Julia's Blog

Julia Berg is an accomplished Staples High School student and a vital Carver volunteer. Julia came to Carver in July 2022, stayed, and remains an integral year-round member of the Carver community. We were so impressed we gave Julia her own Carver blog!

Julia Berg brings openness, empathy, and a remarkable quality of attention to her volunteer work. Julia’s blog posts offer images of vitality, hopefulness, endurance, kindness, and vulnerability. A celebration of aliveness emerges, a vibrant testament to the observation that attention is the purest form of generosity. Blog post after painted blog post, Julia’s generous presence unfolds. Attention without feeling is only a report. Julia’s stories help us feel life at the Carver course through us. Julia’s attention helps us all appreciate the most profound rewards of the Carver community.

Julia is more than a writer. As she photographs and describes her encounters with her signature elegance of unpeeling the mundane to reveal the momentous, she is invited into our young students' magical worlds. Staff and students trust Julia’s sincere commitment to be present for and with them.

Whether simply observing our students learning and playing, assisting with robotics and all the other STEAM activities our students enjoy at the Carver Community Center, or any number of other tasks and responsibilities that arise and need her support, Julia is a vital member of the Carver community and embodies all that our mission calls forth.

Julia’s initial summer camp stories follow this post. Since August 2022, we have shared Julia’s posts as she writes them on Carver’s homepage blog, and then we archive them in the links below in the order in which they are written, with the latest blog post first.

Carver kids learning to read is to light a fire; every letter and punctuation mark spelled out is a spark.

The 7 to 9 year old girls engage in a spelling bee using the vocabulary they learned in the preceding marine mammals science lesson.

Two chosen team captains select their members and decide on team names, establishing team Heart and team Marshmallow. The counselors pull out the room divider to create two smaller classrooms for the teams. They draw lines for the words and tallies on the chalkboards in their mini-classrooms.

Before each question, the counselors pick a representative whose job is to, if on team Heart, spell the word to the team’s counselor who writes it down, or, if on team Marshmallow, write on the chalkboard themselves.

After the representative is chosen, a counselor announces the word. The students, who sit around the table in front of their chalkboard, are given about a minute to discuss the spelling with each other before the deliberation must come to an end so the representative can spell the word.

The teams tie after the six initial questions: “mammals”, “ocean”, “elephant”, “blubber”, “webbed”, and “whale”. The counselors attempt to break the tie by adding a seventh question with a more complex vocabulary term from the lesson, agreeing on the word “communicate”. Both teams correctly spell the word, requiring the counselors to brainstorm another way to determine the winner.

They decide to present the sentence “They’re going to the grocery store” to the students and instruct them to figure out which of “their”, “there”, and “they’re” is used.

Team Heart concludes that the word must be the shortened version, or the contraction, of “they are” and, with slight prompting from their team’s counselor, write the word correctly. They acquire the win as team Marshmallow debates between answering “their” or “there”.

Team Heart’s counselor helps the team understand the correct answer before the room divider is pulled back and the students commend each other for a good game.




Our students learn that somewhere something incredible is always waiting to be known and shared

The 7 to 9-year-old girls occasionally glance away from the Bill Nye video to check if a question on their worksheet was answered. The worksheet consists of 15 facts about marine mammals from the nearly 20-minute-long episode. Each question requires students to either fill in the blank or circle one of two words using the provided word bank.

After a question is answered, the science teacher pauses the video to ask the students the answer and to clarify any confusion, rewinding if they missed it.

Ms. Renee asks the teacher to assign each student a question to read aloud so she can confirm the information she learned from the episode. She stands next to the students as they read a sentence and helps them when they have trouble, quietly praising those who enunciate well.

As the students take turns reading their sentences, Ms. Renee spots words, such as “webbed”, that she suspects they aren’t familiar with and, under the guise of not understanding the words herself, asks the science teacher to provide a definition, which a couple students chime in on.

Once everyone has read a question, the students write a letter to a family member or friend, telling them at least one piece of information they remember from the video. As they work, the counselors help those who haven’t learned to write yet and prompt those who struggle to recall a fact.

The girls pay particular attention to how cute the animals, such as the seals, are.

Carver girls know that it’s not how big you are, it’s how big you play.

The 10 to 13-year-old girls at the Carver Community Center summer camp spend the end of their Carver day shooting basketballs in the gym as the 10 to 13-year-old boys play a game of football outside.

Madison and Camila take turns shooting on the left hoop when Madison asks Camila for help on her form shooting basketballs after seeing her play.

Camila explains and demonstrates her technique before Madison tries it, impressed with how much a minor change improves her playing. They work on other skills, too, including their dribbling position, dribbling under their leg, and moving around the court with the ball.

Meanwhile, Kylie and Alanna, take up the challenge of using tennis rackets and a yellow foam ball to rally back and forth in the middle of the gym. In the beginning, they struggle to control their swing and find the racket position that aims the ball towards the other person. However, as they continue to play, their swings become more controlled, their movement becomes more intentional, and their game becomes smoother.

After a little while, a few others decide to grab a basketball and see how many shots they can make in the right hoop. They chat and joke with each other as they play, playfully expressing their frustration or raising their hands and smiling in celebration.

Art helps Carver summer campers become themselves instead of more like everyone else

The 5 to 6 year old campers dip their paintbrush in a small pool of paint before beginning to design their wand. The wands are created using short sticks that the campers selected from the picnic table area outside after burning off their energy on the playground and swings.

They decorate their sticks with the numerous paint colors the counselors poured in the middle of each table that was first draped with plastic covers. At one of the tables, the campers become excited seeing the range of colors presented on the table and mix them together. They form countless different colors and no two spots of paint are identical shades.

Some utilize these new hues to create an abstract wand where an extensive variety of colors can be spotted while others prefer to decorate their wand with straight-forward designs using the standard colors that can be found among the hues, such as one wand that a camper painted magenta with white dots near the ends and yellow with light blue dots in the middle.

Meanwhile, the campers at the other table adorn their wands with stripes using the full color assortment provided: orange, red, white, light blue, darker green, magenta, and yellow. They stick to these seven colors until one realizes that they can put a small amount of red on the table near them before washing their brush and mixing in a little white to create pink. They immediately share their revelation with the rest of the table who reciprocate the excitement.

The campers have fun discovering how to make different colors and asking each other how they formed a shade. One of the campers decides to paint their entire wand their favorite color, purple, while two other campers repaint their stripes using some of the new colors they mixed.

Their new assortment of colors includes light yellow, baby blue, peach, mint green, lime green, pink, light burgundy, brown, and more.

Through the art projects the campers merge their creativity with the skills they learn to best express themselves.

Carver kids are not things to be molded, but young people unfolding

Among the 5-6-year-old group scattered around the playground, three girls, Elena, Andrea, and Caliana, gather by the monkey bars and show off their skills.

Elena hangs from them by gripping the first bar and placing her legs over the third. Andrea watches with her eyes wide and remarks that it is very impressive that she is able to hang with a bar between her hands and her legs.

Caliana wants to try the trick and go across the monkey bars but is hesitant. Andrea helps her gain confidence by telling her that she can do anything she sets her mind to. Channeling her confidence and determination, Caliana climbs across the monkey bars and briefly hangs before smiling proudly as she drops down.

After Andrea hangs from the monkey bars herself, Elena mentions that she can do a split and displays her ability. Andrea takes her shot at doing a split too, and manages to go down far before falling out of it with laughter.

Showing off her own skills, Caliana says that she can do a cartwheel and demonstrates a couple. She then brings up that she can do a handstand and does a few. After her demonstration, she states that she could do a handstand for an hour, earning the playful response “an hour?!” from Andrea whose surprise and amusement seeps into her voice.

The topic of underwater handstands being easier to do because people are weightless in the water then comes up, prompting Caliana to try another handstand. Andrea watches and tells her that she already has a good handstand and that she even improved within the few she just did.

The campers help their peers stay motivated and positive as they encourage each other to learn new things, always work to improve themselves, and build more confidence.

Butterflies are flowers that fly and all but sing for Carver campers visiting the Maritime Aquarium

The 10 to 13-year-old girls attending summer camp that the Carver Community Center step into the butterfly greenhouse tent featured outside The Maritime Aquarium.

Some of the girls quickly become comfortable with the butterflies, while other girls take a little longer to warm up to them and flinch when the butterflies narrowly miss their faces as they dart around.

The girls stand still and hold out an arm after they are told that doing so makes butterflies more likely to land on them. When they watch a butterfly settle on them, or another girl informs them of one, the girls have a wide range of reactions.

Some excitedly announce that a butterfly is on them and ask others to take a photo of them, while others stand extremely still and stare warily at the butterfly until their nerves settle, and a couple even screams when they are startled by one.

One of the girls attracts many butterflies, particularly to her hand, so when one lands on the back of her hand while she waits to leave, she offers a young girl in line behind her to transfer the butterfly to her. She asks the young girl to reach her hand out and gently places her own hand next to hers as they watch the butterfly gracefully make the shift. A smile comes across her face as the young girl admires the butterfly and looks up at her family with a big grin.

Through the butterfly exhibit, the girls demonstrate their growth in their ability to embrace and make the best of a new experience even when the unfamiliarity makes them uncomfortable.

A visit to The Maritime Aquarium stirs the hearts and inspires the imaginations of Carver summer campers

The 10 to 13 year old girls each find a spot along a shallow pool to touch the stingrays at the Maritime Aquarium. As they watch the stingrays, the girls note the two stingrays playing with each other and that they are smiling. They hold a hand above the water while they wait for a stingray to come within reach so they can gently touch it. When one of the girls lightly strokes a stingray that passes by, she immediately brightens, looks up, and says that it is smooth and slimy.

On the second floor, a couple of the girls stop to look at the bats that catch their eye as they walk around. The habitat that they stand in front of seems to be empty with only dark blue lighting, but one of the girls calls over the others nearby and tells them to look up, pointing to the top of the habitat where a bat can be spotted hanging upside down.

Later, the group comes across a darkened exhibit similar to a small amphitheater; inside there is a dark blue lit tank with sharks and fish inside. One of the girls asks a counselor to take a picture of her as she poses in front of the sharks. They discuss with another girl standing in front of the tank how many sharks there are, counting them out loud multiple times to make sure they are correct.

Two of the other girls who are sitting on the steps nearby consider whether the shark lying at the bottom is dead or just asleep, sparking a conversation about how sharks sleep.

Down the hallway, the group discovers a cylinder-shaped tank that reaches the ceiling and shines color-changing lights on the jellyfish that live inside of it. The girls express how pretty the display is and soon each finds a spot to watch the jellyfish. Some of the girls pull out their phones to capture it on video. Near the colorful jellyfish display, the girls curiously watch other species of jellyfish, including the Upside-Down Jellyfish, which are in spherical-shaped tanks.

The tanks sit on platforms which catch the water that overflows from the circle-shaped cut out at the top of each one. The girls embrace a curious mindset as they watch the animals, chat with each other about what they are seeing, and continue to explore the aquarium.

Carver summer is all about camp classics and boys against girls in a cool game of Capture the Flag!

While the 10 to 13-year-old girls are having free time in their homeroom, a counselor for the 7 to 9-year-old boys peeks his head in and proposes a capture the flag rematch, which, of course, the girls accept.

The corners of each safe zone are marked with buckets, and a ball is placed in the middle of the zone, with jails being designated in opposite corners of the gym. When the whistle blows, each team, including the counselors, lines up against the wall and runs to the line in the middle. As they wait for the second whistle to be blown, the boys huddle up and chant phrases that change with each score, such as “Boys are better!”.

A few of the boys stay by the zone to guard the ball while the rest stand right behind the line, leaving fairly little space between them. Similarly, the girls stand behind the line except for the few who stay close to the zone, but they are a little more spread out than the other team.

Some of the boys tease the girls on the other team playfully by putting their foot slightly beyond the line and retracting it before they can be tagged. When the girls near the line notice there are boys who are not blocked and are looking to dash, they move in front to prevent them from running.

The boy’s team takes more chances at running than the girls; however, this results in more boys in jail. The boys and girls both score points and free their teammates from jail. Both teams cheer and celebrate when their team scores.

About halfway through the game, the 7 to 9-year-old girls arrive to watch from the bleachers. Eventually, after a close game, the boys finally win the rematch. They celebrate, and the teams exchange jokes and say “good game” before sitting in their places for an assembly happening shortly in the gym.

The campers put in their best effort and treated the rematch as a lighthearted, friendly competition to ensure they had a good time.

Carver summer campers make that critical shift from learning to read to reading to learn

Our 5 to 6-year-old campers use a computer program named Lexia Core5. This adaptive blended learning program accelerates the development of literacy skills for students of all abilities, helping them make that critical shift from learning to read to reading to learn.

They put on the headphones and fall quiet as they focus on the activities in the personalized lesson they are on so they can get a small treat afterward.

Each camper works on a lesson with several skills within it, each with several activities that must be completed to finish the skill.

One of the campers is doing an activity in which he is told the word and given the scrambled letters, which he has to rearrange to form the word.

Another camper is shown a picture of an object, given four sliders, and listens to the word pronounced in syllables. The camper must put one slider down for each syllable in the word. As he moves through the activity, he gradually gets more and more correct, smiling and pumping his fist when his answer is right. He takes a break to enjoy a pink starburst when they are passed around to each of the students who are now focusing and making progress on their lesson.

One of the other campers does an activity where he places six images into one of two categories that are also represented through drawings, while the camper sitting beside him is given letters from a section of the alphabet and uses the alphabet provided as a reference to put the letters into alphabetical order.

During their daily schedules, each camper works to improve their skills a little more, through reading, art, or another activity, by trying their best and being open to learning.

They're not made of jelly, and they're not actually fish. But Carver summer campers have fun creating a Jellyfish Craft together!

The 5 to 6 year old campers draw on paper cut into a circle folded in half, with hole punches lining the bottom. They report that they are creating jellyfish, and are currently designing them with markers.

One of the girls works on her drawing of a bold girl with a green bow. Another girl colors in a wide yellow stripe next to where her red and orange stripes are outlined. She says she is drawing a sunset but later decides to change it into a rainbow. A different girl at the table uses all of the colors of markers to draw vertical lines and create a colorful design that she draws a black heart on top of. Two of the other girls at the same table color their half circle dark blue and draw a smiley face on it. One of the girls, Camilla, is happy with her drawing and decides to name her jellyfish Shelly while the other decides that she made a mistake on hers.

After Camilla suggests that she can draw on the back or turn her drawing into a new design, the second girl decides to transform her smiley face into a sea turtle. Many of the campers sitting next to each other choose to draw similar or identical designs, including drawing sunsets, girls’ faces, and hearts with scalloped borders.

When the group finishes designing their jellyfish, they move on to their next activity while the counselors thread and knot different shades of blue yarn through the hole punches to create the tentacles of the jellyfish.

The campers create their best art as they use their creativity, collaborate with each other, and learn to use their mistakes to propel them forward.

It's a Summer of Possibilities

The 7 to 9 year old boys use up their excess energy on the playground before they head off on their trip to the Maritime Aquarium.

While some of the boys join a game of tag, a few others take on the challenge of sitting on top of the monkey bars and jumping off. Two boys jump off onto the soft rubber ground while another who has not done it before watches. They assure him that the jump isn’t too big and he always can choose to opt out of it if he does not want to. He looks on the ground in front of him with a determined look on his face, builds up his courage, and jumps, saying with a smile that it is fun.

The boys spot a small plastic rock structure that extends from the playground to the ground and suggest that they can try to jump off of it. One of the boys jumps from where the rocks meet the playground but the others miss it while playing on the monkey bars and they note that it seems difficult when he tells them how far he jumped, so he jumps again to demonstrate and lands a little further this time. He turns around to see that the other boy is impressed by him before picking up his Nutella snack that he placed on the ground.

As the other boy stands on top of the rocks, gauges the distance, and decides if he should jump over the rocks or off of the side, he offers a Nutella stick to another camper that passes by while playing tag. Afterwards, he states that he only shares to be kind and pops another one in his mouth, closing his eyes and smiling to express how good it tastes. The camper on the rocks says that he is going to jump off the side rather than over the rocks and that he had better get a Nutella stick for doing it before taking the jump.

After running around the playground more, the camper shows another boy how to do a trick on a rounded yellow climbing structure that has two parallel rails attached to the playground with bars spaced between them. Standing under the structure, he first puts the back of his knees on one of the bars while holding onto the rails. He then lets his hands go and hangs from the bar by his legs, his hands able to reach the ground. He gets up by lifting his body up and holding onto the rails to put his feet down so he can let his friend try.

Together, they go into the gym with part of the group to cool off and either shoot basketballs, or play with Beyblades. A couple of the boys stay outside to use the swings in the shade, one moves the swing in a circular motion and the other twists it and then spins when it is let go. The two boys fool around on the swings, trying to have one of them swing back and forth while the other swings side to side a couple of times and stops before they accidentally collide.

They next use one hand to hold one of their chains and the other hand to hold the other person’s chain. A smile forms on their faces when they discover that they can swing like that. As they swing, another boy walks over and asks to push them. The boys now swing fast and reach higher, screaming out of thrill as if they are on an amusement park ride.

The group of boys learn with each other and learn from each other as they have fun and always look for a little more of a challenge.

Bowling is right up our campers' alley!

The 10 to 13-year-old girls enter the bowling alley Nutmeg Bowl and head for the desk to wait in line for bowling shoes. As they look at the size of their shoes and take one off to give to the desk in exchange for bowling shoes until the shoes are returned, the girls chatter with those next to them in line about their bowling skills, their predictions, goals for these games, and the food they look forward to trying.

After trying on their bowling shoes to see if they fit, they split themselves into four lanes and decide who will be A, B, C, and D, depending on how many people are in their lane. They scan the bowling ball racks to pick out the ball with a weight that works for them.

While some find an appropriate bowling ball fairly quickly, others test the balls using a counselor's tip to try holding it with one hand before selecting one, the campers helping each other find the weight written on the balls.

The girls then begin their games. They get used to the feel of bowling again and the wave of anticipation that washes over them when watching the bowling ball roll down the lane towards the pins. They offer each other advice on holding the ball, making their bowling stance, and throwing the ball.

After several rounds, some of the girls decide to get in line to order food, discussing their desires to try the fried dough with sugar, the blue drink they later described as melted blue ice pops, the chicken, and the fries in particular.

Meanwhile, others continue to bowl to improve their skills and achieve higher scores. They carefully watch the bowling balls tip over the pins, occasionally spinning around to share their accomplishment with their friends while pointing at the animation on the TV screen, jumping up and down, and dancing in celebration.

The girls demonstrate their closeness as a group as they help each other make progress through their encouragement, advice, and friendly competition and are there to share and celebrate each person’s accomplishments.

Carver campers know that Monopoly is a game of both luck and skills

The 10 to 13-year-old girls split into two groups to begin games of monopoly as the counselor briefs them on the trip they plan to the bowling alley Nutmeg Bowl in Fairfield later that day.

They choose their pieces, distribute the fake money, and determine who is going first before they start the game. As the girls move their pieces across the board, they carefully note the money they pay or receive in properties, rent, passing ‘GO,’ and other game mechanics in an effort to get ahead.

Tough negotiations can be heard alongside playful teasing and laughter as the game gradually gets competitive. In one group, one of the girls is cautious with her money in the beginning before she buys the remaining properties she lands on when she avoids special cards and properties owned by others. She negotiates with another girl, who spends her money buying properties, in the beginning, to complete sets of cards and place houses on them, becoming more reserved with her money afterward as she recognizes the need to save up.

Eventually, one of the groups of girls decides to finish their game in favor of sculpting and painting air-dry clay as they chatter until they leave for bowling.

The girls create a fun environment and game as they have friendly competition while they make jokes and offer each other advice.

By Julia Berg

Carver campers explore the world of color and pattern by playing with sand to create art

The 7 to 9 year old girls run around the playground until Ms. Renee calls several over to tell them that it is their turn to do sand art.

The girls brainstorm what they’re going to draw and pretty soon come up with an idea that they begin to draw in marker on their paper as a guide for where to place the glue and sand. Some ask another girl, who they name the best artist of the group, to draw parts of their guide for them, which they continue to design.

The girls then glue parts of their drawing and pour a color of sand on that area, taking turns asking for the glue and sand among themselves. Others on the playground come over while the girls are focused on building their creation to see if they can join once space is available.

As they complete parts of their sand art and take a second to look at what they have created, they show their art to each other and eagerly ask for the glue to finish the next part of their masterpiece.

One by one, the girls pour sand over the final part of their drawing and shake out the excess over the ground. They step back to take a look at the completed piece and proudly display it to their counselors before placing it on another table and weighing it down with rocks before heading to the playground to join the rest of the group.

On the playground, the girls are immediately welcomed into the ongoing round of hot potato and other games as those waiting at the sand art table start their drawing.

The girls’ ability to collaborate with each other make for a great experience and beautiful art!

In the same vein as Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon in years past, Beyblade is alive and well at Carver today

A small group of 7 to 9 year old boys gather under the playground slide in the afternoon to play with their spinning-top Beyblades.

They develop a game that is a hybrid of tag and Beyblades; the group plays a round of tag, and the tagger and the first person tagged compete in a Beyblade battle to determine the next tagger.

They show off the designs on their Beyblades, noting that a translucent orange one performs the worst in battle but looks very cool.

One of the boys, Mason, explains how to spin the Beyblade and mentions that spinning the Beyblade in the divot in the slide helps develop the skill. He proudly brags about how funny and strong he is as he demonstrates spinning the Beyblade fast enough to travel to the top of the slide. He began playing with Beyblades when he was four years old and has since collected four Pegasus Beyblades, which are a specific type of Beyblade. As he displays his Beyblade, he notes that his Beyblade always stays intact regardless of the hits it receives and that it has swords on it that take other Beyblades apart when they collide. He rejoins the others huddled over an ongoing battle to watch it unfold.

The group continues playing their game until they eventually split off; some join other campers playing basketball in the gym, and others join a game of tag on the playground that forms until dismissal.

They make the most of their time as they become friends and play games before the end of the day.

About Julia Berg

Julia is standing with Carver’s Recreation Coordinator Shannon Singleton-Bates

Julia Berg is a rising junior at Staples High School in Westport. Julia is devoting much of her summer to chronicling the experience for kids attending our Summer Enrichment Program at the Carver Community Center this year.

For the past year, Julia has been mentoring and tutoring kids in an after-school program that is part of Homes With Hope, a Westport organization dedicated to ending homelessness.

Julia has always been interested in psychology and human behavior. Last summer, she decided to research and create a program for kids who might have difficulty getting through their school work and other issues that cause frustration. Her program offers practical, everyday strategies to help them manage their frustration and teach problem-solving skills. Once developed, Julia shared her program with the director of the after-school program, who asked Julia to adapt aspects of Julia’s program for the kids who receive mentoring and tutoring. Based on Julia’s work with the kids during the school year, Julia is modifying the program to include self-evaluation, teaching kids the importance of checking in with their thoughts and feelings and connecting that to their decisions.

In addition to mentoring and tutoring, Julia is very interested in Computer Science. This past Spring, she completed an independent study at Staples in embedded systems programming by taking an online class and completing a self-directed project.

In addition, Julia enjoys playing viola in a youth orchestra and also plays for her school's chamber orchestra. She enjoys traveling, photography, learning new languages (Korean/French), and spending time with her family.