Hollister Youth Alliance hosts 3-week program for local kids
The students in first through eighth grade at Camp CASA immersed
themselves in all things Greek for the first of three weeks of the
afternoon summer program offered by the Hollister Youth
Alliance.
Each week the site coordinator Katrina Valdez and camp leader
Michelle Gonzalez planned out curriculum for the students that
meets state standards, but is what Valdez described as
”
disguised
”
learning. The counselors and staff use a lot of fun activities
to teach engage the kids in three main areas
– art, science and physical education. For the first week, the
students learned about Greek mythology, pottery and culture.
Hollister Youth Alliance hosts 3-week program for local kids
The students in first through eighth grade at Camp CASA immersed themselves in all things Greek for the first of three weeks of the afternoon summer program offered by the Hollister Youth Alliance.
Each week the site coordinator Katrina Valdez and camp leader Michelle Gonzalez planned out curriculum for the students that meets state standards, but is what Valdez described as “disguised” learning. The counselors and staff use a lot of fun activities to teach engage the kids in three main areas – art, science and physical education. For the first week, the students learned about Greek mythology, pottery and culture.
“They are making togas in art,” she said, noting that all the staff and counselors fashioned their own togas from bed sheets will the kids made brightly colored ones from butcher paper.
The staff starts and ends each day with a pep rally to get the kids excited about the day’s events. During the rally, Valdez said each group participates in “Survivor”-like challenges. The students are divided into three groups, first through third grade, fourth and fifth grade and middle school. After the rally, the students rotate between three activities. Last Fridays events included the toga making, an archeological dig and learning about a Greek myth. For the end-of-day rally, the kids competing in an Olympics with physical challenges.
The camp has a student to staff ratio of one to five. Many of the workers are high school students hired through the One-Stop Career Center, Valdez said.
“They can work one on one with the leaders,” she said.
Gonzalez said they explained to the teen leaders that they would be remembered by the kids long after camp ends.
“When they train to work at the camp, they become iconic,” Valdez said. “If kids see you at the grocery store, they will ask if you remember them from camp and hug you.”
She said one of the benefits of the program is that she and the other staff members have been able to mentor the high school students from the One-Stop Center, who in turn mentor the elementary and middle school students.
“When we first met with the teen workers for training, they all said they wished they had a science camp, like this,” Valdez said. “It is something affordable for migrant families or any families.”
She estimated the cost of the half-day camp is half of what a traditional day camp program would be, and said the families pay on a sliding scale. HYA received funding from the Community Foundation to support the summer camp.
While the Hollister Youth Alliance CASA after school programs are limited to students at the campuses where the programs are held, which include R.O. Hardin, Calaveras and Marguerite Maze Middle School, the summer camp is open to students at any schools. The first week, 45 students were enrolled and Valdez estimated that 40 percent were students from the CASA after school programs and the rest were from other schools.
This year is the second year the Hollister Youth Alliance is offering the camp. Last summer, it ran for four weeks and this summer it is open for three weeks (students can still sign up for the final week “Voyages in the Sky,” which runs July 19-23.)
“The students will learn the physics of kites, art, and botany,” Valdez said.
The field trip for the week is a trip to Elkhorn Slough, near Moss Landing.
Valdez and Gonalez agreed that the most challenging part of putting on the summer camp is the pre-planning that goes into it before the students arrive. They spent three weeks as soon as the after-school programs ended preparing for camp. But they both said they spent time thinking about it and coming up with ideas for months.
“Making that much fun is a lot of work so the kids don’t feel like they didn’t do anything all summer,” Valdez said.
“There is a special magic at school when school is not happening,” Valdez said, “with not having the pressure of homework and teachers. When they can be here and have that kind of thin helps during school. They see school in a different light.”
Gonzalez added that the camp feels like “my baby.”
“This year, especially, we were still unsure if we could have it,” she said. “I love how much energy the kids still have after a long year in school.”
She said the summer program unlocks a sense of creativity for the kids.
“They don’t get to play in togas during the school year or have cheer offs,” she said. “It ignites something in them that keeps them wanting to learn.”
She also stressed that volunteers are welcome for the summer and after-school programs.
“It’s the kids that need it,” she said.
New this summer also is a clinic workshop being held at Centro Ollin from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Valdez described it as a workshop for kids, where the program focuses on a different project each week. The first week, which started July 12, involved a mural workshop.
Valdez said the idea for the clinics came from the number of HYA and CASA staff members who are involved in the arts. She said during the year, the program leaders are allowed to come up with their own curriculum for Fridays and there were so many good ideas suggested.
“It will be a whole week of learning and creating a mural,” she said, before the first week started. “It is a lot of graphic enlargement and it’s for all grades (first through eighth).”
For more information on Camp CASA or the workshops, call 636-2853.
