Four children work on designing a raft out of aluminum foil and straws to see who can hold the most pennies. The goal was to teach the children the principles of teamwork, engineering and buoyancy.
Camp focuses on science, math
Ryan Sullivan Staff Intern
The first African-American to “walk” in space visited Central State University in hopes of letting kids know that “it’s OK to be good at math and science.”
Bernard Harris, founder of The Harris Foundation, was there to visit one of his newest summer camps and give the 48 middle school children who were attending the chance to meet somebody who used his education to achieve his dream.
Harris believes the program goes beyond something for the children to do during the summer.
“Not only do we want to impact kids, but alert the community about the problems in education,” the former astronaut said.
The focuses of the camp are the core values of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or S.T.E.M.
Harris was selected by NASA to go into space in 1990 and made the flight three years later. After the flight, he started his foundation and set up the camp in 1998 to show the value of the S.T.E.M. values to underprivileged and minority children before opening up the program to more students.
Besides learning about S.T.E.M., the camp gives the children the opportunity to experience what it is like to go to college for the duration of the camp. The children live on campus, go to the various programs and eat in the cafeteria.
Kaye Jeter, the executive director for the Institute of Urban Development, is one of the people responsible for the camp coming to Central State.
Jeter said Central State was one of three universities selected to begin putting on a camp this year. The other two were Rensselaer and Temple. “I count it as fantastic [that we were selected],” Jeter said.
In order to be considered, Central State had to submit a 10-page grant request to the foundation, Jeter said. Upon learning of Central State’s selection, they were also told Harris would be coming.
Phil Coates, the program coordinator for the Institute of Urban Development, said Harris’ camp was exactly what CSU was looking for to expand its S.T.E.M. development program.
“We have had a high school program in place for a few years,” Coates said. “When we saw this opportunity we knew it was exactly what we were looking for to expand even more.”
Coates said Central State President John Garland saw the proposal to apply for the program and was in support of bringing it to Central State.
Harris said he tries to make it a point to visit all of the camps so the kids in attendance see all of the success that he has had.
“It’s important for the kids to hear my story,” Harris said. “I want to help impact these kids lives in a positive way and encourage them in the fields of science and math.” This year, the camp had approximately 100 applicants for the camp, but only 53 were selected and 48 are in attendance.
To even be considered for admission, children must be going into sixth, seventh or eighth grade, have an A or B in math as well as science, have a letter of recommendation from their math and science teacher and write an essay explaining why the want to attend the camp.
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