Summer Camps

Posted by Eunice / Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Nix the days of TV and video games, the sweltering trips to the pool and the constant penciling in of play dates. The region is teeming with summer camps that are bound to enrapture your child in learning and fun.

By Lexie Ramage

Camp Horizons
Located in the Shenandoah Valley on 300 acres at the foot of the Massanutten Mountain range, Camp Horizons offers children (ages 6-17) a chance to live in cabins and, based on their program, choose between outdoor activities including: horseback lessons, golf lessons, scuba diving, canopy tours, rock climbing, canoeing, afternoon trips and more. “You can be yourself and be loved and accepted as part of the camp community just as you are,” says Kim Betts, the director of administration. “You can be silly and have fun without worrying about what others think of you.” Camp Horizons also has a weekly community meeting and “thank you” time, which help to foster long-lasting ties. “Relationships formed at camp often last a lifetime, and I am still in touch with many friends I met at camp over the years,” says Betts, who was a camper in 1988 and has since stayed with the camp as staff. Camp Horizons even provides a shuttle for campers to Northern Virginia, Maryland and Richmond. Campers can enjoy any of the six sessions from June 24 to Aug. 25. Sessions last for one to two weeks. Program costs vary. Camp Horizons, 3586 Horizons Way, Harrisonburg; 540-896-7600; www.camphorizonsva.com

Modeling Camp
Modeling Camp is the perfect summer camp for girls, ages 7 to 17, interested in the fashion business or those wanting to increase their self confidence. The camp is broken down into programs including: fashion, modeling workshop, fashion design, behind the scenes, Miss Cotillion and photo shoots. Heather Cole, founder of modeling camp, says the camp’s “goal is really to help girls approach life with confidence and boost their self esteem. It’s a great way for girls to be themselves.” The different programs teach various skills like fitness, health, nutrition, grooming, etiquette, fashion, hair and makeup, photography, fashion design and more. “They learn about the world of fashion and walk away with life skills. They walk away feeling great,” Cole says. All sessions are held at The Westpark Hotel in Tysons Corner. There are four sessions, starting June 25-29, July 9-13, July 23-27 and Aug. 6-10. Regular days are from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Extended days are 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Lunch and a free T-shirt are included. The base price starts at $349 per session/per week, and there are discounts for multiple weeks and siblings. Campers can register online. The Model Source Inc., P.O. Box 1246, Fairfax; 703-273-2560; www.modelingcamp.com

Georgetown University Nike Tennis Camp
At this popular day camp, kids use the 14-court McDonough Tennis Courts at Georgetown University in order to learn tennis essentials, strategies, sportsmanship, mental toughness, tournament play and goal setting. “The camp is in a safe, secure environment,” says National Director of U.S. Sports Camps and Nike Tennis Camps Matt Kurlander. “Georgetown is an exciting cultural environment, rather than local clubs or courts.” This camp is helpful for any skill level. Kids are placed into programs based on their skills, and there are specific teaching programs for each skill level. “It’s a great program,” Kurlander says. “The director, Gordie Ernst, gets the kids really energized and pumped up.” From 8:30-9 a.m., the kids will check in and warm up. From 9-11:30 a.m., they will have instruction and drilling. After lunch, the kids have point play, then pool time or optional tennis. Fridays are tournament days. The full-day program, for ages 8-17, runs from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and includes lunch. The half-day program, for ages 6-17, runs from 8:30-11 a.m. “The kids leave with a sense of goal setting, something many of them haven’t had before,” Kurlander says. The camp runs from June 11 to July 20. Full days are $455. Half days cost $335. Registration is $250. McDonough Tennis Courts, Georgetown University; 1-800-645-3226; www.ussportscamps.com

Spy Camp
If your 10- to 13-year-old children are always up to no good, have them put those skills to good use in the International Spy Museumm’s Spy Camp. Spies in training will experience daily top-secret briefings and undercover activities. Campers will develop a disguise for cover, make and break codes, discover escape and evasion techniques, create and use spy gadgets, and learn from real spies. “This is not a camp where we’re [just] training little spies, we’re teaching kids awareness and analysis using the spy hook,” says Youth Education Director for the Spy Museum Jackie Eyl. “They have to do some critical thinking and teambuilding. Most of our campers tell us that it felt real, and they really enjoyed it.” Naturally all this espionage won’t be contained inside an air-conditioned museum, the campers will visit FBI headquarters, Quantico labs and even some D.C. museums for training missions. “I’ve seen lots of different kinds of camps but not anything like this out there,” says Eyl. Spy Camp is a one-week day camp with options of two different sessions from July 30 until Aug. 3 or Aug. 6-10. The Camp runs 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and costs $415 (or $395 for museum members). Campers must call to register. International Spy Museum, 800 F St. NW, Washington, DC; 202-654-0933; www.spymuseum.org

Randolph-Macon Academy Flight Camp
This eight-student flight program is a treat for the adventurous 14- to 18-year-old looking for a unique summer experience (like flying in a Cessna 172). Students will have in-the-air flight training, aviation ground school classes and non-academic courses including art, photography, study skills, computer literacy and more. Students will fly a minimum of four hours per week. “The flight program is very unique and quite popular,” says Laura Abraham, the director of flight training at Randolph-Macon Academy. “We have several students who come back two years in a row because they enjoy it so much. A few of the summer flight kids go on to aviation-related colleges and aviation careers.” In the evenings, students go to the movies, swimming and bowling. On the weekends, there are theme park trips to King’s Dominion, Hershey Park and water parks. Prospective students need to contact the Randolph-Macon Academy admissions office for an application. The program runs from July 1-27. Room and board costs $2,800; the flight account deposit, $2,000; and the personal account deposit, $900. Any unused portion from the flight account and personal account is refunded. Randolph-Macon Academy, 200 Academy Drive, Front Royal; 540-636-5202; www.rma.edu

DayJams
DayJams is for those campers who dream of becoming rock stars. Campers (ages 8 to 15, and from all levels of experience) will learn how to play the guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, vocals or horn from professional musicians and teachers, in two-hour daily sessions. “It’s definitely not your traditional camp,” says Lauren Poudin, a representative for the camp. Campers will get a realistic feel of what it takes to be a rocker, focusing on: forming a rock band, writing a song, performing live and recording their performance. Campers will even design a poster, T-shirt and CD cover for their band. “It really focuses on the kids creating their own music and writing their own song as opposed to just doing a cover. It really is amazing that after a week kids walk away knowing how to play an instrument, they write their own original song and have a recording of it,” says Poudin. The camp runs from July 9-13 and July 16-20. The hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. with concerts at 5 p.m. on Fridays. Campers can register online. The Baltimore campus, located at the Roland Park Country School, costs $600 for one week (there is a $60 discount if you sign up for an additional week). DayJams, 5204 Roland Ave., Baltimore, MD; 800-295-5956; www.dayjams.com

Fun Bot Lab
If your child likes to play with LEGOs, robots or any form of technology, then Fun Bot Lab is the camp for them. Campers, grouped based on age and experience, use analytical thinking and problem solving in their morning labs to do anything from completing an obstacle course to making a robot part, breaking for lunch and recess. In the afternoon labs, campers experiment with digital media and make music, script Claymation movies, edit video and design graphics. “Our LEGO Star Wars and Claymation movies are very popular with our campers, and they love posting their finished work online for their friends to see,” says Timothy Burns, founder of the camp. “We also celebrate the digital arts and work with each camper to allow them a chance to publish their work online.” The camp runs from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. with aftercare available until 6 p.m. Campers also participate in a wide variety of sports such as Capture the Flag, Dodge Ball, Spud and more. Camps run from June 25 until Aug. 17 with four sessions that last one to two weeks. The cost is $249-$498. Fun Bot Lab, 7005 Georgetown Pike, McLean; 202-709-6151; www.funbotlab.com

Acting For Young People Summer Acting Camp at GMU
AClass Act is great for the drama king or queen, aged 5-18, who aspires to make it in the acting business. Attendees work on acting, voice and movement, with additional classes in acting for the camera, musical theatre, improvisation and playwriting. If actors want more variety there are even workshops on Wednesdays that cover additional skills such as stage combat, audition techniques, lighting design and other skills. “In a fun, high-energy environment, we help students build skills and self confidence while learning from working professionals in the theatre and film industries, and making new friends,” says Mary Lechter, founder and artistic director of Acting for Young People. Each session has a particular theme that carries into that session’s activities, and returning or multi-week campers will still be challenged since the theme changes with each session. “I’m surrounded by an extremely gifted group of teaching artists, and knowing that we’ve had some impact on the lives of these children and their families is truly rewarding,” says Lechter. There are five sessions that run from July 2 until Aug. 3. Classes run from 9 a.m.-6 p.m., and sessions cost $230-285. Performing Arts Building, George Mason University Fairfax Campus, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax; 703-307-5332; www.afyp.org

Woodland Horse Center
Campers looking for a summer experience that allows for wind in their hair and a magnificant beast to allow for it, need to look no further than Woodland Horse Center. Located on 25 acres in Silver Spring, Md., the center offers a variety of ways for children to experience horseback riding. Campers can choose between either the one-week Pony Pals (ages 5-7) or two-week Horsemanship (ages 8-15) programs at Woodland Horse Center. The two programs both have a low campers-to-counselors ratio. “We allow children to ride twice a day, and in between that, they’re in the barn, spending time with the horses and learning horsemanship details,” says Tammy Gildea, Woodland Horse Center manager. Campers receive riding lessons, horsemanship lessons (daily care, horse safety, grooming, tacking, feeding, etc.), interactive lectures, and arts and crafts. Campers also enjoy special activities of the non-equestrian sort, such as pizza day, water games day, western day, bareback day and even a Graduation Day show. “We have these [supplemental] activities so the kids have fun around the horses and enjoy being at the farm, being outdoors,” says Gildea. Graduation Day is a fun time for all involved. Parents and family are invited, the kids makes costumes for the horses and participate in a musical drill ride. “Some walk away with their first exposure to horses or some walk away with more advanced skills that they’ve improved at camp,” says Gildea. The camp runs from June 18 until Aug. 17. The day runs from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. with extended hours from 8-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. Pony Pals costs $380. Horsemanship costs $775. Woodland Horse Center, 16301 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, MD; 301-421-9156; www.woodlandhorse.com

Girls First!
This is the camp for girls who want to learn and have fun this summer. Girls First! combines academic enrichment with sleep-away camp, which is “unique,” says Kim Newsome, director of summer and auxiliary programs at The Madiera School. There are 11 classes including: acting and directing for film, creative writing, digital photography, equine management, fashion design, interior design, forensics science, loving literature, multimedia journalism, psychology and veterinary science. Girls can be either resident ($2,495) or day ($1,695) campers. Each day, the whole camp comes together in a morning meeting, and then attends classes. They break for lunch and have more classes in the afternoon. Afternoon activities include swimming, tennis, going to the barn or doing yoga. After dinner, the residential girls participate in other activities like movies, crafts, karaoke and more. During the weekend the girls can go into D.C. for fun or try out the challenge course on campus. “For a lot of girls, that are away from home or came into a program that they didn’t know anything about, by the end of the program there’s a real feeling of confidence,” says Newsome. The last night of camp, the girls show what they have learned and accomplished to their parents, teachers and each other in the Student Showcase. The session lasts about two weeks, from June 24 until July 6. Campers can apply online. Girls First!, 8328 Georgetown Pike, McLean; 703-556-8323; www.madeira.org/summer

 

(March 2012)

 

 

---

Hot Zones

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, July 23rd, 2009

How area colleges adapt their overseas study programs to today’s political climate

By Lexi Gray Andrews

Jenn Young, a senior at the University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park, had no reservations about embarking on a study abroad program that took her to Egypt and Israel during the summer of 2008. As a Middle Eastern history major, Young had already taken several classes focused on Israeli history, and she was excited for the opportunity to experience first-hand the region she had been learning about for so long.

“I know a bunch of people who have traveled to the region, and they all assured me it wasn’t as dangerous as it’s made to seem in the news. I kept hearing that the news makes it look worse than it actually is,” Young says.

Despite her confidence, Young was still cognizant of the fact that the program to Egypt and Israel is categorized as being potentially risky. “It was one of the only study abroad programs that required students to read a really lengthy document acknowledging the potential danger of the region,” Young notes.

“My parents were slightly concerned about me going to Israel, but I definitely wasn’t nervous at all,” the Severna Park, Md., resident says. Young’s parents are certainly not the only people who considered the many news stories about political unrest in the Middle East, and how that situation might affect students traveling to the area. In early 2009, several U.S. colleges and universities canceled their abroad programs to the Middle East—in some cases at the last minute, according to the Jerusalem Post. Reports of violence in the Gaza Strip led universities including Rutgers, Duke and the University of Pennsylvania to cancel study abroad programs in Israel.

Nearer to Northern Virginia, three programs through Washington, D.C.’s American University (AU) that facilitated studies abroad in Yemen and Lebanon were suspended—the former explicitly due to security concerns. AU regularly performs risk assessment on each of its study abroad programs in order to determine whether they should continue, according to the website for AU Abroad.

AU still offers several nontraditional study abroad programs, most notably two programs in Tajikistan, which are organized through the American Councils for International Education. The Tajikistan programs focus on immersion in the country, its language and its culture. Students live with approved host families and have the opportunity to meet with local Tajikistani peer tutors for several hours a week.

In addition to UMD and AU, colleges and universities throughout our region are accommodating students who wish to study in these nontraditional countries, even during times of political unrest. Georgetown University offers semester and summer-session programs in Egypt, Jordan and Qatar, which each emphasize Middle East and North African culture and politics.

Many students like Young are working toward careers in fields like conflict resolution and community organization, and consider study abroad to be a cornerstone of their preparation for the workforce.

At the top of the priority list for universities is providing mandatory safety education before students enter any type of program abroad, no matter where they are traveling. Students should know what to expect from the country and its culture, says Lee Sternberger, James Madison University (JMU) associate provost and executive director for the school’s Office of International Programs.

JMU, located in Harrisonburg, offers a summer study tour that visits several major cities in Europe and the Middle East, so students encounter a wide range of cultural differences during the relatively short program.

“We teach the local customs and how to be safe and how to dress in cultures that are less similar than ours,” Sternberger says. “Study abroad has more of an impact than many things students will do during their college careers, and it is important that students are safe during their time in these programs. The experiences from study abroad will often stay with a person their whole life.”

There is no shortage of students who are seeking out these nontraditional study abroad options. Marina Markot, the University of Virginia’s associate director for study abroad, says there is a very large population of students who are deeply interested in countries with drastically different cultures than the U.S.

“They are interested in the problems of the world—poverty, public health and social justice, to name a few. Studying these issues without the local context is very difficult. It’s better to see something first-hand than read about it 10 or 20 times,” Markot says.

Passionate Professors
Many colleges in Northern Virginia and the surrounding regions are able to accommodate students who wish to study in just about any region of the world. A key component of this versatility with many colleges’ study abroad programs is that they are able to find professors who are passionate about a particular region.

The program Young attended last summer is headed by two UMD professors with decades of experience studying and lecturing on and in the Middle East. Professor Edward Kaufman is a former executive director of the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Professor Talaat Shehata graduated from Cairo University in Egypt and has more than 30 years of international relations experience. Under the guidance of Kaufman and Shehata, students enrolled in the Egypt and Israel summer program were asked to focus on how to address international conflict and work toward helping to foster a peaceful coexistence between countries.

Young says, for her, the program exceeded its basic goals. “Basically the only way you can understand conflict resolution is to meet individuals on both sides of a certain conflict. Of course you can find conflict anywhere – it’s in a thousand places – but it is so important to travel to this region plagued by violent conflict for so long. You get a sense of what it’s like to live in those conditions of conflict.

“For me, studying abroad was a reaffirmation that conflict resolution is something I really want to pursue after I graduate.”

Among the area’s universities and professors, programs concerning international culture and conflict analysis are by no means confined to the Middle East. At George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, Al Fuertes is the director of a summer program in the Philippines that encourages students to learn conflict resolution though both community service and peace building.

Global programs should teach students how to value the experiences of the people who may differ from them, Fuertes says. “When students go to the Philippines, they are not confined within the walls of the classroom, but are immersed in the community.”

Students who participate in GMU’s Philippines program have the chance to meet the country’s military and religious leaders, while also having the chance to live with a host family.

“There are many ways for students to get out of their comfort zones and experience new ways of doing things. They realize how much responsibility they have as spokespeople from the Unites States,” Fuertes says.

Since the Philippines is drastically different than the United States, and plagued with poverty and religious separation, Fuertes accommodates students by holding daily debriefings during the summer program. “We just go through the whole experience that students are having, and what it means to them. It’s a matter of helping the students understand the major differences between the United States and the Philippines, when it comes to culture,” Fuertes says.

Extraordinary Opportunities
GMU students interested in conflict resolution also have the chance to learn first-hand about the significant and historic struggle between Israel and Palestine. A program held each summer and winter focuses on conflict resolution and the history and development of Israel and Palestine. Through this program, students learn from experts and leaders on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and are schooled in the region’s dynamics and history.

Kevin Stoy, marketing director of GMU’s Center for Global Education, says the university has struggled as far as getting other Arabic-language programs to grow in popularity, but the Israel-Palestine program has a steady following each year.

The program is led by Yehuda Lukacs, associate provost for global education, and director of the GMU Center for Global Education. Lukacs has been taking groups of students to the Israeli-Palestinian region for about 12 years, and has extensive contacts in the region, Stoy says.

Due to heightened safety concerns in late 2008 and early 2009, Stoy says students were “kept on a shorter leash” during the winter program, but there was no serious talk of canceling the program altogether, or ending it early. Only one student dropped out of the program before it began, and that was due to personal safety concerns, according to Stoy.

Stoy says it was important for GMU to keep the program running, in order to accommodate the many students who were depending on it as a profound learning experience. “Now is as important a time as ever to be in that region and learning about it. Dr. Lukacs can pull off such a successful program because he has a lot of experience and a good structure in place. He has a lot of the right tools in place to make it work.”

“Global education isn’t the kind of learning where you’re asked to memorize and regurgitate. It challenges the individual to ask questions about themselves, and puts them face to face with realities they might not have experienced otherwise. When students get back home, they notice things they might not have noticed before—things they might have taken for granted,” Stoy adds.

Witnessing History
Traveling to a nontraditional location is not just about studying a region’s history. Students might get to witness history in the making, as each cycle of an abroad program can be drastically different from the last.

The University of Virginia’s winter term program in Ghana coincided with the country’s three-round 2008 presidential election, which eventually resulted in John Atta Mills’ victory in early January. Students participating in the program were able to witness first-hand the securing of Ghana as a stable democratic country.

Scot French, associate professor of history and director of the University of Virginia’s January term Ghana program, says, “Yes, we were there during the runoff elections and waited breathlessly, along with our Ghanaian hosts, for the results. For me, it was absolutely electric. I watched, thrilled, as a waiter in the Castle Restaurant showed our students how voters’ thumbs were inked and then pressed onto the ballot.”

French says he and the students followed the election news each day, and finally witnessed the official announcement of Atta Mills’ victory, and later the new president’s inauguration. U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Donald Teitelbaum invited French and the students to his home for dinner on the last night of the program. During the meal, Teitlebaum stressed to students the significance of what they had witnessed during the month-long program.

“He told them that Ghana was now essentially a two-party country in which both parties had won an election and assumed power, and both parties had won an election and stepped down voluntarily,” French says. Teitlebaum told the students, “It’s something you’ll be able to look back on and say, I was there at a really historic moment.”

Markot says that when it comes to helping students gain an understanding of world governments, “the key here is to help students grow in their understanding of the world, period. Start from where they are and then take them one step further—hopefully two steps further.”

Looking Toward the Future
Even among local colleges and universities that do not currently offer a wide range of nontraditional study abroad options, many faculty members recognize the need to accommodate students who want to go down that road.

Ella A. Sweigert, director of education abroad at the Catholic University of America (CUA)’s Center for Global Education, says that while the university does not yet offer nontraditional study abroad programs, they are working to expand the overall program.

Students are encouraged to attend CUA-approved programs that travel to areas like the Middle East, as long as there is no State Department travel warning against a particular region. “Colleges in general want to expand their scope beyond the traditional Europe destinations,” Sweigert says. For Young, her experiences traveling abroad to study conflict resolution are far from over. After graduation, she plans to revisit Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she studied earlier in her college career. The opportunities she was granted through study abroad are something she will carry far beyond graduation.

“It was really an eye-opener to see first-hand how people in a region are restricted by conflict situations. Traveling to Israel and the West Bank and hearing the biases and opinions from each side helped me understand how deep these feelings of hatred and misunderstanding run,” Young says, adding, “It’s important for everyone to understand international conflict—but especially if you want to have a career in resolution. It’s our responsibility to understand that we all have the potential to help in some way. ”

Tip #1
Register with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate through the State Department’s travel registration website, https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/, making your presence and whereabouts known in case it is necessary to contact you in an emergency.

Tip #2
Get familiar with health conditions at your destination (high altitude or pollution, types of medical facilities, required immunizations, availability of required pharmaceuticals, etc.), and make sure you are up to date on your vaccinations. A key resource for health information is the Travelers’ Health page of the Centers for Disease Control website at www.cdc.gov/travel.

(July 2009)

---