Individual U.
The Summer U. Need And Want

During the summer months, as we do during the school year, Individual U. works with students from grades 1-2, 3-5, middle school, and high school. We work in person with students in New York City, the Hamptons, and the Berkshires, and also support the work of students in widely diverse geographic locations through I.U. Direct, our technology assisted away from home support program.

Some students work with Individual U. during the summer months to address a wide variety of learning challenges. Ongoing learning differences and disabilities that are difficult to remediate during the frenzy of the school year can be addressed with remarkable success in the calmer summer atmosphere, particularly where academic and integrative techniques can be combined to improve funds of knowledge, insight, and emotional intelligence, and where movement, meditation, yoga, and martial arts practices can be used to augment the student’s process and progress.

Many students spend time working with Individual U. to remediate problems in academic subjects from previous semesters, or to gain advantage, insight, or special enrichment for upcoming studies. In this regard, we work extensively with students in the areas of writing (fiction, non-fiction, screenwriting), history, political science, history of art and architecture, philosophy, science (biology, chemistry, physics), mathematics (3rd – 5th grade math, pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, differential equations), and foreign languages (Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, Mandarin).

Throughout the summer months, Individual U. works with students both with and without learning challenges to prepare them for relevant standardized examinations (including the PACT, ACT, SAT I, SAT II, ISEE, ERB, NYCSST). Our philosophy in working with all students is to bring simplicity and clarity to subject matter by imparting a sufficiently thorough understanding of concepts and content. This is enhanced by the student’s active participation in studying and understanding themselves as a learner and test-taker and absorbing highly distilled elements of non-academic skills that may enhance clarity of thought, calm presence, and greater focus, including elements of Tai Chi Chuan, Yoga, Aikido, Karate, and Chi Gong.

The same non-academic practices can be studied independently and in far greater depth as part of our integrative mentoring offerings during the summer and during the school year as well. Individual U. offers its students the opportunity to study with integrative masters ranging from Sensei Gerald Orange, executive Hanshi (10th degree black belt, Goju karate) and Roberta Shine (Kripalu yoga) to Robin Stern (emotional intelligence/resonant leadership) and the head of Individual U.’s integrative mentoring program, Dr. Susan Krausz (mind-body emotional connection).

As we are throughout the school year, Individual U. is engaged in mentoring students for additional college preparation related activities, ranging from essay writing skills and study habits, to research skills and course management.

Exclusively offered in the months leading to and beginning the summer, Individual U.’s history, art, and language mentors work in concert to prepare students and their families for highly enriched summer travel. Entire families can become “fluent” in the language, history, politics, cultural and practical aspects of traveling to many of the major regions of the world. Students are given special attention in this program, with an emphasis on preparation for archiving and communicating about the experience both during the trip and upon their return, with vehicles ranging from weblogs and traditional journals to short stories, poems, or research reports. Trips to places of special significance are also approached with an eye for ongoing communications opportunities in years to come.

The last few weeks of the summer are especially busy as parents and students prepare for the upcoming semester. Parents who work with us throughout the year as part of the We Too™ program are joined by other who have a special interest in the challenges, concepts, and content of subjects that have great importance or may likely present great difficulty to their children. Many students join us in these few as well to accelerate their understanding and preparation of subjects in the semester ahead, and to reserve preferred times for working with Individual U. during the upcoming school year.

Coming up in the Fall

Dr Rudin will be speaking at the kick off seminar for Parents In Action, tentatively scheduled for Oct 14 at the 92nd Street Y. The topic will be "Looking For Relief: Stress and Its Fallout", and will be presented as part of a town hall format moderated by actress Lucy Martin Gianino. The panel will include reknowned developmental pediatrician Dr. Ralph Lopez, as well as a representative for Partnership for a Drug Free America.