Meet Frank and Karen Bowers (CCS Parents)
College of Creative Studies: As CCS parents, how did you find out about CCS?
Frank and Karen Bowers: The summer before our son Scott’s junior year in high school, I, Karen, researched UCSB on Quora and came across a few threads about CCS. The more I learned, the more captivated I became. Getting to live and learn math as richly as my son dreamed seemed amazing. Potentially the perfect fit for our son. Well, perfect or horrible, no in-betweens. We quickly realized this opportunity meant drinking from the fire hose, so the big question was, would that feed our son’s brain and soul?
Amazingly the next week Scott was reading The Riemann Hypothesis: The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics, which mentioned how a CCS first-year student got into a graduate level course thanks to his CCS professor who advocated for him. Our son’s brain sparked more to the opportunity.
CCS: What led you and your student to choose to attend CCS? Was there a defining moment that led to your decision?
F&KB: February break of his senior year, Scott shadowed with a first-year CCS math major who made him feel very welcome — including sharing his homework with Scott. While our son didn’t catch all of it, he caught enough which thrilled him. We also spent some hours touring the campus with Professor Maria Isabel (Maribel) Bueno Cachadina and another student. We all grew more enamored with the Math program as well as with Maribel.
Each college visit we were looking for his tribe; not all schools had his people, but CCS had an abundance. Finally a chance to make friends who shared his passion.
During the admissions decision-making I, Frank, found out that a well-respected friend’s daughter recently graduated from CCS. The fact that my friend became a CCS donor helped seal the deal for me.
CCS: How has the CCS experience impacted your son? What specifically is your student enjoying most about the experience?
F&KB: Scott has had to paradigm shift from his need to personally supplement the math he craves to school being the place to feed his love of math. He’s in an interesting cycle of not creating math currently because now he’s encountering math so wide that he still needs to learn before he can start applying it to his personal math questions. It’s as if in high school he were walking along the shores of mathematics and now he’s learning to swim out into the depths. Exciting for all of us now waiting for the burgeoning creative outpouring.
It’s as if in high school he were walking along the shores of mathematics and now he’s learning to swim out into the depths.
CCS: How would you describe CCS to future parents and what advice would you share with them?
F&KB: CCS gives some framework for your student to chart her or his own path into the desired field. CCS ramps students up quickly, so even in the first year, they are taking upper division classes. CCS offers the breadth of knowledge of UCSB while offering the intimacy of a small private college.
Many college first-year students hit the wall first quarter as they learn how to balance school, friends, and independent living. CCS students are more likely to encounter that in their second quarter because their intense passion for learning may delay this experience.
CCS: Does a memorable moment stand out from your time as CCS parents? If so, please describe the moment.
F&KB: Embracing the first-year rites of passage, we came down for the UCSB Parents & Family Weekend which included the inaugural CCS Research & Creative Activities Conference (RACA-CON). At RACA-CON, while studying the undergraduate research posters, Scott found one on quantum computing with cryptography applications, and it just blew his mind. He spent 15 minutes reading the poster, listening to the second-year student presenter, and asking her excellent questions. Once he’d gotten his lunch, he pulled friends down to the poster to discuss the power of the ideas, and by then, the second-year student presenter had gone off to get her lunch and literally came back running to engage with the students. They all remained pressing in on the subject for another 20 minutes.
CCS: Anything else you would like to share about CCS or UCSB with the CCS community?
F&KB: When people say the professors care at CCS, it’s true and deep. I know students in various CCS majors who’ve gone to their professors with significant issues beyond their subjects and were given the care we parents would hope for. CCS faculty members guide our students in a broad swath of issues moving them further into adulthood and their future professions.