Drexel University Computing Academy

*Just a heads up guys, this post is pretty long. Read only if you want to*

It's summertime. Suns out, guns out. You know the rules. Its a time to kick back and relax, and enjoy the vessel of joy that is summer vacation. While many of you take this time to get some well-deserved rest and relaxation, some of us have... a few inconvenient obligations.

In order to understand any good story, you need to understand the context. With that said, the beginning of this story starts out kind of like this...

Which functional retard shown above is George W. Bush?

It all started when Governor Rendell decided that Pennsylvania just didn't have any money. It wasn't really his fault - the nation was a little short on change. Cutbacks had to happen, and unfortunately, some of the more prestigious, academic investments had to be cut short as well. Thus, the Pennsylvania Governor School of Excellence was cut. 12 of the most highly ranked summer programs in the state disappeared. There were whispers, deep within the underground (read: internet) that some of the schools might stay. Drexel University, the host of the Governor School for Information, Society, and Technology, decided that they weren't letting a huge scouting opportunity pass them by, and of course, they dished out the money in order to keep it alive. Despite the fact that it's the same exact program, they couldn't keep the name because the state wasn't paying for it. Thus, DUCA was born.

The Drexel University Computing Academy is a " five-week, residential summer learning experience" that is "...an outgrowth of the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Information, Society, and Technology (PGSIST), which was hosted at Drexel from 1998 through 2008". Really? I wouldn't know because there are so many damn rules.

Pictured above: residential summer learning experience

I'd like to thank my parents for their support, my teachers for the awesome recommendations, and, of course, me. With good grades, I successfully condemned myself to five-weeks of minimum security prison. I mean, it isn't THAT bad, but it surely is much less fun that the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Summer Program. Basically, we have class for six hours a day, and after that we just kind of chill and work on these long term projects that DUCA has assigned us. On weekends we don't have classes, and instead have random little fun field trips. On the Fourth of July, we went to the Constitution Center (right), and last weekend, I saw Transformers 2 for the second time. Most of our time however is spent in the dorm, which ,thanks to years and years of college students, is in a horrible state of disrepair. We still manage though.

As far as the learning portion of the program, I can tell that there will definitely be a lot of stuff that I'm going to get from DUCA. Already, I've learned a bit about 2 significant programming languages (PHP and Python), and have learned how to do a plethora or other minor yet useful skills such as set up a server (that's the first thing I'm doing when I get home). The kids here are also definitely awesome. With 18 guys and 5 girls, it's a huge sausage fest, but we get along just fine. We haven't had a dance yet, and we better not have one either.

One of the big problems I have with this program are all the rules. There are so many. Lights Out at a certain time. No talking to people outside the program (What!? I can only talk to the other 22 kids in the program? That's it? No talking with any of the freshman during their orientation which just so happens to overlap 3/5 of our program?....BS). No cell phones outside of the dorms. And the infamous borders.

No cell phones? Really? According to the higher-ups, cell phones completely remove the ability to pay attention, and they found that students were not learning anything if they had their cell phones during class. Interesting. I could have sworn that cell phones do have some other feature aside from distracting that makes them somewhat useful...

Yes, ma'am, I understand your child is inside, and I'd call it in if I could...
Might I suggest a smoke signal? Oh wait, this isn't the time for fire jokes, is it?

And then there are borders. Before the beginning of the program, DUCA gave all its attendees a map and said 'Here's where you can and can't go'. That would be cool if the map made any sense at all. I can completely understand the horrible part of the city that's really close to us being out of bounds, but some things just don't make sense. A McDonald's? A movie theater? a supermarket? out of bounds, despite the fact that they're in perfectly fine parts of the city (right next to UPenn's campus). According to the higher-ups, the boundary is put up to protect us. And if we ever we're to 'accidentally' 'wander' out of bounds? And I quote, "We have DUCA lookouts who don't work for the program but will see you. They are there to keep you safe. If they see you out of bounds, you are in big trouble" (read: will be shot on-sight).

a DUCA "lookout" securing our "safety"
and keeping us out of "trouble".
Please note that his "safety" has a scope and silencer.

And finally, and this by far has been the best reason I've received in defense of the rules and regulations. Apparently, every year, Drexel has students at its summer programs that decide to "go rogue" (that's a quote), and don't follow any rules. Based on their description of "DUCA lookouts", I imagine that "rogues" look a bit like this.

That thing circled in red is not his hair,
but his DUCA lanyard with his old room key and ID.
Remnants of his former bondage. Now, he fights THE MAN.

All in all, DUCA definitely has some potential to get a lot better (aside from it's acronym, which honestly sounds like a verb that means to excrete something from your backend "I just took a huge DUCA,,,"). I'm only two weeks in, so those math wizards out there know that I have three weeks left. It also has a lot of room to get exponentially worse, so I guess we'll just see how things pan out. I guess it's about time to wrap this post up. We're actually in a class about databases. Kind of important, but I felt the need to keep you guys in the know.

See you all soon.
-TSO