November 14, 2025
Inside NuVu Summer: A Conversation with Program Director Sarine Vosgueritchian
How a creative summer camp empowers teens through design
Interview by Doreen Manning, NuVu High School Director of Storytelling
Every summer, middle and high school students discover what learning can look like when creativity takes the lead. Guided by the expert coaches of NuVu Summer, students prototype robots, design wearable tech, build architectural models, and pitch startup ideas—all within NuVu High School’s immersive, project-based studio model.
For many, NuVu Summer is their first taste of the design studio learning that defines NuVu High School. Over two fast-paced weeks, students brainstorm, build, test, and refine their ideas, gaining not just technical skills but confidence, collaboration, and agency as creators.
To learn more about how the program comes together—and how it sparks lasting impact—I sat down with Sarine Vosgueritchian, NuVu’s Summer Program Director. A trained architect and educator, Sarine has shaped the summer experience for the past three years, blending her love of design with her passion for inspiring the next generation of innovators.
Doreen: Sarine, this will be your third year directing the NuVu Summer Program. How do you approach designing a lineup of studios each summer?
Sarine: It’s definitely evolved each year. I’ve learned a lot about how students engage with different types of design challenges, and that experience shapes how I build the next summer’s program. We always aim to balance a range of skills—robotics, architecture, product design, game design, fashion, and now entrepreneurship.
Every studio involves physical making, which is something that really sets NuVu apart. Students aren’t just imagining ideas—they’re prototyping them from scratch, no pre-made kits here!. That act of building, testing, and refining is essential to our learning model. This year, for example, we’re introducing Startup Labs where students not only make a product but also learn how to pitch it, market it, and bring it to life.
Doreen: That’s so cool! How do you decide which studios to bring back or reinvent?
Sarine: We always look at what’s resonated in past years—like Battlebotics, Exploration Rovers, and Escape Room—and then ask how we can evolve those experiences. For instance, GraffitiBot started as a small-scale art project, but now we’re expanding it to wall-scale art. Some studios, like E-Go Carts, come from our archives because they were just too good not to bring back.
It’s a mix of nostalgia and innovation—we’re constantly asking, “What’s new in technology, culture, or design that our students can explore?”
Doreen: You mentioned earlier that the program runs in quick, two-week sessions. What does that experience look like for a student?
Sarine: It’s our most condensed version of NuVu’s design studio model. Students dive right in—by the first or second day, they’re already prototyping.
Each day runs from 9am to 3pm, with time for outdoor breaks and games. Day one starts with a design sprint, a quick creative challenge that gets everyone thinking and making right away. Then we move through the stages of research, ideation, and iteration. Collaboration happens organically—students might start a project together, branch off, and then merge ideas again.
By the midpoint, they share their work-in-progress at an informal “mid-review,” where coaches and I give feedback. Week two is all about high-fidelity prototyping—students are laser-focused on refining their final projects and presentations. We end with a big showcase: fashion shows, robot battles, game demos, even water balloon experiments for our Super Splash Lab studio.
It’s amazing to see how much they accomplish in such a short time.
Doreen: That sounds both fun and challenging. What kind of growth do you see in students during those two weeks?
Sarine: The transformation is incredible. A student might arrive saying, “I’ve never done CAD” or “I don’t know how to code,” and by the end they’re presenting a fully functional prototype.
But the growth isn’t just technical—it’s mindset-based. Students learn that design is iterative: sometimes you have to go back, rebuild, and improve. That can be hard at first, but it’s such a valuable skill. They become more open to feedback, more collaborative, and more confident.
One student in our Hacking Drones Studio told me, “I came in knowing nothing, and now my brain is exploding with all the things I can do.” That’s the moment you know it worked.
Doreen: You’ve mentioned that NuVu Summer mirrors NuVu High School’s model. How do those experiences connect?
Sarine: The structure is the same—just compressed. NuVu’s design studio model is all about learning through doing, blending art, engineering, and storytelling. Summer students experience that same environment, just in shorter bursts.
Many of our high schoolers first found NuVu through the summer program. They got a taste of that freedom—to explore ideas, to design something real—and realized, “This is how I want to learn all the time.” It’s a great way for families to see if the NuVu approach resonates before committing to the full high school experience.
Doreen: You also bring your own design background into the mix. How does that shape the way you lead?
Sarine: My background is in architecture—I studied at the American University of Beirut (Bachelor of Architecture) and at MIT (Master of Science in Architecture and Urbanism)—and I’ve experienced how design education can sometimes be overly critical or competitive. At NuVu, I want to cultivate the opposite: a creative environment that’s rigorous but joyful.
Designing should be fun. Students should leave feeling proud, not intimidated. So I focus on helping them see iteration as progress, not failure. That mindset sets them up for success, not just in design but in whatever field they choose.
Doreen: It’s clear how much energy and care goes into each studio. What do you hope students—and parents—take away from NuVu Summer?
Sarine: For students, I hope it’s the spark of “I can make things happen.” Whether they’re building a robot, coding a game, or designing a product, they start to see themselves as capable creators.
For parents, I hope they see that this kind of learning isn’t just fun—it’s transformative. The skills students develop here—problem-solving, collaboration, adaptability—are the same ones they’ll need in college, careers, and life.
