Erik Koby’s summer was an action-packed hit

If you ask Erik Koby ’09 what he did on his summer vacation, be prepared to pull up a chair and listen awhile. He was a very busy young man. The theatre major spent a good portion of his summer break on the Wooster campus, working on four different projects.

He helped Ansley Valentine, associate professor of theatre, run a film camp, where high school students learned the basics of plotting, directing, shooting, and editing a film. He also worked as Valentine’s research assistant, locating, organizing and editing still images and video for two projects: a documentary on women during World War II and a performance piece called “The Magi” that combines puppets, video and still imagery.

“He did a great job,” says Valentine, who has hired Koby to work in the theatre and dance department’s media lab this year.

Last but by no means least, Koby worked as a counselor in the college’s Youngstown Early Intervention Program.

The program identifies promising, at-risk eighth graders about to enter Youngstown’s Chaney High School, and provides academic support and enrichment throughout their high school years to prepare them for college. Part of that support is a two-week, on-campus program each summer that provides intensive instruction in writing, analytical skills, and mathematics, as well as classes in theatre, chemistry, and computing.

Working with the Youngstown students on campus was particularly meaningful for Koby, because he is an alumnus of the program, which he credits with preparing him to succeed in college. Now, as a student counselor, he gets to give something back.

The Youngstown students do several college visits each year as part of the program, but Koby decided early on that Wooster was the place for him. “Everywhere else I went didn’t seem quite right, but I could definitely see myself being here. Wooster was the best choice for me,” he says.