A budding Renaissance man, 10-year-old Jared Post's interests range from the cerebral to the physical. A mathematician, pianist and basketball player, he also loves art of any kind: ceramics, painting, sculpture, even metalsmithing.

Metalsmithing? Hardly an art form the typical grade-schooler is versed in -- unless he has enrolled in the Visual Art Academy. For two weeks every summer, young people immerse themselves in nearly every form of art -- including computer art -- offered through UAF's Art Department.

Summer programs on the Fairbanks campus get kids out of their routines and into whole new worlds. Students enrolled in the Alaska Summer Research Academy learn how to build a robot, make a movie, study muskoxen or delve into several other subjects. Aspiring musicians hone their skills at the Summer Music Academy; young athletes tear it up at sports camp.

Some students enroll without knowing much about the subject they'll study for the next two or three weeks, but along the way they find fascination and inspiration in something totally new and exciting. Others, like Jared Post, have a pretty good idea of what they want to do in life, and how the summer program will help them realize their dreams.

"I want to be a sculpture designist person,” Post says with confidence, "and an artist, which I already am."