Enrollment underway for IVCC summer youth camps

Illinois Valley Community College’s popular summer camps for children and teens will get underway again this summer, centering on robotics, art, space exploration, fishing, welding, animation, culinary arts, artificial intelligence, CAD design, agriculture and several other themes.

Thirty-five in-person Ed’Venture camps will be offered on campus in Oglesby and at Nell’s Woodland in Ottawa. Another 20-plus camps are offered live online through the Black Rocket technology company.

“IVCC summer camps provide a fun, educational environment with a focus on teambuilding, positive social experience and academic enrichment,” said Community Program Manager Kim Koehler.

The summer schedule includes new programs such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) Adventures and Culinary Chemists, Koehler said. “In AI Adventures, participants will use cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence to design fully interactive games and experiences. In Culinary Chemists, participants will journey into a world of edible science experiments.”

Popular programs returning this summer include:

• Space Camp, which features a science project, story and craft time, rocket making and a special guest visitor from NASA.
• Camp Kindness, which focuses on character building activities, team-building, civic mindedness, acts of kindness and problem solving.
• Fish Tales, where students will learn fishing skills in the classroom and practice them on field trips.

A full list of camps can be found at https://www.ivcc.edu/summercamp.

Full Black Rocket camp descriptions and online registration information can be found at https://www.blackrocket.com/online/ivc.

Teens aged 13-17 can explore careers such as health, manufacturing/automotive, cybersecurity, agriculture and welding.