With Perkins funding eligible for use down to the 5th grade, it can be challenging to find approved ways to work with middle schoolers. This session will focus on how the Rochester/ZED Consortium has designed and successfully implemented a Middle School Career Camp for grades 6 and 7 for CTE career exploration. We will share our experiences and the key elements, including industry partnerships, that have contributed to the success of our camp.
This presentation is designed to get you thinking about how you can use Perkins funding to work with middle schoolers. It aims to help you understand the importance of a middle school program, such as a career camp, and how you can remove barriers to participation and offer it at little to no cost for families.
You will hear from three Perkins Coordinators who are successfully running a free middle school career camp heading into its third year. You will see that feedback from families, students and staff has been overwhelmingly positive with many comments asking for more days to be offered, increasing the number of hours, and welcoming returning students and staff.
See an example of a timeline for planning a summer career camp, including marketing six months prior and month-to-month tasks up to the week of and individual days of the camp. You will also receive resources, tools, and tips on what has worked and what has not to make our program sustainable and successful. Examples of activities and the role of the teachers will also be shared. Additionally, you will hear stories and examples of our engaging partners. You will learn about the location, and why we have utilized the facilities at Rochester Community and Technical College.
Learn how the camp evolved from year one to year two, from gaining a better understanding of student needs and interests. Middle school students thrive with hands-on experiences and learning activities.
Hear how we decided which pathways to provide and their relevance to our CLNA, and our region, and why running such a camp can benefit the high school CTE program. Additional topics will include teacher incentives for working in the summer, and the amount of staff and industry partners needed to operate such a program. There will be an opportunity for questions and group sharing of experiences with Perkins funded middle school programming.
After this session, you will be able to:- Understand the importance of middle school programs and how they can serve as feeders for high school CTE programs.
- Build business relationships to support an engaging camp.
- Gain knowledge of the experiences used to run a successful camps.
