SOCAPA Summer Intensives for Teens
Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041
About
SOCAPA Summer Intensives for Teens focuses on writing, performing, shooting, editing, rehearsing, composing, and producing, with filmmakers collaborating with actors, photographers shooting headshots and production stills, singer-songwriters creating music videos with filmmakers, dancers working on dance films and photo shoots, and screenwriters working with actors on staged readings. Students attend one another’s showcases and take part in organized evening and weekend activities such as karaoke nights, talent shows, games, Q&A sessions with guest speakers, and trips ranging from Coney Island and Times Square to Broadway shows, as well as visits to museums, galleries, studios, beaches, theme parks, and other tourist spots.
• Ages: 14–18 years old
• Schedule: Two- and three-week sessions, with most class activities running Monday through Friday, generally from 9am to 5pm, plus at least one or two evenings of work and some final weekend days for certain three-week programs, and evening activities typically from 7pm to 10pm
• Price: Day students pay an additional Meals and Activities fee of $185 per week of attendance
Founded in Greenwich Village in 2001, SOCAPA reports 24 years in education, 18,447 alumni, and students from 94 countries, and operates under a rolling admissions policy. SOCAPA describes itself as one of the premier visual and performing arts programs for high school teens and as a serious arts intensive with the energy and joy of summer, offering filmmaking, acting, dance, photography, musical theater, and music programs, with a schedule that intertwines these disciplines and creates constant opportunities for students to work across programs. SOCAPA states that it is more than a summer program and that it is a place where young artists come to create boldly, collaborate deeply, and grow in ways that prepare them for college, creative work, and life, and it characterizes the experience as a true pre-college setting where students live away from home, share space with roommates, manage their time, and build habits of independence and responsibility.
Testimonials from parents and students describe the instruction as excellent and hands-on in a professional setting, the staff as amazing and treating kids like their own, the teachers and counselors as mature, creative, and inspiring, and the leisure activities as exciting and well supervised, with students described as friendly, artistic, mutually supportive, and overwhelmingly supportive of one another. In Los Angeles, visiting filmmakers and actors from the industry drop by at least once per session to screen and talk about their work, and weekend trips include major attractions such as the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, Santa Monica and Venice Beach, live tapings, film studios, beaches, theme parks, and other tourist hot spots, with students responsible for three meals while out touring and day students expected to purchase their own dinner when joining evening activities. At the Manhattan campus, pre-college students are responsible for purchasing their own meals and are generally advised to budget about $300 per week for food.
Last updated June 24, 2026.
• Ages: 14–18 years old
• Schedule: Two- and three-week sessions, with most class activities running Monday through Friday, generally from 9am to 5pm, plus at least one or two evenings of work and some final weekend days for certain three-week programs, and evening activities typically from 7pm to 10pm
• Price: Day students pay an additional Meals and Activities fee of $185 per week of attendance
Founded in Greenwich Village in 2001, SOCAPA reports 24 years in education, 18,447 alumni, and students from 94 countries, and operates under a rolling admissions policy. SOCAPA describes itself as one of the premier visual and performing arts programs for high school teens and as a serious arts intensive with the energy and joy of summer, offering filmmaking, acting, dance, photography, musical theater, and music programs, with a schedule that intertwines these disciplines and creates constant opportunities for students to work across programs. SOCAPA states that it is more than a summer program and that it is a place where young artists come to create boldly, collaborate deeply, and grow in ways that prepare them for college, creative work, and life, and it characterizes the experience as a true pre-college setting where students live away from home, share space with roommates, manage their time, and build habits of independence and responsibility.
Testimonials from parents and students describe the instruction as excellent and hands-on in a professional setting, the staff as amazing and treating kids like their own, the teachers and counselors as mature, creative, and inspiring, and the leisure activities as exciting and well supervised, with students described as friendly, artistic, mutually supportive, and overwhelmingly supportive of one another. In Los Angeles, visiting filmmakers and actors from the industry drop by at least once per session to screen and talk about their work, and weekend trips include major attractions such as the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, Santa Monica and Venice Beach, live tapings, film studios, beaches, theme parks, and other tourist hot spots, with students responsible for three meals while out touring and day students expected to purchase their own dinner when joining evening activities. At the Manhattan campus, pre-college students are responsible for purchasing their own meals and are generally advised to budget about $300 per week for food.
Last updated June 24, 2026.
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