Helping your young acting hopeful prepare for a successful acting career can be an incredibly rewarding experience for the parent. All parents like seeing their children being creative, expressing themselves, and, most importantly, having fun.

It should be stated, however, that forcing a child to participate in any pursuit they don’t like is not just counterproductive but harmful to the child. Your role, as the acting hopeful’s parent, is to caringly nurture your children’s expressed interests and not force them into a pursuit in order to live vicariously through them. One would have to be born under a rock to have missed some of the more public examples of what can happen when children are forced into an acting career they never wanted.

That being said, there are some very simple pointers you can follow that will have a powerful impact in the immediate sense and create long-term opportunities for the professional acting success of your son or daughter.

Start Early: Human beings, it would seem, are all natural born actors. Early in their lives, they often spend entire afternoons play-acting imaginary scenarios. Sadly, as many of us get older, we forget how much fun acting can be. By exposing your youngsters, at an early age, to the concept of acting, you are, in effect, introducing them to something at which they are already. Regardless of whether it’s soccer, football, chess, or acting, childhood pursuits should always be fun. By giving your children an early glimpse of acting while they are young and predisposed to the concept, you dramatically increase the odds of their long-term success. Acting Camps provide the perfect vehicle for your children to immerse themselves in the creative fun acting can provide. What they gain from the camp experience has as much to do with you, the parent, as it does the camp itself. With the internet woven into the fabric of our lives, there is simply no excuse for parents not doing due-diligence research on any acting camp they are considering. A little research time, up front, can save you a lot of money, effort, and disappointment later.

After your children have started their first camp, make sure that they are having fun. If not, first try finding a better-suited program and see if that resolves the issue. If not, you may need to consider the fact that acting may not be of interest to them at that point in their lives. If that is the case, and the situation is handled carefully, it may well become one as they get older. Forcing the issue now will virtually guarantee that your child will never enjoy the art. If there isn’t a fit, back off and give them some time. Find out what it was about the camp experience they didn’t like. More importantly, find out what things (even if only a few) they actually did like about the camp. Pay attention to these answers. There is a good chance that, armed with this information, you can research other camps that may be better suited to your child’s tastes and artistic needs. Find a different camp, try again next year, and until then don’t push or make a big deal out of it.

Be Involved: Acting is a passion and, like flame, it needs fuel in order to burn. A parent’s support and involvement has no equal as that fuel. Acting Camp is about far more than just what happens during the time your child attends. What happens before and after camp is as important as the camp itself. Furthermore, if you have an uninterested attitude towards your children’s pursuits then their attitude will soon follow your own. Help them prepare for the camp experience beforehand. If you have done your research, then you are well-versed in what your children will be learning and doing. Help them feel prepared for it and they will have the kind of fun that only self-confidence brings. After Camp is over, spend a lot of time revisiting what they experienced and learned. Often, there are exercises and drama games that can be fun for the whole family to recreate. Children look to their parents for validation. Be that validation for your young actor or actress and you have armed them well for success.

Be Selective: Acting Camps are as varied as the children who attend them. Take the time to research, research, research. If your children are new to the art, look for fun-filled camps that focus more on the enjoyment of the experience than the knowledge gained. As your children progress, they will want, as well as need, more challenges for their minds. Complacency destroys drive, and an unchallenged mind can hardly avoid becoming complacent. Acting Camp should always be fun, but as your children grow they will develop a sense of pride in their craft and will be eager to take the challenge to the next level. Do your homework and be prepared to provide that challenge in their next camp.

Preparing For the Next Step: Eventually your children (and I use that term loosely here) will be ready to move on to acting school. As you have watched and participated with your children in their acting youth, you’ll no doubt have picked up on where their artistic talents and drive really lie. Research schools that have well-respected programs, and degrees, in those areas. This next step is an expensive one, so doing your research here actually does pay. Just as acting camps have helped form your children’s creative foundations, so acting schools will take it to that next, and this time, professional level.

The Detroit Schools has partnered with local universities to get students thinking about careers in science and engineering. Students at different levels of the Detroit Public Schools are being targeted in a statewide effort to get more women and minorities enrolled in engineering programs. One program that makes this its mission is the Detroit Area Pre College Engineering Program (DAPCEP).

The Detroit Area Pre College Engineering Program

DAPCEP works with area students in three main ways. It partners with local public school teachers to design a curriculum that encourages creative thinking in the sciences. To fulfill this goal, DAPCEP sponsors science fairs, field trips, and university seminars for students and teachers.

DAPCEP also runs a Saturday program in conjunction with local universities and corporations to provide enrichments activities for students in grades 4 ? 12. These activities focus on different aspects of math, computer science, engineering, physics, chemistry, and communication skills.

In addition to its programs during the school year, DAPCEP brings local public school students into universities for summer programs. Some of the summer programs are residential, with students living on campus for a few weeks and getting a real taste for the college life. Other programs provide transportation to and from campus.

University Partnerships
DAPCEP’s list of university partners is certainly impressive.
? University of Detroit Mercy
? Michigan State University
? University of Michigan Ann Arbor
? Wayne State University
? Lawrence Technical University
? Oakland University
? University of Michigan Dearborn
? Michigan Technological University

The Little Engineer Program

In addition to their very successful middle school and high school programs, DAPCEP also has something for smaller learners. Its Little Engineer Program is for students in grades K ? 3. These Saturday classes for both children and their parents focus on teaching and learning math, science, pre-engineering, and reading.

How to Join DAPCEP

The selection process for DAPCEP can be daunting for parents anxious to give this opportunity to their children. DAPCEP holds an open house each fall for prospective students and parents. Students must maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average in all their school subjects. Other factors, such as attendance, and taking certain academic subjects in the regular school curriculum, such as physics, chemistry, and higher level math, also play a role in student selection. For many programs, students also need letters of recommendation from their math and science teachers.

Summer Course Offerings

DAPCEP’s university partnerships are providing a range of summer courses of Detroit area students. Here are some highlights:

? Watershed Investigators (University of Detroit Mercy)
Students will investigate local water quality in a series of real ? world experiments.
? How Math Rocks Our World (Tabernacle)
Students will see how their math and science skills compare with other students around the world, in particular China and India.
? Wireless Integrated Microsystems (Michigan State University)
Hands ? on activities and presentations from nine different engineering majors offered at the university.
? Engineering Intensive Workshop ( Michigan Technological University)
Students choose two areas of study, ranging from Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Aided Engineering, Computer Programming, Material Engineering, Chemical Engineering and others.

All of the DAPCEP programs emphasize the Detroit Area Public School District’s commitment to ensuring that students have the opportunity to explore many challenging areas and gain further insights into the college experience.

Residents of the Dominican Republic, especially the impoverished ones, have long viewed the United States and especially New York City as a land of limitless wealth. All you have to do is live there for a few years, and you too will be wealthy.

This erroneous vision was fostered in the 1980s with the crack epidemic centered in Washington Heights, an area located north of New York City and predominantly populated by Dominican immigrants. Thousands of dollars in cash were sent back to the families, who still lived in the Dominican Republic.

Though the days of easy money have passed, the Dominican poor still believe that, if only family member can reach the U.S. and remain for a few years, he or she could bring the entire family remaining in the Dominican Republic out of poverty. Thus, the Dominican Republic is the largest exporter of immigrants to the New York City schools. Dominican immigrants now comprise ten percent of the 1.1 million students in the New York City schools.

These young New York City schools immigrants face particularly difficult problems as they attempt to acclimate into American society. They face the pressures to integrate at school, while facing the pressures to remain the same at home. Parents too face challenges with the New York City schools.

The first problem is culture shock. In the Dominican Republic, children always must defer to their elders and hold their tongues, having no way to express their own feelings or opinions. In contrast, children quickly learn in the New York City schools that American children are vital members of society, like any adult. They realize that adults care what they think. They become more outspoken both at school and at home, finding the social freedoms compelling and liberating.

Parents feel themselves losing control of their children, who are shedding their cultural restrictions. They view New York City schools children as arrogant and flamboyant, with no respect for their elders. Such contrasting expectations between children and parents cause stress at home. Of course, many parents blame the New York City schools for their children adopting these attributes, where they did not wish to send their children anyway.

The Dominican immigrant home environment is not always conducive to learning. For impoverished families in the Dominican Republic, education is not a priority, as it is with the wealthy families there. Though early schooling is free for children, it is seen as a costly endeavor for families just trying to make ends meet. Clothing for school, meals, school supplies, books, and transportation are luxuries for such families. According to the World Bank, 13 percent of children ages 7-14 work outside the home, rather than attend school. According to Unicef, 16 percent of children ages 10-17 are illiterate. Usually, one or both parents have little or no education, due to less long-term educational exposure for children of poorer families. Is it any wonder they may resent the mandatory law for their children to attend the New York City schools?

Though cultural differences present a major obstacle, language is the biggest difficulty for these immigrant children in the New York City schools. According to Robert Mercedes, Principal of Middle School 390 in the Bronx and President of the Association of Dominican-American Supervisors and Administrators, Dominican children arrive at the New York City schools lacking the basic native-language skills of the Dominican Republic. This makes transitioning them into the English language even more difficult.

They feel like outsiders in the New York City schools. They are in a language and cultural isolation. They are generally dumped into bilingual classes at low-income schools, and feel more of a burden to the New York City schools than an equal to the other students. The victim mentality takes over for many of these youth, who separate themselves into close-knit ethnic groups. They are especially vulnerable to street gang recruitment, which pervades the areas around the ghetto-like atmosphere of some of the New York City schools they attend.

On one side, the New York City schools are a haven of new opportunities for the Dominican children and their parents. Yet, these same opportunities can be the downfall of the immigrant family values and the children, as well. It is a dual-edged sword, afflicted with stressful difficulties and insurmountable obstacles for many.