I followed Kids College and its staff throughout its six-week session at North Park this summer. I observed and interviewed North Park students on staff working with Kids College. These are my discoveries and the testimonies of North Park students who experienced working in their fields before they graduated.
By Stephen Nielsen
Kids College is a day camp for 3rd through 8th graders in the community. A program under the Covenant Youth Collision (CYC)—a non-profit organization of the Evangelical Covenant Church—Kids College is directed by CYC Program Director Jamie Sladkey. This is her second year holding a director’s role at Kids College, and it is Kids College’s second consecutive year running. Last year’s debut program visited North Park’s campus for one day of each week on a field trip. This year, CYC and Kids College came to a three-day-a-week agreement with North Park to use its facilities for the camp.
“It is our dream to have the camp on North Park’s campus for all five days,” said Sladkey in an interview, and recounted the inception of Kids College: “in 2016, I was the interim program director of CYC, and within that, the program director for Kids College. We decided this in the spring, and then a week later started marketing for Kids College. There was a month between my appointment and the first week of Kids College. Last year it was four weeks, out of Ravenswood Covenant church; we came to North Park one day a week, and it was for 50 kids.”
This year, numbers have increased to around 75 kids per week during the six-week program. Kids are eligible to participate in the program anywhere from one week to all six weeks, or any combination of weeks. Camp still takes place out of Ravenswood two days out of the week, the remainder out of North Park. “We knew that we couldn’t only provide a three-day-a-week camp for kids, because for some parents they don’t have anywhere else to put them in the summer,” said Sladkey. In some respects, Kids College is a substitute for day care for many families. The price of camp this year also reflects their demographics at camp. At only $99 per week—with breakfast and lunch included—and financial aid available, Kids College serves families in need in Albany Park and North Park communities.
The idea of a “kids college” stems from what the CYC has observed from kids all around the world: spending their summers in front of the TV, not using nor reminding themselves of the knowledge between years in school. For Sladkey and the Kids College team, one of their goals is to “bridge the education gap that kids have over the summer, between years. Kids lose so much of their academic knowledge; they just aren’t on top of things after spending a whole summer doing nothing, so we are intentional about our education modules.”
How they accomplish this is by hiring North Park students with majors in key subject areas for their roles at camp. These students truly put their skills and knowledge to good use. Sid Smith IV, a music major and football player, was hired as the coach, teaching and entertaining the kids in a variety of sports during one of the three daily education modules. He had this to say at the beginning of camp, “I have the love and heart to serve where it is needed. This is a good opportunity for me to get into a coaching role, something I hope to pursue as I get older.”
Sid commented also on how his modules were a great time for the restless children; it was a time to release and focus their energy and have fun with their “classmates.”
Like the kids during Sid’s modules who jumped into their game without instruction, so were the staff working like clockwork from the beginning of the day. They accepted the kids from 8:30 to 9:00am, then transitioned from breakfast into a time of worship. They all sang, maybe danced a little, and then a short message or story was shared by one of the staff members. Their time of worship was a time that the staff witnessed the kids at their most calm throughout the day.
RJ Gonzales worked as a camp counselor and was also the designated nurse. Whether minor or major injury, RJ was able to use his knowledge from his classes as a nursing major at North Park to assist and heal the kids who misstepped or accidentally cut themselves. While RJ felt most fulfilled at camp serving in this role, this summer has also taken a toll on him. “This is the longest camp I have been a part of, and so as each day went on, it got more tiring and demanded a lot more from me physically, trying to keep up with the kids who only got more energized.”
The staff regularly met after their long days. On Wednesdays, Sladkey set up a staff worship, “a community dinner—to which people donated meals—and we spent time worshiping and talking together.” They also participated in team building activities during their staff training week.
Alexis Renko, elementary and special education major, and Amanda Huck, studying secondary education and English literature, were teachers for the duration of Kids College. They each had similar things to say about their experiences in the classroom. This being the first time that they had taken charge of their own classes, Alexis pointed out that they “spend so much time learning about teaching in class, in theory, but we don’t get to put that knowledge into practice until senior year, so it’s cool that we get to start it a little bit early with this.”
Alexis and Amanda both expressed the long hours of teaching outside of the classroom, realizing that a teaching position is more than just the hours spent in class keeping the children engaged, but also in preparing the lessons and getting the materials ready. The reality of summer classes combined with camp made it hard to find structure in the midst of the organized chaos. “There is so much more flying by the seat of your pants and making things up on the spot and things not going according to plan,” commented Alexis. “You can only plan so much because something is always going to change, or you’ll realize that you forgot something, or it’s just not working, and in those cases, you have to think on the fly.”
Even though Amanda’s classroom appeared to be in chaos during my initial observation period, she was very much in command of the space and it didn’t take long before the kids were putting their heads together and planning the construction of their bridge. Amanda attributed this command over the classroom to her commitment to the kids and the lessons, “I have to be the most enthusiastic one in the room in order for the kids to like the lesson. If I don’t own my lesson, the kids aren’t going to buy into it at all.”
Kids College, is both a time for scholastic deliberation and camp fun, allowing the counselors and teachers the flexibility to keep the environment safe, fun, and loving, without the pressure of having to pass out grades or keep a rigorous schedule. The teachers shared their favorite moments from camp this summer:
Alexis: When kids really enjoy something that I worked really hard on. Sometimes the kids don’t want to do school because it’s summer, but when there’s something that they are actually learning and they’re having a ton of fun and I get that feedback from them saying “this is so fun” or “I really enjoyed that activity” makes me so happy.
Amanda: My greatest joy was my blueberries (the 3rd and 4th graders; the blue group). I want to be a high school teacher, but these kids have turned out to be the children I never knew I needed. To see them grow as mini people, make friends, and to just watch them change for the past six weeks has just been the cutest thing that I did not know I needed.
RJ: I have a love for kids, and this camp allotted for religious freedom, so that allowed me to love without boundaries and show the love of Christ; we were able to be the hands and feet of Christ. Whenever a kid would smile or give me a hug, that’s what brought me joy. Seeing them sing worship songs, that’s when they were most calm during the day.
Sid: Seeing the kids have fun, being able to see them laugh and smile; that’s pure joy.
Most of all, Kids College’s goal is to provide “a safe and loving environment for the kids in the summer, and that’s something we present to the kids at the beginning of the week, that all of our rules are to keep them safe, and to continually love them,” said Sladkey.
Stephen Nielsen, C’19 is an English with Creative Writing and Media Studies double major at North Park. He is also a news and copy writer for North Park at University Marketing and Communications.