grew from a grant application by Lee Svete, director of The Career Center, and Charles R. Crowell, associate professor of psychology and director of the University’s Computer Applications Program.

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We all want to change the world.But sometimes the world changes us.

The world that changed psychology professor Thomas Whitman was that of autism.

About 10 years ago, Whitman began hearing from parents seeking help in implementing early intervention programs for their autistic children.

At the time, Whitman was unfamiliar with the condition or its treatment methods.He listened to parents describe their childrens problems and their own search for services.He became fascinated by the children and the puzzle which is autismand awed by the commitment of these families to their children.They were so dedicated, able to cope effectively and get on with their lives in the face of enormous difficulties.I learned an awful lot about what ‘familymeans.

The parents asked that Whitman assign his psychology students to work in one-to-one intervention programs in their homes. The students responded and, eventually, credit was given for this in-home work practicum and formal autism courses were added to the curriculum.Students in these classes devote 50 hours or more each semester to their practicum, and often continue to volunteer in subsequent semesters. A student volunteer organization called Special Friends also emerged from one of those early courses.

Seeing the studentsresponse over the past 10 years has amazed Whitman.We went from helping four or five families to working with over 86 families.The students often developed deep and lasting relationships with these families, giving generously of their time, frequently finding out a lot about themselves in the process and what they wanted to do vocationally. % %

Although trained as a clinical psychologist, with a doctorate from the<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />UniversityofIllinois, Whitmans career has focused on developmental psychology and problems affecting child development. In the 1970s, he and John Borkowski, McKenna Professor of Psychology, developed a graduate research training program, still used today, that addresses developmental disabilities. The following decade, Whitman and research collaborators found that continuous lighting in neonatal intensive care units stressed premature infants and impeded their development.The research, conducted atMemorialHospital, led to the use of cyclical lighting there and influenced the development of lighting policies in other hospitals throughout the country.

As a consequence of his involvement in autism, Whitman has become increasingly aware of the needs of children and their families. He worked with a coalition of parents, students and individuals fromMemorialHospital,St. JosephRegionalMedicalCenter, the South Bend Community 91ÊÓƵ Corp., and Joint Services, (a special education arm of theMishawakaand Penn-Harris-Madison school corporations) on a plan for a new autism center. This center, called theRegionalAutismCenteratLogan, began operating last October.

Whitmans work with the community also inspired his new book,The Development of Autism:A Self-Regulatory Perspective,written for parents, professionals and students,and released last year by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. One of the themes of the book emphasizes the importance of local communities developing specialized services for children with autism and their families. Currently, he is involved in helping the local autism center develop intensive early intervention programs.

Whitman looks to a future in which the local community becomes increasingly creative in its development and delivery of educational and therapeutic services for children with autism.He is particularly hopeful about the future contributions of professionalsteachers, physicians, occupational and physical therapists, speech therapists and home health aideswho want to learn to better serve autistic children.

The real goal is specialized services for autism,Whitman says. More cost-efficient early intervention programs and better local resources for diagnosis are on his wish list.

Perhaps our thinking about autism will change, too.Maybe as we understand the disorder better,we will be more sensitive as to what children with autism are really like.

Maybe instead of us changing them, they will change us.

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