Feb. 19, 2002
At GW This Summer, Curious Minds Will Rock
New Summer Camp to Challenge Kids
By Bob
Guldin
GW is going to camp, but it’s
like no camp you’ve ever seen.
“The GW Summer Tour: Curious
Minds Rock,” is a new summer day camp program for kids that will
challenge minds as well as bodies. It offers a surprising array of activities
from gourmet cooking, rocketry, and magic to Tae Kwon Do, tennis, and
rollerblading.
The co-ed program, offered
for the first time this summer, lasts four weeks and consists of a pair
of two-week sessions — from July 8–19 and from July 22–Aug.
2. The camp is geared for youngsters entering third through eighth grades.
The idea for the Summer Tour
came from Vice President for Student and Academic Support Services Robert
Chernak. GW had run a popular sports day camp for several years, but
Chernak believed a university should provide children with intellectual
stimulation as well — “so they can engage in the discovery
of learning.” The result, says Chernak, is a lively experience
“where young minds are challenged but not tested.”
The Summer Tour will be held
primarily at GW’s Foggy Bottom campus, though some sports will
make use of the University’s Mount Vernon Campus, with its playing
fields and outdoor pool. Campers will have use of the Smith Center athletic
facility, as well as of the Hippodrome games area in the Marvin Center.
Directing the program is Bridget
Cooper, an experienced camper who bubbles with enthusiasm for her new
mission. She went to an enrichment camp at Wellesley College when she
was a child and she recalls, “It’s exciting for kids to come
to a college campus.” Cooper holds a master’s degree in counseling
and is working on her doctoral dissertation at the Graduate School of
Education and Human Development.
One of the special features
of the Summer Tour is the degree of choice offered to campers. Cooper
explains, “When they sign up, they also choose how they want to
spend their summer.” This choice option makes the registration
process more complex, but it also means that kids who signed up to learn
crime-solving techniques (“Cracking the Case”) can be sure
they’ll have that chance.
The camps will accommodate
between 200 and 300 campers per session, Cooper says, with a counselor-camper
ratio of 1:10. Chernak explains that the Summer Tour is being kept small
its first year, so quality and safety can get full attention. “In
the long term, camps are successful because of the reputation you develop,”
Chernak notes.
The array of activities offered
is enough to rock any child’s mind. Among the choices are kite-making
and flying; toy-boat building (including launch on the Potomac), secrets
of Egyptian mummies, calligraphy, songwriting, salsa dance, ceramics,
video game design, and jewelry making. Athletic activities include snorkeling,
yoga, inline skating, aerobics, and cheerleading, as well as traditional
favorites like tennis, basketball, and swimming. Some activities will
be specially geared for younger or older campers.
Having so many unusual activities
means that many staffers on the Summer Tour will have special qualifications.
“ER 4 Me” will include rotations in the GW Hospital emergency
room, led by doctors and medical students. “Frosting Feats”
will be taught by a professional pastry chef. Journalism mentors will
be Nell McGarrity and Derek Grosso, BBA ’01, the editor and publisher
respectively of The GW Blitz, an online newspaper and monthly
magazine at GW. In “What’s the Scoop?”, kids will learn
reporting, interviewing, photography, layout, and business and will
put out their own newspaper at the end of the tour. The GW Blitz
staff also takes a parallel course called “Newshounds” for
younger campers.
Most of the counselors who
will supervise and do sports with the campers day-to-day will be GW
students. Area school teachers will lead some specialized enrichment
activities.
The first Fridays of each session
will be devoted to field trips, tentatively scheduled for places like
the NASA Space Flight Center, CBS Radio, an ice cream factory, or backstage
at the Kennedy Center. The last Friday of each tour, to which parents
are invited, will include special sports competitions and closing ceremonies.
Summer Tour activities will
be happening from 9 am to 4:45 pm. Campers should be dropped off at
the Smith Center, on F Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets, between
8:45 and 9 am, and picked up between 4:45 and 5 pm. For families who
need extra time, there will be pre-tour and post-tour programs for campers,
starting at 7:30 am and ending at 6 pm.
Chernak expects that those who work in Foggy Bottom and downtown DC,
including GW faculty and staff, will find the Summer Tour an attractive
option for their children. Other campers are expected from throughout
the District, as well as the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.
The cost for each two-week
session is $700, with discounts for families who send two or more campers
and for campers who attend both sessions. Some special activities like
photography may require an additional fee for materials.
Cooper says that the Summer
Tour is accredited by the American Camping Association, based on previous
approval of GW’s Sports Camp.
In addition to the Summer Tour,
GW offers some special sports camps. GW Athletics will run two basketball
camps for boys ages 8–16 from June 17–21 and June 24–28;
call 994-2013. A volleyball camp for girls will be offered Aug. 5–9,
and is run jointly with Nike; call 994-5879 for information.
GW officials expect a good turnout for the Summer Tour. Notes Mike Gargano,
associate vice president for student services who is responsible for
the program, “Most camps run by colleges are either one or the
other — athletic or intellectual. We’re unusual in that we
have a wide selection of both recreation and enrichment activities.
There’s nothing like this in the Washington metro area.”
Chernak also expects the camp
to “expose more people to the assets of the institution. It may
draw in future students.”
By early February, Curious
Minds Rock was advertising in Washington-area media, and families were
starting to register. Campers will be signed up on a first-come, first-served
basis, and some activities may fill up early.
Cooper is pleased with the
initial response. She reports, “More than one parent has told me,
‘I want to be a kid again and go to your camp.’ ”
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
