Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Monday, August 16, 2010

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Lafayette senior Jonathan Karp met one of his favorite authors, Tobias Wolff, at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

This summer in Colorado, a Lafayette senior found the air thick with vibrant intellectual exchanges at the weeklong Aspen Ideas Festival.

Jonathan Karp was among the 2010 Bezos Scholars, a dozen high school students from across the United States chosen to attend the festival, which features seminars and roundtable discussions with international leaders in the fields of arts, science, culture, technology, religion, philosophy, business, economics and politics.

“It was incredibly inspiring just to be around all these people who’ve been successful at what they do and helped a lot of people,” he said. “The whole experience was like a dream.”

The impressive guest list included such names as business magnate and philanthropist Bill Gates; DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg; former president of Mexico Vicente Fox; and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly.

One-on-one, the luminaries came across as very approachable, as Jonathan said, “You realize they’re not so different.”  

In fact, he introduced himself to author Tobias Wolff after a lecture, secured his e-mail address and set up an informal meeting with a fellow student.

“It was a lot of fun to hear an author I respect and enjoy his work,” Jonathan said, recalling the personable writer.

Sessions on genetic engineering, race and criminal justice, and Twitter’s effect on movie marketing were also particularly memorable.

“I tried to immerse myself in everything,” he said. “I have a really broad set of interests.”

Lunch with Sir Ken Robinson, an expert on the role of creativity in education systems around the world, was another significant opportunity since Jonathan is a student in the School for the Creative and Performing Arts at Lafayette High. (An accomplished violinist and concertmaster, he spent the bulk of his summer at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.)

Jonathan heard about the Bezos Scholars through a cousin in St. Louis, applied for the program and tapped Lafayette chemistry teacher Zach Matson as his accompanying mentor.

Matson, however, spent only one full day in Aspen – having to rush back home for the birth of his first child, who arrived a few weeks early.

“I did get to eat lunch with Sandra Day O’Connor when I was there,” he said, referring to the retired U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Matson also attended a seminar on epigenetics that “kind of blew my mind” and had breakfast with a man from Africa who seeks to better his country by ensuring talented youngsters receive a strong education.

“He’s hoping to produce thousands of leaders in the next 50 years to try to shift Africa away from its current power structure,” Matson recalled.

Similarly, the Bezos Scholars program intends for the Aspen experience to produce ripple effects.

This year, each student/teacher team will plan a local ideas festival that focuses on a relevant issue for the scholars and their respective schools. The most impressive proposals are rewarded with $1,000 grants as seed money.

“We want to do something that perhaps provides students with the opportunity to get involved in various things they may not have known existed,” said Jonathan, who is excited about helping other teenagers plug into important issues and community activism.