City Of Sumter Facilitates Unique Summer Camp Opportunity

SUMTER, S.C. (July 10, 2020) – The City of Sumter, in partnership with Sumter School District, is facilitating a virtual STEAM Career Camp from July 15 – August 1 at four Sumter area elementary schools.

The project is a result of the City of Sumter receiving federal program funds. “This is an opportunity for our City to invest COVID-19 relief funds to help young students prepare for the coming school year,” stated Mayor Joe McElveen. “The summer STEAM camp will complement the efforts of Team Sumter to provide opportunities for Sumter youth. Our hope is that Sumter can find ways to continue and enhance summer programs for youth. Our goal must be for every child in Sumter to be ready to learn in pre-school and prepared for success upon graduation.”

240 students from Croswell Drive Elementary, Lemira Elementary, Wilder Elementary and Willow Drive Elementary will participate in the camp. Teachers, community partners and parents will assist in linking employability skills training, high engagement WeDo Lego’s Education STEM Kits and high interest books to prepare students for the workforce.

Representatives from the City of Sumter will work in concert with teachers to reinforce soft skills such as adaptability, flexibility, leadership, and problem solving in a virtual classroom setting. Teachers will engage in guiding the instruction of employability skills and the free WeDo 2.0 Curriculum at least one hour per day during the three-week camp. The students will be challenged to use the newly taught skills in a real-life STEM scenario, such as an unprecedented flood in the Sumter community.

“This is a great opportunity not only to partner with the City of Sumter to support our children, but moreover, to provide time for our children to engage in exploratory and creative learning,” stated Dr. Penelope Martin-Knox, Sumter School District Superintendent. “In the words of Montessori, ‘the child’s individual liberty must be so guided that through his activity he may arrive at independence… the child who does not do, does not know how to do.’”

The STEAM Career Camp aligns with TransformSC’s Profile of the South Carolina Graduate, which was adopted by the South Carolina State Board of Education to encompass work-class knowledge, work-class skills and life and career characteristics. This program provides a lifelong learning component for students to teach family members, friends and future co-workers programming, coding and problem solving while continuing their engagement with these open-ended materials.

For more information on the summer STEAM camp, please contact the Shannon Knudson at 803-316-5850.

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Check out our video from Willow Drive Elementary during setup of the event...