By Ava Uhlack, Aug. 27, 2024
Cal Poly Pomona has been named California State University’s new location for the Summer Arts Program for the 2025-2029 summer sessions.
The CSU Summer Arts Program is a two-week, intensive course session that specializes in specific, unique areas within the arts field. The program debuted in 1985 and allowed students of all standings to study and live with experts and practitioners from their fields at the host school.
The program was originally designed to move between CSU campuses every five years; however, the past eight years, excluding summer of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been held at Fresno State due to the vast support of the community in Fresno, according to the press release from the CSU office.
The CSU Chancellor’s Office Summer Arts Team reached out to every CSU campus a year ago. After a long and detailed evaluation of all the schools that applied, CPP was selected.
CPP was one of three finalists, along with San Jose State University and Cal Poly Humbolt, who received a campus visit from the committee to decide the new location, according to Camille Johnson, the dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. CPP applied for the opportunity to be named the new location in January and was visited in April.
“We did everything to show them what our campus was,” stated Johnson. “We have a really great array of spaces, we have a safe campus and location wise, being so close to LA we have an opportunity to access guest artists from our location.”
“The staff is really excited to be welcomed to Pomona and the new campus and the new faculty there,” said Suzanne Crosina-Sahm, the community relations specialist for the program. “We’ve had a really good run here in Fresno, and we really appreciated everything, how they’ve welcomed us in the community, but now we’re looking forward to a change.”
The most recent session held this summer had 17 courses and more than 300 studentsenrolled into the program. Each course is specific to an artistic skill or area of study. Some courses included the business of acting, scoring for video games, voice actor boot camp and countless more, including opportunities to study abroad.
“My favorite part is around day four or five when people start to realize how hard they’re going to have to work to get through the week,” said Katie Turner, a lecturer in theater at San Diego State University who has taught at the program in Fresno and served as a member of the committee that helped choose CPP. “They’ve set themselves up this monumental task, and we watch them find the resolve in themselves to push through and make the most out of the experience.”
The program is open to students all over the nation, including those outside the CSU system and outside California. This includes students in high school and if they are 16 years old or older. CPP staff and faculty are just as excited about getting the opportunity to host the next summer session in 2025 and to have students become a part of the CPP community.
“We’re known as an engineering and hospitality management school, not really as an arts destination,” said Dave Kopplin, the CPP music department chair. “We have all kinds of things going on here that people don’t know about. We have music, an art department, landscape architecture department, and this’ll be a good opportunity for us to let the world know.”
Students who want to be a part of the program are advised to apply for scholarships for the program should finances be a concern or reason for not being able to attend the program, according to both Turner and Kopplin. The program’s tuition varies depending on the number of units taken and whether a student is a resident, although a student does not have to be a California resident to attend the program.
Undergraduate California residents’ tuition is $1,241 for three units, $1,685 for five units, $1,685 for six units and $2,420 for eight units. Graduate California residents’ tuition is $1,541 for three units, $2,102 for five units, $2,102 for six units and $3,012 for eight units. Undergraduate non-California residents’ tuition is $2,429 for three units, $3,665 for five units, $4,061 for six units and $5,588 for eight units. Graduate non-California residents’ tuition is $2,729 for three units, $4,082 for five units, $4,478 for six units and $6,180 for eight units.
According to the California State Summer School for the Arts Foundation, each year, 21 CSSSA students receive funds anywhere between a one-time scholarship for $2,500 to a scholarship of $40,000, according to the CSSSA website.
If a CSU student is receiving financial aid, they can ask their financial aid office if they qualify for “visiting student status” to the current campus host. If a student qualifies, they will be able to apply their existing financial aid to CSU Summer Arts, according to the Summer Arts Website.
Applications can be filled out online through the CSU website with all application materials including financial documentation, with each course possible requiring additional materials, according to the Summer Arts website. Students of all majors are welcome and encouraged to join in the experience to challenge themselves.
“A lot of students will find a way to find a voice, and enjoy it,” said Jessie Vallejo, an associate professor of ethnomusicology at CPP. “They can take those lessons even if they go on to be an engineering major. Getting a two-week intensive course session and seeing what you can accomplish with a focused experience like that can be really rewarding and help them prepare mentally for the types of work that they need to put in for honing their craft.”
The courses for the next session along with the applications for the next session for summer 2025 have not yet been released or announced, although the previous session’s applications came out during the spring before, according to the CSU website. Summer 2024 application opened at the beginning of March, according to the CSU official website. All students will be eligible to apply to participate in summer 2025.
“Learn by doing isn’t just for engineering and chemistry, but also for the arts and the humanities,” Johnson said. “It’s really cool that a polytechnic campus gets to host the summer arts to show we do all kinds of learn by doing on our campus.”
Featured images courtesy of Katie Turner
