Local teacher heads up Duke summer camp

EAST COUNTY — For the last four summers, Braden River High School teacher Lisa Henson has spent her time off in or around classrooms — rooms full of gifted students.

Henson, a government and economics teacher, doesn’t teach the students — who come from far away places, such as China, to learn science — but she oversees their teachers.

She’s also responsible for making sure the air conditioning works inside the classrooms and for ensuring the students inside them have enough to eat to endure lectures that often venture outside — and off-campus.

At this Duke University non-profit camp, Henson doesn’t even dress like a teacher. She wears flip-flops and carries a canteen water bottle, as she wanders outside from building to building and classroom to classroom.

This summer, for two weeks, Henson is the academic coordinator for “Institutes,” a two-week camp that is part of Duke’s Talent Identification Program. TIP seeks to identify and develop gifted students in fourth through 12th grades.

Duke runs summer programs at different sites throughout the Southeast, including Georgia, Texas, North Carolina and Florida.

This year, like last year, Henson works at a camp held at New College of Florida.

“A lot of teachers I know are active in the summer,” Henson said. “It isn’t easy staying still.”

For the two years before that, Henson spent her summers — eight weeks in total — on Duke University’s campus as an on-site director.

In that role, she lived with students on campus full-time. Then, she often got calls at 3 a.m. — for medical emergencies, emotional breakdowns, etc.

At that time, she wasn’t married. She also wasn’t pregnant.
Henson, who holds a master’s degree in educational leadership and always has had a managerial side, heard about the Duke program from a friend who works at the university.

Her current job as academic coordinator for “Institutes” is simple in its job description but complex in its execution.

She oversees the New College camp’s academic staff — a broad responsibility that entails holding daily meetings and evaluating teachers by chiming in from the back of the classroom during lectures.

Duke requires students to take the SAT or ACT and achieve a certain score to participate.

“Teaching gifted kids is different,” Henson said. “You have to really know your stuff, and you have to expect they will ask tough questions — and they expect the same of you.”

Henson asks questions of the students to see if the material makes them think harder than they’re accustomed.

Her beeping cellphone, and its attachment to her hip, represents her second major role: Henson runs logistics for the camp. She chauffeurs students inside SUVs to field trips to places such as Mote Marine and Epcot.

If anything goes wrong during camp, Henson informs her bosses at Duke’s campus.

Although the minutiae of her tasks may seem otherwise, the added responsibilities she carries makes use of her talents in a way teaching, alone, can’t.

“Here, I am able to use my master’s degree and apply it,” Henson said. “It’s so intense, because I am investing my entire self into it. For a lot of these kids, it’s their first time not being the smartest in the class. It’s their first time being challenged. I get to see that at work. It’s the most rewarding job I’ve ever had.”

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].