Meet Our Elective Leaders
Beyond our core curriculum, students at the Great Books Summer Program get the opportunity to explore personal areas of interest in our electives classes. Working in small groups with highly-talented teachers, each week everyone gets to choose a literature and an art elective to expand their horizons and to share their creativity through self expression.
Our 2009 staff brought together both expertise and enthusiasm for a wide variety of activities and passions. From sculpture to performance art, from jazz to photography, students get a chance to learn about and participate in a wealth of activities—many for the first time!
The Elective Leaders are both instructors and facilitators in this process, nurturing budding talents or encouraging the kids to just try something new! Our Elective Leaders for 2009 brought many different talents and numerous accomplishments to camp to share with the students.
Interested in joining the team for 2010? If you would like additional information about the position or our program, please read our job description or email us at info@greatbookssummer.com. Or simply go here to start your application!
Meet some of our 2010 Elective Leaders!
Iris McQuillan-Grace (Theater)
Iris is a graduate of the Educational Center for the Arts Conservatory theater program and received a BA Theater Studies degree from Emerson College. She has performed all over the world and across the United States since she was 18. She is also currently the Drama Instructor and Theater Consultant for NAFI ( North American Family Institute), CT's Regional facilities where she teaches Shakespeare in Residential treatment facilities to young women in crisis. Recently Iris served as an Artist in Residence with Elm Shakespeare in a collaborative project with the Yale Center for British Art and High School in the Community teaching and directing Shakespeare to inner city high school students. She has taught theater/drama with Performing Arts Professionals (K-5) and has been the Scholar Coordinator for Elm Shakespeare's young professional company two seasons running.
Wabe Yurek (Visual Arts)
Wabe is returning to the Great Books Summer reading program for his fifth year as art elective teacher and discussion leader. He currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts and teaches French at Lincoln elementary and middle school in Brookline, MA. He also serves as program director of the 5th/6th grade after-school program at Lincoln. Wabe's favorite extracurricular activities include walking in the footsteps of H.D.Thoreau throughout New England, birding, skiing, gardening, drawing, writing and traveling.
Matthew Bamberg-Johnson (Theater)
Matt knows that this will be the highlight of his year. Returning for his fourth summer with the Great Books Summer Program, Matthew, or “Bam,” as he is often called at camp, looks forward to collaborating with passionate young theatre students to create insightful, exciting new works exploring the use of space and the combination of “found” and self-created texts. Matthew graduated from Trinity College in 2006, where he was the presidential fellow of the Theater & Dance department. He has since continued to make work with The Ordinary Theater, as well as The New Haven Theater Company, where he can be seen in monthly “Funny Stages” improv comedy performances. Matthew loves being outdoors, cooking, arguing about the purpose of art, and will happily play Frisbee with every last one of you.
Ida Rothschild (Visual Arts)
Ida is currently in the process of completing her doctorate in American Literature at Boston University; prior to embarking on that endless project, she also received her M.A. in English and American Literature form B.U. after graduating magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a double-major in English and Sociology. This is Ida's fifth year teaching for the Great Books Summer Program, where she has previously instructed the Writing and Visual Art Electives and served as a Discussion Leader. Ida has spent more time than is healthy studying the various works of Herman Melville and occasionally dabbling in a little Shakespeare just for good measure. Ida looks forward to conducting the Arts elective again this year, where she will continue her experiments with three-dimensional mediums.
Raleigh Green (Music)
Raleigh is a performing musician, educator, author, and visual artist. A native of the midwest, Raleigh's interest in music and art was formed at a very young age. The pull towards these creative endeavors was so strong he ended up pursuing both disciplines. First, Raleigh received a BFA from the University of Missouri with a focus in painting and computer aided multimedia. Raleigh then moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee, Raleigh received the Quincy Jones Award and the Professional Music Achievement Award, graduating with Summa Cum Laude honors. In addition to receiving academic accolades, Raleigh has studied with numerous world-class musicians including Mick Goodrick, and Charlie Banocos. He is a guitar instructor at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and is a teacher of online guitar lessons at WorkshopLive.com. He is also a long-time faculty member at the National Guitar Workshop, a senior guitar instructor at Day Jams, and is proud to be endorsed by D'Addario strings and Planet Waves musicians gear.
Barton McGuire (Music)
Barton is completely and hopelessly obsessed with music. He is a multi-instrumentalist, active-performer, music teacher, songwriter, and composer of instrumental and electronic music. He just graduated from Dartmouth College with a major in Religion. At Dartmouth he spent his time as editor-in-chief of Squeezebox music magazine, skiing and snowboarding, and writing and editing for the Dartmouth Free Press. He is also interested in photography, eating sushi, contemporary philosophy, and zombie movies. After Dartmouth, Barton will be attending Mills College in Oakland, California, getting an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media.