FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
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Jeff Krakoff: Welcome to Voices, a national award-winning podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.
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Jeff Krakoff: This is Jeff Krakoff. Today we have as a guest Amanda Mallin, assistant principal at the Seneca Valley Academy of Choice, which obviously is the district's cyber and arts program. Available grades K-12. Thanks for being here today.
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Amanda Mallin: Thanks for having me.
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Jeff Krakoff: So, we want to talk about summer camps. I know there's a lot of things that are available to students, but can you just give us an overview of the summer camp program? What kinds of camps are available to students?
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Amanda Mallin: Certainly. Summer camps is a really fun topic. It actually gets me excited at how many things that are out there for our students. I think a lot of people maybe don't know about. So, thanks for having me talk a little bit about it just to keep spreading the word there. There are camps for everyone and everything about the camps is really just designed for students to get together with friends and get together with peers of their age or maybe even a little bit older, a little bit younger, but really just to come together to really just engage in fun activities that are educational. But all the while, everything the design and the intention of them is just to really have a great time in the summer and connect, you know, with other with other kids.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So, you mentioned there's kind of something for everybody. Can you know, what are the broad categories, what types of camps typically?
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Amanda Mallin: So, I would say like robotics and programming and Legos and, you know, kind of the engineering mind of, if you like, to build things and you like to, you know, get your mind on and hands on something for that type of a mind, you know, we have Lego camps, we have First robotics and programming. We have a really cool camp that that's filled up already. But building up your imagination, Lego one and building up your imagination, Lego two and a really popular camp is called Dream It to build it, 3D printing and gaming. That one's a blast. That one is, you know, one of our popular ones. But for for students that just want to get out some energy and have a great time and engage in some games, we have fitness, fun, we have activities for building up your confidence and really your self-esteem and some of those social emotional regulation and skills. We have Camp Confidence, we have Camp Chill and those camps are really amazing camps to just get kids, you know, socially with other students and just getting an opportunity to work on being the best version of yourself. And we have Cooking and Pastry Camp so students can be in the kitchen and, you know, getting those skills and making some amazing recipes and getting to eat them with friends. We really, you know, have something for everybody.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. You mentioned earlier that students could be with people their own age, maybe a little bit older or younger. How how's that work? Or is it like elementary versus middle or is it very specific, certain ages or grades?
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Amanda Mallin: Yeah, great question. So, the camps are really designed, you know, by a teacher with a passion and an idea. And they really open it up based on which grade levels they think would most benefit from that experience. So, some of our camps are grades 2-5 or grades first grade through fifth grade. We have a specific camp for kindergarteners, you know, getting ready for kindergarten. So, if you're going to be an upcoming kindergartener, we have a great program to to kind of get your feet wet and see what kindergarten will be like. We have some camps that kind of geared towards some of the older students and really be open that up. We try to say for our secondary, whether that's ninth through 12th grade or sometimes that's seventh through 12th grade, you know, really based on the experience, the teacher really tries to be intentional about who they invite in, depending on the topic and depending on what the students are going to be engaging in.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. I'm guessing there's not one answer to this next question, but, you know, are some camps a day or two or some a week or two? What's the length?
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Amanda Mallin: Yeah, great question. So, they do run Monday through Thursday and they do run by week. We do have a poster right now, an advertisement that's out there of all of our summer camps going on for about seven weeks this summer. And they run depending on the camp. They might run a morning session from eight to noon. They might run an afternoon session from 1230 to 4, or they might run a full day camp from 8 to 4. You know, for the working parent that, you know, needs the opportunity to be able to drop their student off and pick their student up after work. Um, we've been doing camps since 2017 and teachers are coming up with new camps every day. So this year we're really excited. We're, we're offering two new camps based on just some teachers’ ideas and passions. And, and I love my job because I get the opportunity to interview the candidates that are excited about new ideas, that are excited about reengaging with students in the summer and getting an opportunity to connect with kids not just in their grade level that maybe they get to teach with during the year, but connecting with kids that across the schools, across the entire district in some cases.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So again, we've gone through there is there are a lot of different kinds of camps. You know, whatever somebody's interest is, I'm sure you've got something for them. What are some of the benefits that the students come out of the camp with? What do they gain, in your opinion?
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Amanda Mallin: I think they gain a lot of things. I think they gain exposure. So it's an opportunity to try something new. Maybe you haven't tried before to see if you have an interest there. It's a good opportunity to get your feet wet in something prior to taking an entire class of it to see if you like it. And then the teachers really make it fun. So, you know, it's an opportunity to try something in a low risk setting that, you know, there's no grade attached to it. It's just for the experience. I think you gain new friends, you gain, you know, a great opportunity to connect and meet new people. So, you know, if you're an elementary student, you're connecting with students across the District - CVE, Rowan, Haine and Ehrman Crest. It doesn't matter what elementary school you go to, you can join a camp and meet kids from across the district or, you know, you don't have to only see students in your grade level. If you're a secondary student and you only know a certain grade, it's a neat opportunity to make new friends. I think you can gain a lot from coming to a summer camp and it's a short period of time. So I think, you know, it does leave you wanting more if you find an interest. So then you have an opportunity to schedule a new class, even if you like something that you've tried in a summer camp.
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Jeff Krakoff: Yeah, that all sounds great. So we're getting very close to the end of the school year. Are you mentioned one of the camps was already full. What camps still have open slots available?
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Amanda Mallin: Well, we do have most of our camps do have openings. And right now our first week of camp already begins June 12th through June 15th. But we do have camps running into July. We have a camp that runs July 31st through August 3rd. We still have an opening in the Culinary Arts II Camp. So there is a food camp that is full. That's June 12th through the 15th. However, there is openings in into the late July, early August week, so that that week is still available. If you're into cooking, there's still time to to grab a seat for that one. There's time to grab seats for some of the arts camps, some of the Camp Chill, Camp Confidence they're filling up fast. So if you're listening and you're interested, jump on there and grab a seat. But you can register online on our website. Just click on the sunshine and register online and you can see all of the camp offerings there and you can register today.
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Jeff Krakoff: Okay. So go onto the website. They can see what's still available. They can register. Is there a deadline for registration?
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Amanda Mallin: So I would say, you know, we would encourage you to register by June 16th. That's the first and the last day of the first week of camps. However, you know, if you're if we're talking about end of July camp and early August camp, we do have that Kinder Kids Camp running August 1st through August 3rd. So if you're listening and you have a kindergartner or you want to jump into that culinary camp, that's at the end of summer, we would we would take you up through, you know, at that time. So if you're listening late, check it out. We'll leave it open for you.
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Jeff Krakoff: Gotcha. So is there anything additional you'd like to share about all of the summer camp opportunities the district offers?
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Amanda Mallin: I would just only like to add that it's just a great opportunity if you haven't heard about it, to jump online and look at it and see if any of them are of interest to you. You know, they're fairly affordable and it's just a really great opportunity for your child to do something really fun this summer and get to the teachers are amazing that facilitate the camps. So it's just a positive experience for your child. If you're looking for something extra to add to your schedule to do in the summer since we won't have school.
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Jeff Krakoff: All right. So for any parents students interested, go check out the website you mentioned. Where do they go exactly n the website?
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Amanda Mallin: Sure. If you go to our Seneca Valley Academy of Choice website and you just click on summer and you'll see the opportunities there for summer camps and there's a bright sunshine. You can't miss it. He's got sunglasses on and you just click on him and you can register right from there.
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Jeff Krakoff: All right. Sounds great. Well, thanks for spending time again. That was Amanda Mallin, assistant principal at the Seneca Valley Academy of Choice. Have a great summer and thanks for spending time with us today.
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Amanda Mallin: Thank you.
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Jeff Krakoff: Take care.