A well-used summer doesn't happen by accident. The Summer Sprint builds a specific plan for your teen's next summer: programs, jobs, test prep, self-directed work, or some combination, depending on who they are and what they need. For families considering competitive programs specifically, planning ahead matters: many of the most competitive programs close applications in January and February.
"Robert asked what I wanted to do over the summer and I said paint. He said okay, let's figure out how to make that into something. I made money this summer doing something I would have done anyway."
Camille D. · 12th Grade, Summer Sprint
Most families come to me in March or April asking what their teen can do this summer. The answer at that point is a much shorter list than it would have been in October. The Summer Sprint is for students in 8th through 11th grade who want a comprehensive, specific plan for one summer: which programs to apply to, what tests to prepare for and when, what coursework or self-directed work is worth the time, and how to structure the weeks so the summer actually happens as planned. The sprint exists so your teen doesn't miss the window when the best options are still available.
The Challenge
Most families approach summer planning in one of two ways. Some leave it entirely to the student, who ends up in a familiar job or a standard pre-college program because those were the visible options. Others try to plan but don't know how to choose among dozens of programs, internships, test prep options, and courses, and default to whatever was easiest to find. Neither family ends up with a summer that reflects what the student is actually capable of or genuinely interested in.
The gap between those outcomes and a summer that moves a student meaningfully forward is not a gap of motivation. It is a gap of information and structure. Which activities are worth the time given this student's specific profile and goals? When should test prep happen relative to the student's junior year timeline? Which programs are worth applying to and which are expensive resume filler? What self-directed work or coursework would connect authentically to the interests this student already has? And how do you build a week-by-week structure that means any of this actually gets done?
What Robert Is Actually Looking For
Robert evaluates every program, every job, every project idea against the same questions. The selectivity of the program and the reputation of the host institution are not the questions. Here is what is.
These questions apply equally to any summer option, not just formal programs. A student considering RSI and a student considering a part-time job and a self-directed project get evaluated against the same framework. A program that doesn't answer these questions well isn't the right recommendation, regardless of how selective it is. An option that isn't a program at all may answer them better than most programs do.
A program where students conduct real experiments, workshop actual writing with faculty, design and build something, or work alongside practitioners on genuine problems is different in kind from one where students attend lectures and take campus tours. The work product matters. If a student comes home with something they made, found, or figured out, the program did something real. If the highlight of the program was the campus experience, the program sold an experience it didn't deliver.
The programs worth attending provide access to something a student couldn't get otherwise: direct work with a practitioner or faculty member, a peer cohort organized around a shared interest, specialized equipment or resources, or structured accountability for a type of work the student wants to pursue but wouldn't pursue alone. "A taste of college life" is what programs say when they don't have a better answer. Living in a dorm during summer break with other teenagers is not college life. College life is college. The dorm is a marketing feature, not a value.
The summer worth having usually starts something. A student who comes home from a writing program with a manuscript they want to finish, from a science program with a research question they want to keep investigating, or from an architecture workshop with a project direction for the fall. That student got something real. Robert thinks about summer programs not as complete experiences but as starting points. Part of the Summer Plan is identifying what comes next: the project, the course, the application, the interest the summer is meant to develop.
Some of the best summer programs for high school students are at smaller or less prominent institutions, because the groups are small, the faculty are genuinely engaged, and the students are doing real work. A few worth knowing about: the Fir Acres Writing Workshop at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, where small groups of students workshop actual pieces with working writers; the Summer Science and Engineering Program at Smith College, where students work in labs on genuine science; and Teen ArchStudio at UCLA, where students design and build rather than observe. None of these are famous in the way RSI or Telluride are famous. All of them have students doing real work.
Robert will tell you plainly whether a program is worth the cost. He will also tell you when a free option is better than a paid one, and he means it.
How the Summer Sprint Works
The Summer Sprint is designed to be fast and usable. Your teen completes a detailed intake questionnaire before the session. Robert reviews it in advance, uses the session to go deeper on what he learned, and delivers the complete Summer Plan within a week. A 30-minute follow-up session then reviews the plan together, confirms priorities, and answers any questions that came up after reading it. The plan covers the full picture of a well-used summer: programs, test prep, coursework, and self-directed work, all structured into a realistic week-by-week schedule.
Before the session, your teen and family complete a detailed intake covering grade level, academic interests and strongest subjects, current extracurricular profile, geographic flexibility for programs, financial parameters, and what the student wants to get out of the summer: exploration, skill-building, leadership, service, or research. Robert reviews this before the session and arrives prepared to go deeper rather than starting from scratch.
Robert uses the 60-to-75-minute session to go deeper on your teen's genuine interests, ask follow-up questions about activities and goals, surface any misalignments between what the family thinks the student wants and what the student actually wants, and map the summer options landscape for this specific student. By the end of the session, Robert has what he needs to build the written plan. The session is conducted with the student directly, without parents present, for the same reason every other sprint session is: students are more honest about what they actually want.
Your Summer Roadmap is delivered within a week of the session: program and internship recommendations with full context and deadlines, a test prep timeline when relevant, coursework or independent learning directions, and self-directed project ideas where appropriate. Everything is pulled into a week-by-week action structure. A 30-minute follow-up session then reviews the plan with the family, confirms the action timeline, and answers any questions. The follow-up is what turns a written plan into one the family is ready to act on.
"Robert told me pretty early on that he wasn't going to give me homework and that his whole thing was figuring out what I was actually interested in and finding me something worth doing. That felt different from what I expected."
Owen K. · 11th Grade, Summer Sprint
What You Receive
Your Summer Roadmap is specific to your teen. It covers whatever combination of programs, jobs, projects, test prep, coursework, and self-directed work makes sense for this student. Nothing else. The sample below shows a 10th grader with writing interests and a realistic budget. A student with different interests, grade level, or goals gets a plan that looks completely different.
The Application Track
The Summer Sprint, Application Track adds essay support for up to 4 summer program applications. Some programs have real application processes: writing samples, short essays, statements of purpose, or project proposals that require genuine preparation. The essay work for a competitive summer program is similar in kind to college supplement essays: identifying the right angle, drafting, revising, and polishing. It is not the same as filling out a registration form, and it is worth doing well.
Robert works through each application's essay requirements in the same brainstorm-to-final process as the college essay sprints: identify the angle, draft, revise, polish. The student who does this work well in 10th or 11th grade arrives at college essay season the following year already having been through a version of the process, with essay material, self-knowledge, and confidence that a student who skipped it doesn't have.
When to Start
The planning conversation is most useful in November and December, when the widest range of programs is still available. Starting earlier matters for students going after the most selective programs in the country. Starting later is still worth it: the sprint can be completed quickly, and there are meaningful options at every point in the calendar.
If your teen is aiming for programs like RSI, Telluride, or state Governor's Schools, starting in September or October gives the most preparation runway. These programs have deadlines in November through February and competitive application processes that benefit from early planning. For most families, though, this window is earlier than necessary. If you're here in September thinking about next summer, that's great. If you're not, don't let that stop you from starting now.
Governor's Schools: Nov–Dec Most selective programs: Jan–FebNovember and December is the window where the widest range of programs, internships, and opportunities is still available. The most competitive programs still have time to apply for. The Summer Plan can be built without urgency. Robert has enough time to research thoroughly and deliver a plan your teen can act on before the first major deadlines close. This is when most families who plan their summers well actually start the conversation.
Most programs: still open Selective programs: Jan–FebSome of the most competitive program deadlines have passed or are passing soon. That is not a reason to wait. There are still programs worth applying to, jobs and internships worth pursuing, and a summer worth planning. The sprint can be completed in less than a week, and a Summer Plan built in February or March can still produce a genuinely good summer. The longer you wait, the shorter the list of options that remain. If you are reading this in January, start the conversation this week, not next month.
Many programs: still open Jobs and projects: always availableThe Summer Sprint is appropriate for students in 8th through 11th grade. 8th graders exploring selective boarding schools or private high schools are a genuine fit. 9th and 10th graders have the most to gain from intentional summer planning because the most impactful pre-application summers are typically the ones before and during junior year. 11th graders should prioritize: the summer before senior fall is the final major summer opportunity before applications are due.
Works Best Together
The Well-Rounded Warrior Sprint builds your teen's full Interests and Activities Plan: what to pursue, where to develop leadership, what service directions fit, and how to think about the profile as a whole. The Summer Sprint focuses that thinking into a specific plan for how to spend the next summer. Doing both in the same engagement produces a coherent strategy, and the Summer Sprint is offered at a discount for Well-Rounded Warrior Luminaries.
Add-On Pricing for Well-Rounded Warrior Luminaries
Discount applies for families who enrolled in the Well-Rounded Warrior Sprint.
Your Summer Strategist
Robert has spent years learning which programs actually deliver what they promise, which ones are selling a campus name rather than a real experience, and how to build a summer that matches a specific student's interests, grade level, and goals. That knowledge applies to a student considering a highly selective research program and a student building a commission business and taking an online course in equal measure. The question is never which programs are most prestigious. It is which summer is actually worth this student's time.
The Summer Sprint is Robert's answer to the question every family is actually asking: what should my teen do this summer? The answer he gives in the Summer Plan is specific to this teen, built from what he heard in the session. The plan covers whatever combination of programs, jobs, projects, and self-directed work actually fits. It is not a list of impressive-sounding options. It is a researched set of recommendations with the context behind each one.
For LGBTQ+ students, the program recommendations take safety and affirmation into account wherever relevant. A summer program where your teen can show up fully as themselves is better on every dimension than one where they cannot: academically, personally, and in the application it eventually produces.
From the Luminaries
"I was honestly a little suspicious of the whole thing. SAT prep was already hanging over my summer and the last thing I wanted was more structured stuff I had to do. Robert told me pretty early on that he wasn't going to give me homework and that his whole thing was figuring out what I was actually interested in and finding me something worth doing. That felt different. He asked a lot of questions about what I liked doing outside of school. I told him I spent a lot of time outside and that I'd been taking pictures of birds and insects since middle school but that I didn't really have anywhere to put any of it. He got pretty interested in that. He mentioned this program at Sarah Lawrence called the Hudson River Ecology Course, held at a place called the Center for the Urban River in Yonkers. One week, mornings only, hands-on stuff at the river, no overnight. I looked it up and it sounded genuinely cool, not like a resume thing. We did sediment surveys and fish identification in the river. The instructors were actual river ecologists, not teachers teaching ecology, and that made a real difference in how it felt. The blog was Robert's other idea, and I was more skeptical of that one. He suggested I spend the rest of the summer writing about what I was seeing in my own neighborhood, using what I'd learned to look at things differently. He pointed me toward a few specific things to read that made my observations more interesting to me. My posts got longer. I started getting comments from people I didn't know. Both the blog and the reading list were in the Summer Plan he sent me the week after we talked. They were specific enough to actually act on, which made a real difference. It felt like I finally had something to do with the interests I'd been carrying around for years without much direction."
"I came in knowing I needed to get my college stuff together and also really not wanting to spend every day doing college stuff. Robert understood that immediately. He asked me what I actually wanted to do over the summer and I said paint. He said okay, let's figure out how to make that into something. He didn't send me to a competitive pre-college art program. He said I already knew how to make art, and that what I didn't know yet was how to run something. He helped me think through commissions: custom portraits, pet paintings, illustrated menus for local businesses. I got eight clients over the summer. A coffee shop near my house paid me to illustrate their seasonal menu board. I raised my prices twice and both times I got busier. Robert also suggested AP Microeconomics online, which I absolutely did not think I was going to enjoy and then kind of did. The personal statement basically wrote itself once I had the summer behind me. I have a real thing to write about. And I made money this summer doing something I would have done anyway."
"I applied to UCSB's Research Mentorship Program during my junior year. I had never set foot in a research lab. Robert's first question was not about my coursework. He asked me what I had looked up on my own, outside of school, in the past few months. By the end of that conversation I had identified a real question I wanted to investigate, something about how stress affects memory consolidation in teenagers, and I had evidence I had been thinking about it for over a year without having a name for it. He told me that was a research interest. I thought it was just something I wondered about. I was admitted. I spent six weeks at UCSB that summer working in a cognitive neuroscience lab on her actual research. My faculty mentor wrote me a reference letter for my college applications. I do not know exactly how much that letter mattered. I suspect it mattered a lot. Robert knew it would. That is part of why he suggested I apply for the program in the first place."
The Sprint
The planning tier produces a researched Summer Plan with specific program recommendations and a deadline timeline. The Application Track adds the essay work for students applying to competitive programs that require it.
Right for students in grades 8–11 who want a researched, personalized plan for the upcoming summer.
Right for students applying to selective summer programs.
Common Questions
Enroll
Questions before enrolling? Email Robert and he will help you figure out which tier fits and whether the timing is right.
