Curious Cardinals Blog

Ever wondered how Curious Cardinals got its name? In this week's newsletter, we're talking about just that!

Looking for the perfect mentor to help your student improve their writing skills? Come out of their shell? Gain confidence in public speaking? Or does your kid already love to perform but want to try a fun new medium? Check out comedy writing with a mentor like Harvard alum Freddie Shanel! 

May is mental health month and it coincides with end of the academic year, which can be an extremely challenging and stressful time for students. We often hear from our students how grateful they are to have a mentor who were in their shoes recently and get the struggle they’re going through.

We asked Katie Fong (BA, Stanford ‘22), a Curious Cardinal Mentor, about her thoughts on the matter. She reflects back at the four things she wished her parents had known about her mental health in high school to support her better. Read her reflections below.

When students see mentors who look like them excelling in any field, it gives them the courage to dream just as big. This Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating mentors inspiring the next generation of young women to be leaders, whether in STEM, the Humanities, or any passion field from game design to architecture! Is your student daunted by math and science? Could she use an exceptional mentor to show her all she’s capable of? What does fashion have to do with science?

Summer is fast approaching! Staring down the barrel of three months of unstructured time can be daunting for both students and parents: How can students stay engaged and avoid learning loss, but above all, enjoy themselves? We’re here to help your student make the most of their months off school!

Jaidyn Hurst, a rising senior at the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, is busy, to say the least. When we interviewed her this summer, she was Zooming in from Barcelona, where she was a student on the Oxbridge program majoring in Spanish, taking lessons every day, doing international relations as a minor, and also soaking up the sites of the city, “walking and roaming around and going to the beach.” Just days after returning from Barcelona, she was set to start working at the Colorado nonprofit Valley Settlement, where she is designing a music program to teach in Spanish to adults and children.

There are some students who already know exactly what they are passionate about. They’ve got a packed schedule of activities surrounding a certain interest, and are fairly certain about their future college major and career path. So what do they need a mentor for?

Integral to Curious Cardinals is our focus on student agency, project-based learning, and our mission to create a space where students can research, design, and test their own ideas and explore their own passions. So when the possibility of a partnership with Colorado Academy’s REDI Labs came up, it seemed like a pedagogical match made in heaven. 

Abey Fuks, Ava Litman, Hayley Silvers, and Mischa Abend are testament that one is never too young to make a difference. The rising 8th graders at Horace Mann School in NYC are all close friends, Curious Cardinals students, and now fundraisers and co-chairs of “Kids Cancel Cancer”: a kid-created, kid-focused fundraising event on behalf of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation.

The college-essay writing process can be stressful and daunting. It's no easy task to sum up your personality, a major life event, an academic or extracurricular passion of yours, or an impactful story in 500 words or so! So how do you start to tackle the blank document screen before you, and get your ideas down in a way that is compelling and authentic to you?

Fear not! We asked Five Curious Cardinals mentors, now successful students at top colleges, to share their advice on where to begin, and how to make your way through the essay-writing process. Here are their top tips for approaching the dreaded college essay: