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| navigate: home: magazine: spring 2002: article | |
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Summer youth programs popular at Penn State By Celena E. Kusch | ||||||||||||||||
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Colleges and universities may be designed to meet the educational needs of adults, but every summer, Penn State proves that it is a kid at heart. Summer youth camps and programs are offered at more than 100 on-campus and off-site locations statewide and involve faculty members from every academic college and school, as well as the Pennsylvania College of Technology and the Penn State College of Medicine. This summer, programs will be sponsored by all 67 Penn State Cooperative Extension offices, all 24 campuses, all colleges, Continuing Education, Penn State Public Broadcasting and the Multicultural Resource Center. “Last summer, some 27,000 children and youth, ages 6 through 18, participated in the dozens of programs administered by Conferences and Institutes at University Park,” Dr. Patricia A. Book, associate vice president for outreach and executive director of the Division of Continuing Education, said. “An additional 6,567 youth enrolled in 4-H residential camps hosted throughout the state. And this is just the beginning.” Thousands of children and youth are also involved in 4-H summer fairs, shows, competitions, drama and club activities throughout the summer months. Thousands more participate in camps, conferences, institutes and programs administered directly through the campuses, colleges and departments. And thousands participate in Continuing Education’s Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center summer day camps, residential camps and other youth programs in natural and environmental history, ecology, teambuilding, leadership, outdoor exploration and adventure, and Pennsylvania wildlife. Dr. Marilyn Corbin, assistant director of Penn State Cooperative Extension and state program leader for children, youth, and families, said, “Penn State offers a wide variety of youth development programs, including environmental, leadership and sports camps, as well as science and engineering experiences. In every county, a 4-H Youth Development program is offered by Penn State Cooperative Extension. Our youth programs are high quality, interactive and designed to build on the assets of youth.” Corbin’s office coordinates a Web site of Penn State’s statewide programs for children and youth (http://www.outreach.psu.edu/YouthPrograms/). As Corbin notes, the summer youth programs are as varied as the academic colleges themselves. Programs cover the full range of disciplines from anthropology to zoology and everything in between. Preparing leaders of the future
Career awareness, precollegiate and entrepreneurial experiences are common themes of the camps. At the Pennsylvania College of Technology, for instance, students ages 9 through 12 enroll in a career camp called Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker, What Do You Want to Be? The one-week program is a collaborative initiative of Penn State Continuing Education, Penn State Cooperative Extension and the Pennsylvania College of Technology. It launched last summer with support from the Outreach Partnership Fund and the community’s Northern Tier K-16 Council.
Program developers come from a number of Penn State units and include Angelique H. Caffrey, Continuing Education representative; Debra Sanders, program support specialist for the Penn College Technology Transfer Center; Ted Nichols, director of Penn College North Campus Outreach Services; Earle Robbins, director of Tioga County Cooperative Extension; and Kristen Michael, camp coordinator.
During the camp, these and other outreach experts and faculty presenters teach students about a variety of careers in science and technology, including forestry, aviation, plastics, agriculture and more. Campers participate in hands-on tours of Penn College laboratories, as well as field trips to area businesses and learning institutions. According to Caffrey, the program hopes to have local sponsorship for the upcoming summer.
“The opportunities for partnerships with this program are practically endless, as business, individuals, nonprofit associations, colleges and schools can all become involved,” Caffrey said. “The program’s uncomplicated structure is conducive to being repeated in other towns or counties. It’s also an excellent way to capitalize on the strengths of Penn State’s Outreach entities and their local supporters.”
Like the career camp, other precollegiate initiatives involve partnerships between Penn State colleges, local businesses and state and federal government agencies. The most notable of these sponsored programs are the annual Pennsylvania Governor’s Schools, sponsored by the College of Agricultural Sciences and the School of Information Sciences and Technology, and several camps, courses and other programs offered through the NASA-funded Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium.
Many other precollegiate and career programs are offered in the areas of engineering. The annual Venture in Engineering Camp (VEC-Tour), for example, provides an opportunity for young women in 10th and 11th grades to explore potential careers in engineering. Throughout the weeklong program, the girls participate in interdisciplinary hands-on activities and team design projects that introduce them to engineering through active problem solving.
Cynthia Freeman-Fail, director of diversity enhancement programs for the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, stressed the importance of the VEC-Tour camp.
“Youth programs designed particularly for women in engineering aren’t offered everywhere, and when parents hear about the program, they will call from around the country to inquire,” she said. Freeman-Fail and Barbara Bogue, director of the Women in Engineering Program, coordinate the VEC program.
Last summer, the Masifundisane Training and Development Projects partnered with Penn State to add an international dimension to the program. Forty-two American and South African students worked in several campus labs to get an idea of the range of career options open to engineers. Faculty from several departments and both colleges worked with the girls.
Eight counselors, six Penn State women engineering undergraduate students and two South African engineering students from the University of Durban-Westville, South Africa, provided role models for prospective future engineers. They also led hands-on team activities and cross-cultural experiences.
“The interactions among the girls and the cultural perspectives that they brought to the camp created a highly interactive environment that taught the campers firsthand the value of diversity and global experience in the modern engineering profession and workplace,” Bogue said.
During the week, several faculty developed and offered hands-on engineering activities:
All campers participated in The Big Cover Up, a weeklong team project led by the counselors. The girls worked with raw materials provided by Kimberly Clark to design, construct and market a water-resistant textile product with planned obsolescence. Final products included a one-use umbrella, a waterproof hat for emergencies and a coat for animals.
According to Freeman-Fail, the camp’s many hands-on efforts help give the girls a concrete idea of what it is like to be an engineer. “By the end of the program, they can see themselves doing the math and working in the labs. They feel that they can be engineers,” she said.
“Our greatest sign of success has come from the e-mails we receive from the young women after they get home,” Freeman-Fail said. “They ask us about the classes they plan to take in school, when they should apply for programs and other questions that show they are taking engineering seriously. We also receive notes from their parents about the great attitude changes they see in their children.”
Hosted at the Penn State University Park campus, the VEC-Tour program is offered through the College of Engineering and College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and supported by the Outreach Program Innovation Fund, the Penn State Equal Opportunity Planning Committee, Fluor Global Services and Marconi.
Like the engineering programs targeted to young women, several other Penn State summer programs serve groups that are underrepresented in the various disciplines. Together, these programs reach several hundred young people each summer. They include the BEST (Business Engineering Science and Technology) Summer Scholars Program, the Aim High leadership program for high school girls, Visit in Engineering Week, the Multicultural High School Journalists Institute, Hispanics for Academic Progress, Cooperative Extension’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program camp for youth from limited resources families and the Second Mile camps for at-risk, underprivileged or inner-city children.
As part of the Bob Burgess Second Mile Leadership Institute, Penn State undergraduates work with the youth as mentors, liaisons and counselors. Under the direction of Gus Colangelo, assistant professor of management and program manager for the Mitte Foundation Scholarship Program at Penn State, Mitte Scholars in The Mary Jean and Frank P. Smeal College of Business Administration work with the youth leaders who participate in the institute. The high school students design and implement service projects within their communities, and the Mitte Scholars apply their academic skills to help them develop marketing plans, strategies and budgets.
According to Colangelo, the collaboration between Mitte Scholars and the Second Mile program has allowed the 12 scholars to have a positive impact on nearly 200 youth and members of several communities through the projects. In the next two years, the number of scholars will double and their reach into the community will grow, as well. Academic enrichment in arts and sciences
Beyond precollegiate, leadership and career experiences, other summer programs focus on academic enrichment in the arts and culture, science and engineering, and computers and technology. Last summer, for instance, the College of Arts and Architecture alone offered 47 arts courses for youth at University Park through Continuing Education. The College of Communications also plans to offer a new summer Institute for High School Filmmakers this year with Conferences and Institutes.
This same commitment to youth enrichment extends to all of the 24 statewide campus locations. Extensive College for Kids enrichment programs for school-age children take place at most campuses, and all offer a selection of enrichment courses or camps. These programs provide challenging experiences that are not part of the regular school curriculum.
At Penn State Shenango, for example, students learn to build and run race cars made from valve covers.
Penn State Abington offers an innovative Lego® Mindstorms™ Robotics Camp in which students learn about engineering by designing and building Lego robots. Last year, Marv Singer, technology teacher leader and technology instructor for the Philadelphia School District, and Bob Avanzato, associate professor of engineering at Penn State Abington and coordinator of the Mobile Robotics Program, provided instruction for the camp.
The Penn State Lehigh Valley Youth Enrichment Partnership brings together the Housing Authority of the City of Allentown, Mosser Village Family Center, West End Kiwanis Club, Binney & Smith and University faculty and scholars to improve literacy and critical thinking for children from disadvantaged communities. Students from the fourth through sixth grades develop skills in reading, writing or English as a second language through hands-on projects, field trips and computer activities. The students are taught by Writing Fellows and Visiting Scholars from Puerto Rican universities who have participated in the Lehigh Valley Writing Institute.
One of the most innovative enrichment programs is Penn State Beaver’s Imagination Station — Adventure through Literature summer camp. Last summer, the camp was based on The Sorcerer’s Stone, the first book in the J.K. Rawlings series featuring Harry Potter. Fifty-two children from the third through sixth grades attended the weeklong program, which featured 35 hours of hands-on instruction in reading, writing, science, crafts and physical education, all related to scenes from the book.
Four certified teachers from area schools designed and taught the sessions. Students were required to read the novel before enrolling in the camp, then they learned to make their own scientific and artistic versions of the magic in the book. For example, the physical education instructor taught students the rules of basketball and soccer, then combined them to emulate the games played by characters in the book, and an area naturalist brought his collection of owls (used in the book to deliver messages) and birds of prey to share with the students.
Marian Vendemia, Continuing Education area representative for Penn State Beaver and coordinator of the camp, was excited by the response and anticipates even more students will attend the sequel this summer.
“The evaluations are overwhelmingly positive,” Vendemia said. “The parents were all so glad that their children would come home each day excited to go back for more.” The students also expressed great interest in coming back again this summer, she added.
Vendemia credits the success of the camp to the high quality of instruction. “All of our teachers were extraordinary people who really wanted to be involved with the project, and that’s what made it such a success.” The teachers already have plans for this summer’s camp, and she hopes to add additional faculty to teach lessons in astronomy and an evening stargazing event.
Like the creative Imagination Station camp, all of Penn State’s youth programs invite and inspire students to learn creatively. They demonstrate how University faculty and resources can reach even the youngest members of the community.
“These summer youth programs provide an outstanding opportunity for the enrichment of youth in the Commonwealth,” Book said. “Our innovative camps provide substantive content, excellent coaching and the opportunity to interact with known scholars and University professionals. Through these programs, University faculty and students provide career models for our youth, foster positive peer relationships and offer mentoring guidance for young, inquiring minds. I am extremely pleased with the intellectual excitement and serious inquiry these programs foster and the willingness of so many of our colleagues to work with youth.” | |||||||||||||||
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