Pilot Summer Camp

This is a 5-day pilot experiential learning program targeted to select 8th graders from underrepresented and disadvantaged schools in Chocó, Colombia, a Pacific region of high biodiversity and primarily populated by Afro-Colombian and Indigenous peoples. The program will repeat every summer and will work with the returning group of scholars as well as new cohorts each year.  The progress of each cohort will be monitored and assessed at annual intervals, so that their progress can be tracked.  Scholars will be divided into 5 groups so that each group will explore one session per day. In this way, the students will have the opportunity to interact with the instructors of one of the sessions and get a full experience of the topic during one camp day.

 

This summer program seeks to give U.S. corporate and academic institutions an opportunity to give back to the community by investing in a group of underrepresented students from Quibdó, Colombia, who otherwise would not have the opportunity to interact with doctoral students from top universities and/or successful scientist and engineers from corporations in the United States, and be exposed to the different opportunities for success that a career in a STEAM field could offer them.

We expect to create life-long relationships between the students and their mentors, and be able to contribute to the social and economical development of the African descendant population in Colombia, while strengthening the already established relationship between U.S. Universities/Corporate Institutions and Colombia.