How do you get Chicago middle school students excited about school? You prepare them for what’s next.
This summer, we were honored to support After School All-Stars Chicago STEM CampUs program, a week-long, overnight experience that prepares students for high school, college, and a successful life. The free program was hosted at the University of Chicago, where campers spent the week living in dorms, dining on campus, and taking workshops in UChicago classrooms. Each student had their own personal college mentor, with additional high school students and full-time ASAS staff on premises to provide additional mentorship opportunities.
CampUs is geared to teach students leadership skills, high school expectations, the importance of mentorships and role models, why student involvement is important, how to calculate GPA, how to apply to college, and the importance of letters of recommendation. Throughout the program, students took place in daily high school and college readiness programming, including a Q&A with After School Matters high schoolers, college application workshops, career exploration trips, and daily enrichment programming. As a long-term project, CampUs campers even worked to invent apps in the Battle of The Apps challenge — they developed a marketing plan, crafted a pitch, and presented the apps to a panel of judges. As part of CampUs’s “career exploration,” we were thrilled to have students visit us and interview our leaders to get a feel of what it’s like working in the tech sector — especially with so many campers on board to build apps that change our community.
Check out pictures and reflections on ASAS’ Facebook page.
To learn more about ASAS and CampUs, visit their website.