With the public school year having ended, UNC Charlotte has a robust offering of summer enrichment camps that are underway.
Karri Kennedy, program director of the University’s Camps on Campus, said, “We still have openings available for each week.”
Parents can find out more about offerings online for children in elementary school (Cool School Camp schedule), middle school (49er Minors Camp schedule) and for high schoolers (Niner Academy Camp schedule).
“We specialize in ‘edutainment,’ and our instructors make learning fun,” said Kennedy. “Many of our camp instructors are licensed teachers who are experts at designing age-appropriate, creative, engaging learning experiences for our participants.”
The University offers camps for seven weeks, starting June 12; information on registration and fees is on the web.
“Our camps continue to be among the most popular in the region,” said Kennedy. “In the past five years, the number of attendees has increased more than 70 percent to nearly 1,400 registrants.”
And while some campers return each summer to participate in the same camp (Minecraft 101, 201 and 301 and Robotics all have multiple sessions), UNC Charlotte continues to update its offerings to cater to students of all ages.
New camps this year that still have openings include “Transportation Engineering” for high school students, the American Sign Language Academy for middle school students and “History Mysteries and Wild Events” for elementary students.
Kennedy stated that parents can realize a number of benefits by enrolling their children in a Camps on Campus experience.
“Our core values are safety, edutainment, college connection, friendship and inclusion and parent communication, and we strive for excellence in all five of these areas,” said Kennedy. “Campers are immersed in hands-on learning while being mentored and supervised by our camp counselors who are all experienced working with youth. Many of them are education majors and student leaders here at UNC Charlotte or at other institutions.”
Camps on Campus is a great option for children of UNC Charlotte faculty and staff. “Many employee parents enjoy meeting up with their children for lunch at the Popp Martin Student Union, and others take advantage of our convenient half-day camp partnership with Play-well TEKnologies, where campers in rising first through sixth grades can build Star Wars LEGO worlds and aircraft using engineering concepts.”
Operating summer camps is a team effort, involving offices, departments and units across campus, noted Kennedy. “We partner with many academic colleges and units on campus for several of our camps, including the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for our Robotics and Minecraft camps, and the Department of Environmental and Civil Engineering helps operate our Transportation Engineering Camp. The Biological Sciences Department provides instruction for VetCamp, and UNC Charlotte Venture will lead an outdoor leadership camp for teens. In addition to camp instruction, we collaborate with many departments for field trips and services for our campers, including Atkins Library research staff, Conference Services, the Botanical Gardens, Dining Services, Auxiliary Services, Police and Public Safety, Facilities Management, Housing and Residence Life, Student Health Services and countless others.”