Summer camps at RCC fill campus with joy, bring learning to life
This summer, Robeson Community College has hosted numerous camps welcoming children, adolescents, and teens to its campus for career exploration, learning, and fun-filled activities. This year’s camps have included a culinary arts camp; a cybersecurity camp; and the Lumbee Tribe’s Project IndigeCHOICE camp.
Culinary Arts Camp
During a camp for PSRC’s Career and Technical Education high school students, aspiring chefs like Jeremiah Johnson and Hayleigh Jackson got a taste of what it would be like working in the food industry.
“I want to become a chef because I think it’s fun,” stated Johnson, who attends Red Springs High School. “Being here, you learn more and I’m enjoying it so far.”
Students prepared various breads for the first few days. Two of the loaves of bread prepared included healthy options – zucchini bread and pineapple chocolate chip bread.
“It was alright,” Johnson said of the zucchini bread. “That was my first time trying it though.”
“I loved it,” said Jackson with a smile, as she was helping to prepare the pineapple bread, which she says she would also like since that’s her favorite fruit.
“I have always loved baking, I grew up baking in the kitchen with my family,” she said.
Her favorite dish to bake?
“Chocolate cake.”
Cyber Patriot Camp
“This is our second year of conducting the Cyber Patriot camp and it has been a great experience,” stated Loretta Allen, a business instructor at RCC. “Once again, we had 7th to 12th graders on our campus from around the region, including private, charter, and public school systems.”
This year, RCC was able to use the cyber patriot curriculum offered by the Air Force Associate. The camp featured guest speakers and Lego robot time and concluded with a competition in each of the categories for middle school and high school students.
Concluding with a competition in each of the categories with middle school and high school.
“It has been an awesome learning opportunity; it has been a great time to have speakers on our campus to learn more about cybersecurity and hopefully through this event more people will choose to go through the cybersecurity field,” Allen said.
Lisa Steffes, a staff member, agrees, saying, “This has been a great camp this year, these children have really paid attention and they have really enjoyed putting the robots together and they have done an awesome job answering the questions thrown out to them.”
Jazlyn Foust, 13, was one of the happy campers attending the weeklong event.
“This is possibly something that I want to do when I grow up,” Foust said. “It’s cool people.”
Michel Rojas, 11, says “I wanted to learn how to build robots and do technology, this fall I will be in the seventh grade.”
Although Rojas says she wants to be a nurse, she says she can appreciate the science behind robotics.
“I enjoyed doing the robots because it’s hard and challenging, which I like,” Rojas said. “If I want to go into technology, build websites, or go into security, this will help me.”
For James Ellison, 17, attending this camp was an opportunity he couldn’t miss.
“I thought it was a very good opportunity to learn some stuff that I wanted to learn from my future occupation that I wanted to learn,” Ellison said. “I would like to go to college and learn more about IT.”
Although Ellison is undecided about where he might attend college, he says he loved the experience, especially the food and the guest speakers.
“I have loved the experience and I am just excited to explore,” Ellison said.
As far as his favorite speaker, Ellison says, “It was a tie between Zachary Oxendine and the guy from Secret Service. Zachary is a local person and being a secret agent just seems cool… overall, I had a great experience.”
The camp was provided in partnership with the Air Force Association (AFA) and the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) and is made possible through the RCC CyberConnect Grant funded by the National Science Foundation – Advanced Technological Education (NSF-ATE) Grant #2100012.
Project IndigeCHOICE Camp
Project IndigeCHOICE is a five-year United States Department of Education grant, awarded to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina to serve American Indian students who reside in the Lumbee Tribal service area which includes Cumberland, Hoke, Robeson, and Scotland Counties.
This year’s camps included A.I.M.S Interest in Math and Science; protecting Mother Earth; Lego Mania; wildlife conservation and careers; flying high (drones); and ‘Unsung Heroes’ – first responders and health care. Those attending the camps included soon-to-be second graders to rising seniors in high school.
Fourth, fifth, and sixth grade campers in the Protecting Mother Earth camp had a chance to go on a field trip to the Lumbee Cultural Center in Maxton, while back on the main campus in Lumberton, high schoolers had a chance to explore various careers in health sciences in the Unsung Heroes camp.
“This has provided students an opportunity to see what other programs we offer on campus, as far as allied health, and each program has been gracious enough to come in and allow us to take the students over and go over the details of the program and why it’s needed and what is expected,” stated Ursula Adams, a biology instructor at RCC. “I am glad that we have this opportunity to see other sides of the allied health programs here.”
Middle and high school students also had a chance to earn a hunting certificate from the North Carolina Wildlife Conservation & Careers Agency, how to fly drones, and how to build propellers using Legos.
“All this week our students have been working with Legos, and today we are observing Newton’s Third Law and they are building propeller cars,” stated Leigh Andra Oxendine. “So they are looking at the movement of the propellers and how the gears also play a factor in how propellers turn and the direction that it moves.”
In the math and science camps, students clearly were having fun creating planets, and lava lamps, and learning how to make ice cream, the ultimate summertime treat.
“We are doing a model of the solar system,” stated Stacy Locklear as she pointed to a row of orbits the students had painted. “This morning the students painted an orbit which will have a tea light under it so that it will glow… and this afternoon, we will be making ice cream, so we’re just having a lot of fun this week and the students have just really enjoyed it.”
