By Danny Domingo (SuperCamp Graduate and QLN Intern)
Before I attended SuperCamp, I had all of these things going for me: grades, athletics, extracurriculars, but I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do in college and beyond, and I didn’t really see how this program would help me. Little did I know that SuperCamp would not only allow me to improve in all aspects of my life, but also to find my direction and understand what I was missing.
I don’t know if I can pinpoint the first time that I ever heard about this program. I remember my uncle and cousins who had already gone would ask me when I was going to SuperCamp, to which I would respond “what’s that?” Up until last year, I only knew the name, but not what it entailed. My grandma told me, “oh, it’s a summer program that I’ve sent your cousins to, it helped them a lot and I want you to go to as well,” so all I knew about it was that my relatives had gone, and that was it.
I remember being pretty skeptical because at the time, I didn’t think that I needed to relearn things I already knew (how to communicate, how to plan, take notes, etc) and nobody who went would tell me exactly what I was getting into. I only ended up going because my parents and grandparents convinced me that it would be a worthwhile experience, and Loyola Marymount was a nice campus that I wouldn’t have minded staying at. I just tried to go in with an open mindset so I could have the best experience I could, but my expectations, whatever they were, could not prepare me for what I was about to encounter.
When I got there, I went to the check-in with my sister, who also attended SuperCamp with me, turned in my phone (I was a lot more reluctant to let it go than I should have been) and I said goodbye to my parents. It was kind of funny, they seemed to be more reluctant to let me go. I just wanted to get in the zone, make new friends, and enjoy the experience (whatever it was). We got to the auditorium, and boom, we were thrown into a super loud environment, all the staff was dancing, and all of the campers (including me) had the same confused look that said: “What the heck did I get myself into?” Throughout the week, that confused look changed into one of pure excitement, and that loud, booming auditorium became a place that felt safe, supporting, and I felt more comfortable being there with my group than anywhere else. Going into SuperCamp I thought I already had a pretty good idea of how to communicate, study, read, write, take tests, and get out of my comfort zone. It turns out I did. Not only did SuperCamp confirm the ideas and methods that I had already been doing, but it also provided me with the “why” of the methods: the psychology behind it, working with the brain to do everything in the most efficient ways possible.
The entire experience changed me in ways that I can’t quite explain. I don’t think I can even pinpoint a certain activity. It was almost an unconscious change, because I came out a whole different person than when I went in, and I don’t even know when it happened. The whole week was transformative. I got super close to all of my group mates in ways that I don’t think I’ve ever opened up to other people, and the relationships that I formed with them I could venture to say were better than any relationships that I’d ever had with anyone else I’d known for years. One thing I can definitely say that changed was that I figured out what I wanted to do with myself. I decided that I wanted to go into education, and upon hearing about how the QLN headquarters was in Oceanside, I set my sights on becoming an intern for QLN.
Upon arriving home, I felt like I had much more of a direction. I started to take opportunities that had been available to me that I had been previously too afraid to try, and I started studying better, working smarter, and even though I was a pretty decent communicator before, my communication skills improved even more. I got two part-time jobs that I’ve wanted for a long time, one working as a dance instructor at San Dieguito Cotillion and one as a swim instructor at my local pool where I learned how to swim because I wasn’t afraid of the possibility of rejection. I continued to ace my classes, despite having the extra workload of honors and a night class on top of it because I was working better and smarter. I’ve developed much better relationships with those people that matter to me because I’ve been able to use my active listening skills, AAMR and OTFD with them. Quantum Learning really does work.
Because of everything that has happened to me, as well as my experiences at SuperCamp, I’m making a pretty significant impact that I didn’t even know I would be able to make. I am currently an intern with QLN working as a student consultant because I took the internship opportunity that my school offered. I knew that Quantum Learning was near my house and it would be a place that I knew I would enjoy interning, especially after SuperCamp. I was a little bit nervous when I first contacted QLN about it, but after communicating back and forth with Bobbi DePorter, QLN cofounder, I was glad I made the decision to take the risk because she was just as excited about me interning there as I was. As an intern I get to do things that are meaningful to me but also helpful to the company, like helping develop curriculum for Quantum Academy, directly building on a program that I (kind of) took part in, and I am looking into why my family has been such a large supporter of Quantum Learning for the past decade.
For anyone who is on the fence about attending SuperCamp, I strongly encourage you to go. I don’t think there’s any program that can offer anything as useful and as relevant to anyone, and it will help in ways you wouldn’t believe. Just go in with an open mind and enjoy the experience.
For information about Quantum Learning’s SuperCamp go to www.supercamp.com