Experiencing Everest (Full-Day Course)
Have you ever thought about being a teacher? Do you have a passion for kids coming from challenging backgrounds? Do you want to be a part of a school that is making a difference in the city of Chicago? Then this class is for you! Through this class students will have the opportunity to observe and serve at the Moving Everest Charter school in the Austin neighborhood. Students will experience the blessings and challenges of teaching as they get to know their own class of elementary or middle school students. Activities such as tutoring, lesson planning, putting together crafts, taking students to gym, and read aloud will all be a part of a typical day throughout this course. Students will also spend a couple of days reflecting on teaching and sharing experiences with one another. By the end of the two weeks, students will have a clear picture of what it looks like to teach in an urban setting at a school committed to helping all students thrive.
Instructor: Kristen Rusthoven
Class Fee: None
Open to: All grades
Alpha
It’s OK to have doubts. It’s OK to have questions. Alpha Youth is a series of conversations that explore the basics of Christianity in a supportive environment. It’s a place where you can ask honest questions or say nothing at all. Everyone is welcome. If you have decided to follow Jesus, this class is for you. If you have questions about faith, this class is for you. If you are looking for a fun and supportive community in class, this course is for you.
During this class, you will experience community building and move through the Alpha Youth curriculum. For more on the Alpha Youth experience, click here.
Instructor: David Moran
Class Fee: None
Open to: All grades
Activities for Lifetime Fitness - Registration Closed
Physical fitness is an essential component of everyone’s life . For too many high school students, the only physical fitness activities they experience are those that are part of the traditional P.E. curriculum or co-curricular activities . This course is designed to provide the students with the opportunity to participate in a wide range of non-traditional physical fitness activities, as well as provide a different twist on traditional physical fitness activities. Proper clothes for each day’s activity are needed.
Planned activities are subject to change based on weather: Bowling, Sledding, Skating, Downhill Skiing in Wisconsin, Laser Tag, Indoor Rock Climbing, Badminton Tournament, Snow Football, Snow Ultimate Frisbee, Scavenger Hunt in Downtown Wheaton.
Instructors: Angela Rak
Class Fee: $100
Open to: All grades
American Sign Language
In a this class, you will learn the foundation of a beautiful, useful language. Although ASL takes a lifetime to master, the basics of conversation will be introduced in this Winterim class. Fingerspelling and numbers, greetings, food, home, clothing, idioms, history, culture, media representation and ministry will all be presented, with time for hands-on practice and discussion. God is calling individuals of this generation to extend their hands to an unreached people group who live among us and across the world. Will you respond?
Instructors: Alta Johnson
Class Fee: None
Open to: All grades
3D Animation Workshop
Step into the 3D animation Workshop! In this immersive class, you’ll explore the powerful world of Cinema 4D, a go-to tool for animators across the industry. Whether you’re a complete beginner or looking to level up your skills, we’ll take a deep dive into creating stunning 3D animations from the ground up.
From modeling and lighting to color theory and composition, we’ll break down the essentials while guiding you through the full animation workflow. Get ready to study what makes your favorite movies, games, and TV shows visually unforgettable (or sometimes forgettable!) and use those insights to inform your own creations.
By the end of the course, you’ll have mastered key techniques in Cinema 4D and crafted your own fully animated project—complete with feedback and guidance from industry pros. This is your chance to turn your ideas into amazing 3D renders, ready to impress and inspire!
Instructors: Luke Fritz
Class Fee: None
Open to: All grades
Aviation - Registration Closed
Are you interested in the aviation field? If so, this class is for you! This class will be an introduction to the amazing world of aviation. We will take a look at the basics of flight, including aerodynamics, aircraft systems, weight and balance, charts, navigation, flight planning, regulations, and weather. Offered with the help of the LeTourneau University Aviation Program, Wheaton Academy is excited about once again reaching for the sky!
Instructor: Lee Wilkinson
Course Fee: None; however, if weather permits, we will try
to schedule discovery flights with students. The cost of this flight is an additional $100 per student should a student choose to participate.
Open to: All Grades
Christianity Then and Now
This course will explore the birth, growth, and branching out of the Christian church.
Students might wonder about the history of their own church branch and how it is both similar and distinct from other branches of Christianity. This course will address these questions. Possible field trips include visits to a Jewish synagogue, a Catholic church and an Eastern Orthodox church.
Instructor: Chip Dykema
Course Fee: None
Open to: All Grades
Christian Witness in the Time of War
The class uses feature films and documentaries to tell the story of WWII and the Holocaust and the lives of heroic Christians who took a stand for their faith.
Students will view parts of the well-known films Pearly Harbor, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, and Hacksaw Ridge. Other films include Amen, Nanking, John Rabe, To End all Wars, Empire of the Sun, Memory of the Camps, Sophie Scholl, and many others.
The class also provides the rare opportunity to talk with, in person, some of the few remaining WWII veterans and Holocaust survivors.
Students will discover how they can apply what they’ve learned to issues in our world today and to our faith as followers of Christ.
Instructor: Scott Young
Course Fee: None
Open to: All Grades
Cricut 101 - Registration Closed
This course will teach students how to use a Cricut crafting machine. We will explore the design side of crafting by learning the Cricut software before bringing our creations to life. Students will design projects from custom Starbucks cold cups, to originally design apparel. The main emphasis of this course will be to help students bring their Pinterest worthy ideas to life. Come prepared to design and create! Students will leave the class with an array of projects to keep!
Instructor: Kimberly Schoepke
Course Fee: $25
Open to: All Grades
Exploration of Acrylic Painting - Registration Closed
This course is an overview and hands-on study of painting with acrylics. Together we will learn about the unique properties of this medium that opens up a wide range of potential for creativity. Each day will focus on a new project, with the goal of each student becoming more comfortable with the medium and finding a subject they’re most interested in.
Instructor: Nicole Gosling
Course Fee: $75
Open to: All Grades
Food Around the World - Registration Closed
This class is designed to help you develop an incredible and adventurous palate. You will experience eight different types of foods from around the world and visit various restaurants in the Chicagoland area. You will pose as a food critic and be given the opportunity to write about each food experience. You may need to be brave at times and go outside your comfort zone. Being a food critic is not for the faint-hearted. You will try many different types of foods and record your impressions as descriptively as you can . If you are the kind of person who has a tremendous zest for life and is willing to take many adventures and risks, this course is for you.
Instructor: Daniel Ball
Course Fee: $ 70
Open to: All Grades
Food, Film, & Forgiveness - Registration Closed
The world of film—Spiderman, The Prestige, The Spitfire Grill, and others—focuses on a theme of forgiveness and the possible consequences of refusing to forgive. This class will study the biblical texts that address forgiveness, watch several movies about forgiveness—while eating food–and compare the messages of the movies with the truths of scripture.
Instructor: Melanie Marr
Course Fee: None
Open to: All Grades
Game Design Lab
Do you enjoy playing and creating games? Are you interested in how theme, story, and mechanics work together to create an engaging and fun experience? Want to learn more about game design? What about the artwork that brings a game to life?
In this Winterim design lab, we’ll learn how games work and about their basic elements, how designers create an experience for the player, and how to prototype and iterate your own game design. You’ll also have an opportunity to design the visual look and feel for a game you or another team is creating.
You’ll be playing and evaluating games to learn more about how they work before choosing known mechanics to craft your own games with an emphasis on collaboration. Designers and artists will work together to hone the look and feel of the game and its components.
In this class, you’ll learn…
- How to unpack the term “game,” incorporating different concepts and multiple perspectives.
- How to analyze the mechanics of paper and digital games, considering how these mechanics affect gameplay and player experiences.
- How to design, develop, and test paper and digital prototype games using an iterative design process and incorporating user feedback.
- How to craft a visual identity that enhances gameplay.
Instructor: Sean McCallum
Course Fee: None
Open to: All grades
Intro to Improv - Registration Closed
This Improv class is an introductory course to the fundamentals of improv. It is designed for those who have the desire to get more performance experience under their feet as well as to risk trying new things! Whether Improv is something that you’ve been doing for a long time, or if it’s something that you’ve never tried before, this class is open to all levels of experience! Each day we will have a hands-on rehearsal where everybody will be able to participate in improv warmups, exercises, and games! As we go through these exercises we will focus on the art of collaboration and listening, as well as learning how to make/understand universal humor for audiences that invites all people into the experience of Improv. We’ll finish off the course with an Improv performance that is open to all families of the students in the class, where students can take what they have learned from the class and put it into action!
Instructor: Joe Jones
Course Fee: None
Open to: All Grades
National Security & The Intelligence Community - Registration Closed
Technology is stolen, terrorism targets a world superpower, countries go to war, war is prevented. Why and what does it mean? Come behind the scenes to explore the mysterious world of intelligence operations. You will study the concepts of intelligence collection and its role in national security objectives and become educated on the blurred lines between civil liberties versus national security Want to visit rarely seen intelligence centers and hear from intelligence experts in the field? Join us as we go behind those secret doors.
Instructor: Cory Roberts
Course Fee: None
Open to: All Grades
Pilates - Registration Closed
Calling all future physical therapists, athletic trainers, and sports medicine doctors! Seeking dancers, athletes, and anyone looking to challenge their body in new ways! This class will include a daily Pilates Mat workout, followed by time to look at exercises in detail. We’ll practice and discuss things like correct alignment, properly using your core, and targeting specific muscles. While being challenged physically, you’ll also gain knowledge of movement, muscles, anatomical terms, and the miraculous human body.
This class will also include a day spent at Wheaton Sport Center for a Pilates Reformer workout.
Instructor: Kelly Froehlich
Course Fee: None
Open to: All Grades
Pixel Bash: A Fortnight of Gaming - Registration Closed
Do you love gaming? Join us for an adventure and nine days full of electronic gaming! Each student will build and keep their own RetroPie, a retro-gaming machine enabling you to play arcade and home-console games. You’ll pick which games you install and configure, and we will extensively play-test our creations. We will have multiple gaming competitions and prizes throughout. Vintage arcade gaming will also be featured with field trips to the Flux Capacitor Arcade (private arcade of the instructor) and the Galloping Ghost Arcade, which features over 885 games and is the largest video arcade in the USA!
Game on, Warriors
Instructor: Greg Blaum
Course Fee: $100
Open to: All Grades
Rock Climbing - Registration Closed
Rock climbing is an awesome and often overlooked sport . Regardless of your skill level, join this class for a challenging and chill experience spent in the gym climbing with friends. In this class, we will be traveling to Vertical Endeavors, a nearby rock climbing gym almost every day . This class is open to all levels of climbers. If you are completely new to the sport, this class will teach you the basics of climbing, including how to belay climbers so that you can take on any top rope routes . Rock on!
Instructor: Stephan Zawicki
Course Fee: $100
Open to: All grades
Sales, Staging & Successful Investing: A Real Estate Overview - Registration Closed
In the two weeks of Winterim, the course will provide an overview of the real estate industry. There will be three field trips over the course of the class, such as the opportunity to learn how to stage a home. The class will touch on the light-hearted side of real estate (sales and marketing, property pricing) as well as some heavier topics (negotiation tactics, and real estate ethics). Everyone will be affected by real estate in their lifetime, and this class will give each student a taste of this industry and perhaps an appetite for getting their real estate license. (Licensure age is 18!)
Instructors: Carly Brust
Class Fee: None
Open to: All grades
Table Tennis, Truth, & Trails - Registration Closed
In this class, we will combine the fun of table tennis with the power of scripture memory and the beauty of nature. Each day will include plenty of ping pong action including matches, tournaments, and honing new skills. We’ll take advantage of time away from the busy pace of the school year to engage our minds and hearts in scripture memory in order to fuel our love for God and understanding of his word. By the end of the course, each student will be able to confidently recite a significant passage from God’s word. We’ll spend some time outdoors, going on walks on local trails to give ourselves space to learn scripture and let it sink deep into or hearts in the midst of God’s creation. Our fellowship that we form during our ping pong time will hopefully fuel each other’s depth of understanding of God’s word. Join us for this unique blend of fun, fellowship, and faith!
Instructors: Steve Willemssen
Class Fee: None
Open to: All grades
Traditional Hand Tool Woodworking - Registration Closed
Humankind has been converting trees into buildings, furniture, and innumerable items for all of human existence. Come discover the knowledge and skills used by artisans for millennia, skills that are no longer commonly known. Class is active: we learn with tools in our hands, with logs, lumber, and workbenches. All tools will be human-powered; no electricity. Everyone will practice newly learned skills by building personal projects… all of which you take home to keep. Gain knowledge to become an inspired creative maker in a consumer world, understand wood’s amazing uses as one of the most sustainable resources we can utilize, and do it all powered exclusively by you
Instructors: Ed Bouvier
Class Fee: $125
Open to: All grades
Video Editing: Theory and Technique - Registration Closed
| Editing is the craft of taking video footage and sculpting it into a story. In Video Editing: Theory and Technique, we’ll be exploring the reasoning behind why certain edits work, the early history of film editing, and how to use modern-day editing apps like Final Cut Pro and Premiere. We’ll shoot and edit our own footage in class and discuss our work together. By the end of this class, you’ll see videos, shows, and movies through a brand new lens, and will be able to take your footage in new potential directions. |
Instructor: Chris Yiesla
Course Fee: None, need a phone with camera
Open to: All grades