Hosted at St. Clair County Community College, through a grant from the Community Foundation of St. Clair County, RESA offered a summer day camp program that was focused on steering kids towards higher education after graduation. Campers who attended were emerging eighth and ninth grade students from every district in the county. The program goals were threefold: giving students an opportunity to navigate the college campus and engage with high school and college leaders in a variety of character-building activities; providing exciting experiential activities that encompassed skills in math, science, and language arts that students will need in order to be successful in their educational career; reinforcing the importance of exploring career choices and earning a college degree.
Campers were placed into ten teams, each team sponsored by a Michigan higher education institution such as Michigan State University. Volunteer team leaders were college-bound high school students, current college students, and substitute teachers. Campers competed to win the coveted trophy each day through activities, events, performing team cheers and chants, excellent behavior, and brilliant ideas in the classroom.
Campers received Go4It! backpacks filled with college promotional material, information on planning for college and a career, and participants were given various items generously donated by the sponsor colleges and universities.
Who's going to college?
Volunteer team leaders, college students themselves, perform a skit about picking the right school for each individual.
Introducing Elmer!
Actvities Director Richard Murphy introduces the campers to the Go4It! mascot and trophy, Elmer. Elmer was awarded to the team with the most points (stickers) each day.
Lawrence Tech gets hyped up
The Lawrence Tech team shows their spirit during opening activities
Don't say uhhhhhh...
Mr. Murphy listens closely as one camper bravely attempts to make it through sixty seconds of speaking without pausing or saying, "ummmmm."
Whose hair is longer?
Campers have fun as they arrange themselves in order of shortest to longest hair.
Let there be schmoozing!
A team settles into a circle to begin planning their team cheer, which they perform all week to earn points for possession of Elmer, the mascot and trophy.
Who can answer this question?
Hands go up as campers show how eager they are to answer quiz questions about college preparedness.
Coordinates mark the spot
Campers use hand-held GPS devices on a campus-wide scavenger hunt, where they received treats and prizes for finding correct locations.
As long as you hold on tight..
Bryan 'Ironman' Dorsey from the Stand Strength Team holds two campers up in the air, demonstrating that as long as you hold on, you can fly.
Inspirational message: U
Ironman bends a piece of metal pipe into a U shape, delivering the message that YOU are the master of your furture and YOU can do anything if you set your mind to it.
Author's Corner
Campers interact with each other and their instructor while writing poetry during one of the hands-on experiential sessions at camp.
Rocketry
Campers make calculations on trajectories for their classroom-made pop bottle rockets. They later held competitions outside on campus to see whose rocket launched highest.
Wind Energy
Campers work with materials during a competition to make the most efficient windmill blade. The winners in each session earned candy and prizes.
We've got cheer!
Wayne State teammates perfom their cheer in front of all the campers during lunch one day. Performing team cheers is just one way to earn stickers, to be awarded the trophy, Elmer!
We've got spirit!
Northern Michigan University campers show their team spirit by painting their school colors on their faces and hair. NMU broke the record for stickers and was awarded Elmer two days during the week!
Stickermania
One camper shows off his College Passport, displaying all his stickers, the currency for 'points' towards the trophy.
College life sounds like fun
Campers raise their hands to ask questions to SC4 presenter Carrie Bearss, who is in charge of Student Life & Activities at the college.
University banners
A display of the various school banners donated to the camp. Campers were able to select prizes at the end of camp. There were t-shirts, bumperstickers, bags, etc.
I finished!
One happy camper from the Lake Superior State University team shows off her Certificate of Completion during closing activities.
Saying goodbye
It's all smiles as everyone heads to the buses at the end of the week. See you next year!
