The 2018 camp was our 6^th year and saw lots of changes. We had the program in our new makerspace on the Mathson/Renaissance at Mathson campus in the Mayfair neighborhood of East San Jose. The space is large enough to have up to 25 campers, which will allow us to serve more students each year. Also, since it is our regular space, we were able to set the room up to better serve the needs of the program. We also added a full time Program Coordinator. This allowed for better planning, coordination, and implementation of the overall program, as well as providing support and continuity for the Instructors and Camp Assistants.

A few years ago we created a Youth Leader program to continue to engage high school students in our STEAM programming. This year we added Youth Leader Assistants to the camp. These assistants learned pre-employment skills by completing an application for the position, training along with other staff, volunteering at the camp on a regular schedule, and receiving an employment evaluation. Through a generous grant from the Latino Community Foundation’s Cisco Giving Circle, we were also able to provide them with a stipend. We had four Youth Leader Assistants over the course of the 7 week camp.

We also introduced a week dedicated to Peer Instruction. Many of our Youth Leaders have designed and created their own creative projects. In Peer week we gave four of them the opportunity to be the instructor for the day. Working with the Program Coordinator, they created lesson plans for their projects, trained Camp Assistants, shared the lesson with the campers, and supported continued exploration during Tinker Time. It was a great experience for all of them, and they are looking forward to participating again next year.

The camp day is divided into two parts – Focused Learning and Tinker Lime. Focused Learning is where skill building activities and projects are introduced. Tinker Time is self-directed, and campers have the opportunity to dive deeper and explore concepts, or just try new iterations of projects they have already done. Over the years Tinker Time has been their favorite time of the day, and in surveys campers have expressed the ongoing desire for more. This year we gave them a full week of Tinker Time. Campers could explore activities and projects from previous weeks, try new things like building with the Nintendo Labo, or simply tinker with the technology tools available. Campers new to the program were able to look through sample projects and explore those that interested them. It was a very fun and engaging week for everyone!

We enjoyed working with a great group of campers over the summer, and hosting their families at the weekly Student Showcases. You can see photos for each day of the camp on the ADTC Website at: http://artanddesigncamp.weebly.com/2018-camp-weeks.html . We are reviewing program surveys and evaluations, looking at the projects introduced each week, and will be going through a staff debrief to begin the planning process for next year’s program. Thank you to our campers, families, instructors and staff for another great summer. We couldn’t do it without you and are looking forward to next year’s program.