Like many communities throughout the country, the summer can be an essential time for young students to catch up on critical cognitive skills in order to be on equal footing with their peers by the fall. That is certainly true on the Mid-Shore as children take advantage of a special STEM Camp in Talbot County for 1st through 5th-grade youngsters.
What might be more unique with this camp is that the instructors are all area high school students. And that might be part of the special sauce that makes this summer school fun as well as successful for some 30 students every year.
These older students not only can relate well to their young wards while studying tough subjects like math and science; they actually run every aspect of the camp.
From developing the curriculum, working out field trips, or deciding the meals, a core group of 30 staff comes together to make the four-day program one of the most memorable experiences for their younger peers. But another part of this magical formula is that those older kids are learning as well.
Given the responsibility (and the risks associated with it) of running a full-scale program from soup to nuts, these teens find within themselves core leadership skills that are just as impactful life lessons as those they provide to the smaller children.
The Spy sat down the other day three of those young leaders last week to talk about the program. This included rising senior Will Burgess, who developed the camp’s curriculum plan, and his colleagues Damian René and Banchi Short, to share their impressions of this year’s program.
This video is approximately three minutes in length. For more information about the STEM Camp, please contact its volunteer advisor Bob DeGour here.
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.