Activities for teen who loves history?
We have a 15 year old who is really into history. We'd love to find a way for him to get more engaged with the passion (beyond reading and watching videos). Does anyone know of any clubs, volunteer opportunities or activities that he might get excited about? Thanks for any advice!
Jan 18, 2022
Parent Replies
A friend’s son volunteered at the history room at the Berkeley Public Library. My child volunteered at the Bancroft one summer.
Consider looking at opportunities to volunteer at historical sites inlding Dunsmuir house, Ardenwood, national parks( SF maritime, Rosie the riveter) There are definitely ways to do more engagement.
This might be a crazy idea but have you looked into LARPing? It's live action role play typically set in the era of knights and other medieval stuff. It sounds like fun to me but I've never done it. I love reading about that era and it seems like super fun to act it out. People go on missions to retrieve things and rescue people. So not real history but immersive fun.
Have you looked into having him volunteer or intern at a local museum? Most museums take on volunteers for help, though I don't know if there might be age restrictions. I would bet you can find one that would be willing to help get him involved in some capacity though. The downside is it's free labor, which I don't particularly agree with, but it is a good way to help nurture his interest.
Our daughter did the Next Chapter program at the JFCS Holocaust Center her freshman year. It’s a program for high school students where they read historical texts and link up with Holocaust survivors to learn about and spread awareness to prevent genocide. They get 35 plus hours of community service. It’s a pretty fantastic program, and also very important.
Check out the Manovil Program at Jewish Family and Children's Services in SF. It’s a really high level Holocaust and Genocide Studies program for high school students. The topic is obviously very heavy, but my son had a great experience. He was in the program for 2 years. The second year included a stipend. I think they are on zoom right now. The teachers are PhD level historians. Although it’s run by a Jewish agency, the participants were a really diverse group of (smart) kids. (As a bonus, my son wrote about the experience in his college essays).
My kid enjoyed touring the USS Hornet museum in Alameda.
Old Sacramento or the town of Columbia, CA, or any number of ghost towns and old mines for gold rush / california history
Renaissance Faire in the fall is not historically precise, but loads of fun
Ardenwood is pretty nice, and possibly a place to volunteer
I am looking forward to the other answers!
Try the ADTP summer program at Cal for critical thinking courses. As well, your child may enjoy taking a course through Coursera online. It is interesting that there are few if any summer HS-level courses offered focusing specifically on history. Also check UK online courses. Maybe try taking/auditing a city college summer course
My son is in a club on Outschool called Military History Club that meets online weekly. Keith is very passionate and knowledgeable about history. He presents and tells the historical events like telling a great adventure story, very engaging especially for online forums. My son who has a hard time even sitting still loves the club meetings and looks forward to it every week.
He may want to contact Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association or the Berkeley History Society.