By Alexis Clark
Tennessee State University is offering over 20 summer camps for all ages to keep children engaged for the next three months. This is great news for Metro parents as more than 86,000 students, from pre-school to high, will be out of school for summer. Children will have plenty of opportunities to enjoy academic and athletic camps at Tennessee State University.
The camps include athletics, the arts, and educational enrichment activities that will also help them retain what was learned during the school year.
From NABA Inc.’s Accounting Career Awareness Program, which aims to empower high school students to explore career pathways in accounting, finance, and entrepreneurship, to the Eddie George HBCU Football Camp for high school football players interested in skill development and college recruitment, a wide range of camps is available this summer. These camps offer diverse opportunities for students to gain valuable skills and experiences in their areas of interest.
Cierra Fleming, Associate Director of Events Management, stated that this year’s activities will continue to give parents great camp options to select from and keep local students engaged. Flemings noted that she is personally excited about a new camp listed this year, which is the Propel + Apple Music, Music Summer Program starting June 10.
“I’m very excited about this camp because it will give the music department students the opportunity to establish partnerships and network with Apple and Propel,” Fleming said.
“This will also be beneficial for the music program here at TSU, especially the Music Business Accelerator Program,” she said.
Interim Dean of the College of Engineering Dr. Lin Li said the college will host several STEM camps, including the Aim High Flight Academy for AHFA/US Air Forces for the first time.
“TSU is the first HBCU to be selected to host such a summer camp,” Li said. “The camp attendees were selected by the US Air Forces and come from across the country, Japan, and several other countries.” The camp will be hosted by the Department of Industrial and Applied Technologies from June 1-14.
The Energy Exploration Camp is also new to TSU. The engineering camp is designed for high school students and prepares them for a career in the energy sector. The US Department of Energy Clean Energy Education Prize Inspire Track selected TSU to host the camp that highlights energy and engineering topics to students. This camp will run from June 9-23.
Among the many exciting camps returning this year is the Verizon Innovative Learning STEM Achievers Program for students in grades 6-8. The camp allows them to interact with technology through on-campus summer intensive courses and year-round mentoring. It also provides students with firsthand experiences and creates a more diverse pipeline for future careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
TSU’s Grammy-award-winning Aristocrat of Bands will host the Annual Edward L. Graves High School Summer Band Camp from June 9-15. Nearly 100 students will participate.
The TSU Summer Technology Immersion Program for Middle School Students is also returning this year. The two-week, non-residential summer camp teaches middle school students about 3D printing, coding/programming, engineering design, artificial intelligence, and more.