The Final Day

Today is the last day of Champion week and the last day of camp. The campers have learned new things about other cultures and class options that they would had never been exposed to. They have grown and matured in the past 3 weeks and all of the counselors and teachers are honored to have had the opportunity to teach such a great group of kids. This group of kids has represented the camp extremely well and we are excited to see them all again next year!
-Dani Planer(CIT)

Challenge & Champions: Day 13

Congratulations to the Daily Challenge winner, Matthew Musey. He wrote about the things he learned about college on yesterday's Campus Immersion. Good Job!
Today Ms. Jamie's class acted out the experiences they learned about in her class, Man vs. Wild. The campers acted as if they were in a river, racing through the jungle, calculated amounts of needed medicene, and applied scientific notation. Mr. David, Mrs. Heather, and Mr. Sam's class all finalized their projects for the Final Celebration of Learning. Everything is looking great!
-Nia Freeman (CIT)

Olympic Week!

This week the campers are split into 4 groups to compete in the week long Olympics. Each camper was assigned to either the red, blue, green, or yellow team with a counelor as their leader. They will get to compete in events like tug-of-war, football, soccer, relay races, basketball, and even more! The final scores and the winning team will be announced at the final Celebration of Learning. Good luck to all teams!

-Nia Freeman (CIT)

Champion Week!

Congratulations to our daily challenge winner, Jade Wurupa!
Today is the first day of Challenge and Champions third and final week, the champion week! This week the campers will be asked to take all they've learned in their classes and apply them to projects assigned by the academic teachers. These projects will be presented on the final day of Challenge and Champions when family and friends gather to watch the campers graduate from the camp!

-Dani Planer(CIT)

Challenge and Champions: Day 8

Congratulations to Ryan Wurapa for being today's Daily Challenge winner! The challenge was to recommend a good book and find out one from a friend. We got a few really good entries, but his was one of the best. He recommended I am Number Four and a friend suggested he read Matched. Good Job Ryan!
Today will also be the second time we celebrate birthdays. Everyone will sing to those with October, November, December, and January. Every camper and councelor gets a cupcake!
Also Mr. David's class went to the Michael C. Carlos Museum. It is a great experience fot the campers to see artifacts and historical pieces from other cultures around the world. It should definately help with their class projects!
-Nia Freeman (CIT)

Challenge an Champions: Day 7

Congratulations to taday's Daily Challenge Winner, Kayla Adams. She wrote that she challenged herself by withstanding the heat, assisting others, and being a role model for younger campers. Good Job Kayla!
In Mr. David's class today campers worked on creating a poster for one of the given countries, using pictures and statistics on AIDS, culture, death rate, and demographics. The campers could choose from South Africa, Chile, Brazil, India, Spain, or China as their country. In Mrs. Jamie's class they learned about creating tangrams, which are 7 piece puzzles used to make pictures. They also took facts they learned about the Amazon and turned them into scientific notation problems. In Mrs. Heather's class campers used their own characteristics and personality to create a "personal recipe" representing themselves. In Mr. Sam's class they created paper rockets using soda straws and paper. The campers then did multiple trials to test the distance that their rockets would fly. Some of his campers were also working on their STEM, Science Technology Engineering Math, career brochures.
All of the campers had productive academic classes!
-Nia Freeman (CIT)

Challenge & Champions: Day 6

We brought the explorer week to an end by choosing 5 exceptional campers to win the honorary title as camper of the week! These campers are Chase, Katerina, Kira, Kayla, and Dilan! Congratulations!

Today is the first day of the challenger week! This week the campers will be focusing on challenging themselves in not only academics but their physical education classes too. The daily questions will progressively get more and more difficult and the team building exercise will be more difficult than last week. We know that the campers will begin this week with a smile on their faces and end the same way but with a greater knowledge of their subjects and a greater motivation to get out and try new things.
- Dani Planer (CIT)

Specials

Day 5: Today the campers had the opportunity to go to their second specials class. They have a choice of spending 45 minutes in cooking, jewelry making, African drumming, yoga, drama, or art class. In cooking class they learned to make salad dressing with tofu. The campers in jewelry making made friendship bracelets.  The yoga class learned different ways to stretch and relax. In drama, the campers learned to act as different characters in different situations, like being a clown or a pregnant woman. Art class allows the campers to express themselves through painting, sketching, or coloring. The African drumming class learns beats and songs for the final Celebration of Learning presentation.
- Nia Freeman (CIT)

Challenge & Champions: Day 3

Day 3 is a very special day in the three weeks that the campers will have at Challenge and Champions! Every year the campers have the opportunity to learn about protecting themselves from the sun in a clever and creative presentation that a group of medical students at Emory put together! The kids will be well educated on how their health can be affected by these hot summers in Georgia and how they can prevent sunburn and dehydration, so don't be surprised if your kids come home asking for a sombrero and a higher proof sunscreen!
-Dani Planer (CIT)

Challenge & Champions: Day 2

Monday turned out to be a great first day! On Day 2, I got a chance to take a walk with Mr. David's Urban and City Spaces class. We walked down to the Emory Hospital to sit for a while and observe the surroundings. The campers took notes on the people, buildings, and activities going on near by. This helped them to learn about how people act different in different surroundings. The campers also used the website http://www.theplaceswelive.com/ to understand the different lifesyles of people in different countries. I found his lesson very intriguing!
-Nia Freeman (CIT)

Hi! Stay tuned. We did counselor interviews this weekend and they will be announced in a few days!

Starting the 2012 program and CIT announcements!

We are opening the 2012 season and this is our first posting. We welcome you to the program information, hope you are renewing or establishing your connection to us and look forward to having you with us. As our first announcement, we wish to let you know who has been selected as a Counselor In Training. CITs are those former participants with us who have shown exemplary initiative, a great attitude toward others and a willingness to serve. It is an honor to be selected as a CIT. Those who were chosen for this year are returning and new members. They are:

Kayla Cooper
Langston Daniels
Nia Freeman
Ben Furman
Jordan Johnson
Paul Kowalczyk
Taylor Lee
Nicholas Musey
Zion Perryman
Dani Planer
Bryce Sledge
Tyler Sledge
Danyel Stancil

Congratulations to all of them! We look forward to another wonderful summer with them!

The Final Days of Challenge and Champions

It's our second to last day of Challenge and Champions and all the classes are finalizing their projects for the last Celebration of Learning. We are playing competitive and non-competitive sports in the Olympic Games and at the end of the day, are practicing for the Celebration of Learning graduation. The campers practice their graduation entrance until they have it properly and then go swimming to conclude the day. The campers are excited to show all of their parents what they have been working on in their classes and to introduce to them all the new friends they have befriended throughout camp. As a reminder to all the parents, the Challenge and Champions graduation is this Friday in the gymnasium from 1pm - 4pm on the Clairmont Campus.

Champion Week

During the last week of Challenge and Champions, the students are preparing to present all that they learned for the final celebration. In each academic class, the campers are beginning to put their finishing touches on the projects that they have been working on. We also just began field week where the campers compete in a series of games with four teams each. The champion will be announced on Friday at the Celebration of Learning.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Challenger Week Comes to A Close

“Challenger Week” is coming to an end sadly, but the Champions have an exciting day ahead. Every Friday we have our Celebration of Learning. At this time, the Champions get to share with their parents and peers what they did and learned in class this week. It is also a time where the Champions can relax and enjoy each other’s company. We close the Celebration of Learning by announcing the campers of the week. These students are chosen by the teachers, counselors, MAT’s and CIT’s. The campers chosen as “Explorers of the Week” last week include Jasmine Valenciano, Gabby Wilson, Kayla Adams, Bianca Cole, Summer Hurst, and Darrel Edwards. Once again, Congratulations! While these 6 students were individually recognized, all of the campers are Champions and we foresee only great things in their future! Friendly reminder – There is no class on Monday! We hope everyone in the Challenge and Champions family has a wonderful and safe 4^th of July!

I Can't Be A Leader If I'm Not A Learner

Yesterday’s challenge was to think about the qualities one would want in a leader; this morning we discussed those qualities. In today’s society, being a leader is very important. Every student in Challenge and Champions has leadership qualities. Being a leader is synonymous with being a role model. A leader is a person that not only rises above the occasion but helps those around them reach their potential. The Champions also thought that being respectful, trustworthy, loyal, enthusiastic, and a good listener are important qualities a leader should have. Today’s challenge is to learn about another Champion’s culture. Because our society is so diverse, it is essential that we respect our peers despite any differences. When we learn about another culture, we gain new insight and perspective. The Champions continue to work hard in their academic and Physical Education classes as “Challenger Week” comes to a close.

Challenge & Champions Check-Up

Just a small recap of what's been going on so far.

Challenger Week: Day 2

On Monday, we kicked off our "Challenger Week" with team building. The Champions played "Hot Chocolate",  a team building exercise. They had to execute proper communication skills by using paper plates, the" marshmallows", to travel to the other side of the "hot chocolate river". Everyone participated and worked well together. The Champions are also learning about sportsmanship and teamwork in physical education to tie in with their team building exercise.This is vital as they begin to intensely compete in different activities as they prepare for the "Olympic Games" throughout next week. During  Morning Assembly, Dr. Karen challenged the campers to learn everyone's name and something interesting about them. Dr.Karen gave the campers a week and two days to complete the 'Director's Challenge'.Good Luck to the participants!

Another Day At Challenge and Chamopions

It is a another wonderful day at Challenge and Champions and this morning we would like to welcome back our 5 year participant, Langston Daniels. We would also like to thank the campers and staff for making this morning go by so swiftly. Classes are going well so far as it's been said, and the snack was very interesting, a new trail mix with craisins instead of raisin, but the Camper's seemed enjoyed it. As the day goes on we should expect more progress in preparing for a better tomorrow. Enjoying activities, such as the Team Build Exercise this Afternoon, like our last one which was learning each other's names without talking.... A little difficult but fun!!!  Thank you for reading, Now go and Challenge yourself to be a Champion.

End of Explorer Week. . .

Congratulations to all the Challenge and Champions campers for completing Explorer Week of C&C and getting one step closer to becoming a leader. This morning, we have a new addition to our motto: "You are not a leader if you are not a learner. You are someone special." Campers, remember that you are all "Leaders in Training" and that you have accomplished great things this week. This afternoon, we will announce the top six "Explorers of the Week". They will receive a $15 gift card to Barnes and Nobles, as a reminder that reading is a part of knowledge, which is the ultimate power. Campers, make it your goal to do the best you can everyday, that also applies to when you have graduated from the Challenge and Champions program. Again, excellent job this week; Campers, MATs, Counselors, Photography coordinators, Administration, and CITs for making this week an ultimate success!

Day 4 Challenge and Champions/Activities

Hello all! I hope your experience at Challenge and Champions has been enjoyable so far this week. During the course of this week, we have had three daily challenge winners: Keianni Graham, Dazanay Jones, and Kailah Simpson. For the campers who didn't win during those days, there is a chance of winning each day. This morning, we learned the motto: "You are not a leader if you're not a learner. I am someone special."  This will be the basis of our daily activities and the campers will continue to learn more of the motto each day.Today, we are adding new activities to the schedule: SPECIALS! They include Cooking, Yoga, Art, Magic, Explosions, and African Drumming. In Cooking on Wednesday the students made a refreshing cesar salad. On Friday, they will make Pull Pork Ribs. YUM! After a day of getting accustomed to their daily schedule, the campers relieve their stress by the practice of Yoga. After lunch,the campers disperse into Camp and Beach Games, Basketball,The Majors, Badmintion, and Soccer.This week in the Majors the campers have had Intense games of Football and Baseball.The Badminton students have been learning rules of the game,and have been participating in competitive mini matches. Soccer Students have been working on their dribbling skills and have progressed to passing the ball to one another. In Beach games, the campers learned to play paddle ball. Sounds EXCITING! After a vigorous workout outside, students go to the pool to cool off before their time to go home.

Daily Challenge

Everyday at C&C there is a daily challenge question. The daily challenge question allows the kids to express their thoughts, opinions and ideas about multiple subjects. The winners each receive a $10 gift card to Barnes and Noble bookstore. On the first day, the challenge was to write as many things about your teachers as possible. The winner of this challenge was Keianni Graham. Congratulations on a job well done! Tuesday's daily challenge was to learn three new friends' names and something about them. The winner of this challenge was Dazanay Jones. Great job Dazanay! Today's challenge is to find out the couselors' majors and why it is important to have a major in college. We will announce the winner of this challenge tomorrow. Good luck campers!

Welcome To Challenge & Champoins Explorer Week

 At the beginning of the day most of the campers were extremely shy and kept to themselves. As the day progressed, campers used exploring, the weekly skill, to find similarities with other campers and began making friends. In all of the campers' Academic and Athletic classes they showed lots of enthusiasm. We all see that the students had a great beginning which shows they are going to have a great time and also a great three weeks.

-From the CITs (Counselors in Training)  

Meet Ms. Robin

Well, every year things change and this year is no exception. By now your parents have most likely talked to Ms. Robin Icenhour. She is taking the place of Ms. Jonetta (for those of you who were here last year). Ms. Robin used to work at the American Cancer Society and, in fact, had a chance to meet President Bush and Mrs. Bush. You will have to ask her about that! Ms. Robin is excited about being the new Office Manager and your family can reach her at 404-727-6108.

Lots of CITs!

This year we will have our largest group of CITs (Counselors in Training) EVER! We have 12. Each of them has been a C&C'er and has shown great potential for being a leader. This summer Ms. Jamie is going to be running a special leadership seminar with the CITs twice a week and they will all be doing a service project with Mrs. Pittman (Kelvin's mom). Be sure to check the CIT page to see who's going to be around!

The Clock is Ticking!

Hi all, We are so excited that Challenge & Champions 2011 is right around the corner. We will begin posting to the blog every day starting next week so we hope you keep up with us.

This year we have a cool new teacher, Mr. Jay Barbour and so you should look for his information on the website. He is an instructional specialist in a Gwinnett County Middle School. Tomorrow we will post about some of the other new things for this summer!

The 2011 application is now open!

Wow, it's finally here! Today is the start of the application season for Challenge & Champions. Kids all around the city are talking about this summer on the Emory campus and getting their parents to sign them up for the 8th summer of C&C. Check out the new online application process. Go to our home page and then click on the admission page.

Mrs. Jonetta James is eagerly awaiting your application! If you are a middle school aged student next fall, we are wanting to hear from you.

Here's a camper from last summer in her Art class.

Lots of fun and learning and leadership plans are getting underway for a few months from now!

Bye,
The C&C Main Office Staff

Goodbye Summer 2010

We really had a great time this summer and we are now saying goodbye to our friends old and new. We hope you had a wonderful time, too, and will be back next year.
Until then dive into the rest of your summer and have a great school year!

Bye from the CITs

The Biggest Winner 7-8-10

Today in the "Biggest Winner', the students dwell upon the history of Karaoke and where its originates from. Four lucky participants get to play the PlayStation2 game Karaoke Revolution.
Later, they discuss ways to maximize their profits as a music store seller. And talk about what they think it would take to become popular music artists.

Art Class, African Drumming and the Electric Fence

In addition to our faculty who lead specials, we also have guests who teach art, nutrition and African drumming. To the right is our Art Director, Brenda Singletary working with 2 campers and below is James Tyler instructing guys on drumming.

Today in team building we did the "electric fence" team challenge and we will try to post a picture of that later. The challenge is to work together as a team to get everyone from one side of the "electric fence" (a jump rope strung across 2 chairs) to the other side without touching the fence. It was hard and we tried our best. See you tomorrow.

Champion Week starts July 6 2010

Welcome back Campers and Families! Hope you all had a wonderful fun filled 4th of July and are glad to see everyone back at Challenge & Champions for the beginning of our Final Week-The Challenger Week! The Campers had a unique opportunity today to go on our "campus immersion", exploring the Emory Campus and sitting in on a real college class. They got to use 'clickers' (electronic devices) to answer questions in a class on human diseases (bacteria and viral types) and how they are transmitted. It was taught by the Senior Vice Provost of the University whose name is Dr. J. Lynn Zimmerman. Dr. Z. is also a biologist. They then participated in a question and answer session on college readiness and high school preparation held by the Admissions Office led by Tim Fields. After that they got a chance to eat in the campus cafeteria, where they got to eat as much as their hearts and stomachs desired! With lunch done they caught the shuttle back to the SAAC.

This afternoon began Field Day activities like Hockey, the 400 yard dash, a 4x100 yard relay and Long Jump. Those were then followed by a giant group game of Ultimate Tag. We practiced for the Friday Graduation at the Celebration of Learning before getting a chance to jump in the pool and cool off from the hot and fun-filled day.

Please remember to RSVP to Ms. Jonetta James in the C&C main office to let her know about how many from your family and friends will be attending the final Celebration of Learning this Friday. You can call her at 404-727-3270 or email her at her email address.

It will be from 1:45 to 4:00 PM. The parking deck will be open at 1:30. Remember, no late pick up this Friday.  We will be closing for the summer at 4:00 PM that day.

Words in Action 7-2-10

Today in "Words in Action" the students debate whether reading the book of a movie or watching the movie of a book is better and which one will give you a better understanding.
As the debate begins, both sides go back and forth engaging in a ping-pong like match using strong statements and reasons to support their arguments.

What's happening on Thursday July 1

Happy First Day of July everyone!

In "The Biggest Winner" with Jamie Gabel, the students worked in groups to make a family budget with costs including rent, utilities, food etc.
Afterwards, they presented a poster that showed their monthly income, budget in percentage, things they would buy to sustain a normal living and the amount of money left over.

In Sam's class everyone has been studying organic foods and contaminants.

We are enjoying the little cooler weather this last few days.

Here you can see Norma Chinnery making sandwiches in the SAAC kitchen in the morning. Norma works in the Division of Educational Studies. Today the director, Bob Jensen and the secretary Simone Hedrington helped with lunch making. Paul Kowalcyzk and Linnea McCalla are in the background in the picture with Norma.

Tomorrow we will have chicken wraps with salsa and ranch dressing and will have peaches for dessert.

Today we had visitors from the National Summer Learning Association come for a site visit. They were Erin Ulery and Ashley Stewart.

A Volunteer's Perspective

My name is Andrew McMerty.  I have volunteered for Challenge and Champions.  Yesterday I sat in Ms. Jennifer's class.  At the beginning of the class the students, Ms. Jennifer, and I formed a "human" circle.    We began to stomp our feet and clap our hands to the beat of the song, We Will Rock You.  We incorporated our own lyrics which were: We are, we are...special!  Then, one by one, we sang out the name of each person's name in the circle, replacing "we" with their name.  For example, when it was my turn, we sang out: Andrew, Andrew is special!

"Day 7"

Today is the second day of the Challenger week. Today some of the campers are starting African drumming. This class is being taught by Mr. Sam Spence and a special guest who is helping with the class. They other specials that we have today include nutrition, jewelry making, cooking, dance, and art.  In Nutrition, campers learned that they had to exercise for 2 minutes to burn off one Hershey Kiss.

Yesterday for lunch had tortilla wraps. Today we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ham and cheese or turkey sandwiches. Tomorrow we will have chicken caesar salad and carrots.

Today we had TWO Daily Challenge Winners....we could not pick between two excellent entries so Donte Richardson and Dennis La'Poole both won.

 Here's a picture of Ms. Jennifer in Words in Action

discussing the importance of character use in movies compared to books.

Day 6: "Team Builder Challenge"

              Today is the first day of the Challenger week, and instead of doing speacials we did a Team Builder Challenge. The name of this activity was "Hot Chocolate". The campers are split up into four teams and are given about 10  paper plates. Each team has to walk across the plates to the other side of the "cup", but they can not step into the "hot chocolate" and someone must always be touching the plates or they will be taken away. This activity builds teamwork and freindship while they are also competing against the other campers. The winners of this competition were the campers in Coach Todd's group.

Ending of Week 1-The Explorer Week

The week ended on a high note with the first Celebration of Learning. We got to hear from teachers about what was going on in each class and there was a shout out to a lot of individual campers on their accomplishments. We had lots of balloons, beach music and decorations, and some candy.
The winners for the camper of the week this week were Kassie Taylor, Jonathan Bollingslea, and Rebecca Holliman. They each earned a $15 gift card to Barnes and Noble.

See you on Monday!

Impact on the Planet 6-25-10

Today in Impact on the Planet with Sam Spence, the students listened to recordings of crane workers who were on duty when the oil rig blowout in the Gulf of Mexico occurred.
Then the students collaborated and revised their plans from the previous day-they were working on how to fix the crack in the seal.
Later, Sam plays a video that showed which beaches and animal species are being affected by the oil spill.

CIT Leadership Training and a great day for campers

Today is day 4 and lots of activities are keeping us busy. Today in Specials David showed how to make brownies, Jennnifer's jewelry class made bracelets and in Art campers were working on painting and pastels. Drumming begins next week. Dr. Karen got to see the dancers do a hip hop routine which she said was really good. We had a new special today that will run through the rest of C&C. Ms. Laura from the School of Public Health is working with the campers who sign up for nutrition. In that class they learned about fast food and what is in it.

After lunch the CITs (Counselors in Training) had some leadership training with Ms. Jamie who worked with them on good morale, team building and communication. The topics included personal relationships, problem solving and taking on responsibility.

Today's daily Challenge winner was Megha Desai. She had the best answer to the Challenge "Find out from the counselors what a college major is and why it is important." Congratulations Megha!

Today's Challenge is to write tomorrow morning about a place campers would like to visit and why.

                                Ms. Jamie teaching about central tendency in The Biggest Winner.

Yum, Getting lunch in the lunch buffet. You can see CITs, from the right to left, Paul Kowalczyk, Marcus Miller and Langston Daniels. In the back are PE teachers Todd Posey (on the left with the red hat) and Dave Evans.

Remember that the Celebration of Learning for week 1 (the Explorer Week) will be tomorrow from 3:00-4:00 as we celebrate all that was accomplished this week. Come if you can. We will be in the same room as Sunday's orientation (room 211) in the SAAC. Also, there is NO LATE PICK UP tomorrow. We close on Fridays at 4 PM.

Day 3 is here!

     Today we had our birthday celebration for the campers who have their birthdays in June, July, August, and September. In the morning Mr. David took his classes on a field trip to explore the Carlos Museum and the campers loved it!

     Tomorrow the Nutrition special is starting up which will show campers how to eat healthier and live a better lifestyle. Why should we not start eating healthy at a young age? It will serve you well for the rest of your life.

       Today our weekly  C&C Newsletter comes out and we have hope that you receive it by either e-mail or by the flyer that your camper will bring home. If you have not recieved the newsletter please let us know and we will be happy to forward the e-mail to you or to pass an extra copy to your camper.

      Finally we would like to congratulate Danni Fitzpatrick for winning the Daily Challenge. We asked campers to meet three new people and  learn something new about them, Danni went above and beyond when it came to meeting new people and that is the kind of attitude we like at C&C! Today's Daily Challenge is to ask  the counselors what their college major is and why having a college major is important.

Mr. David's class visting the Michael C. Carlos Museum

Day 2 and the SunSmart Team

Today we had a really good day. At snack the medical students from the dermatology department came by to do a skit on sun protection. We learned to slip on a shirt, slap on a hat, slop on some sunscreen and wrap on some sun glasses.

From left to right are: Vialla Hartfield-Mendez (Office of University Community Partnerships at Emory), Seema Kini, Lauren Henricksen (OUCP), Molly Spratt, and Gerardo Marrazzo (Dermatology Medical Students).

They then gave us these bracelets that they made with UV sensitive beads that turn colors in the sun. Wow, they are great.

Today we also started our learning strategies and study skills classes and had our first specials. People got to sign up for specials yesterday and they were art class, dance, jewelry making, African drumming, and cooking. We signed up at lunch today for tomorrow's specials.

Everyone is loving the pool and all the activities! Oh, and by the way, we were featured on the main home page of Emory University so if you want to check it out, you can see the rotating pictures at http://www.emory.edu/ There are 2 at the top and one at the bottom left corner.

See you tomorrow!

Meeting the MATs

Hi, well it's almost time for swimming and PE classes are going well.  Everyone signed up for specials at lunch today for tomorrow so we will be doing dance, art, cooking, jewelry making and drumming.

Today's daily Challenge was for campers to get to learn something about each of their teachers.

Here's a picture of Dr. Karen introducing the Master of Arts in Teaching students to the campers today.

Welcome Day 1

This morning we had a good start with the campers! Everyone has their shirt on and we are proud to be wearing them. We did team building before academic classes. We are bonding and becoming friends.

Earth Day is coming

Hi all, Hope you had a wonderful spring break! The trees are popping out with leaves and the local flowers look great! Earth Day is coming up soon and the 40th anniversary begins this Saturday.

Click here to learn more about Earth Day. It's your planet. Make it your home!

Counselors in Training will be announced on Monday. See you then!

Earth Hour-Take Care of our Planet

This week I wanted to alert you to the Earth Hour coming up on March 27th. According to their website 
"Earth Hour 2010 will continue to be a global call to action to every individual, every business and every community. A call to stand up, to show leadership and be responsible for our future."

"In 2009 hundreds of millions of people around the world showed their support by turning off their lights for one hour."

So, turn out your lights this Saturday, save some energy and enjoy an evening activity that is not screen time. Of course, be safe as you show your support for the earth we all enjoy!

You can learn more at Earth Hour and make your own virtual lantern by watching the video

The Challenge

This week, for all of you who are reading, I'd like to provide you with a challenge. I'll get to the actual challenge in a minute but first want to explain a bit more about the Challenges in the program.

For those of you who have been campers you know that each day starts with The Daily Challenge. It's a question or a prompt that is supposed to get you thinking. We have challenges on personal goals, on your opinions on daily life, on friendship, learning more about school and college and so forth. Everyone who writes a good answer to The Daily Challenge is entered into a drawing to win a prize. We award $10 gift cards to Barnes and Noble each day.

Today I leave you with this week's Challenge. If you read this and send your answer  by March 24th to info@ChallengeAndChampions.org, I will pick the best answer and you will receive a $10 gift card to Barnes and Noble.



Please write to me at the email above about leadership and answer the following:

What are the qualities that you think makes an outstanding leader? Is they the same for leaders in "the arts" as in politics, or education, or in a business or in any other particular group? Why?

Good luck!

Dr. Karen Falkenberg

New Photos on the website

Hi, we have been getting lots of interest and applications and I hope that you are beginning to make your spring plans if you haven't already. We are continuing to update the website so check it early next week for more photos. We did put up a slideshow for your enjoyment. See if you can find it!

Time to apply

Hi, we want to be sure you know how to apply. Get your application on the admission page of the website. Fill it out with your parents help. You will need to get a letter of recommendation and complete a short writing sample. Send it in to the address on the application.

Here's a picture of one of the librarians working with the campers in the main college library last year. We love to use the campus resources.

Becoming a CIT

If you were a camper, you can apply to be a counselor in training. You can find the application on the website's CIT page.

Applications are due in the office by April 1.

Welcome to Spring 2010

We are jumping into action for our 7th summer season. Recruiting is open and we hope you will apply and pass this information on to your friends!

Bye until 2010

We hope you have a good rest of the summer.


Here are some last pictures.


The guys saying goodbye at the closing celebration of learning. Lots of graduation fun!

Friends hugging one last time.












Signing each others shirts!




See you next year!!!

Getting ready to close out

Hi, we are here to say that camp has been very good this year and the campers have been trying very hard. The teachers and counselors say that everyone is doing a good job in being friends and learning new things. We are really liking the swimming at the end of the day. It has been really hot!!!


The final Celebration of Learning is tomorrow and we have some special guests coming from out of town and from the campus.

Dr. Karen said the MATs are going to help with the decorations in the gym. They have been working very hard to become teachers. I think they will like putting up the balloons and setting up our celebration projects. Here are some of them working. David took their picture.

Going to the campus immersion

Today all of the campers went by shuttle to the main campus for a tour and a chance to be in one of the college classes. They used clickers to answer questions about plants and biology. The answers came up on the screen. It was taught by Dr. Z who is a biologist and a vice provost.


We then talked to the admissions people Ms. Simona and Mr. Tim about the important things needed to get ready for high school and college.


Then we had a great lunch which was all you could eat in the cafeteria. Everyone had a lot of fun and then it started to rain and we took the shuttle back to the Clairmont campus for the afternoon classes.

Campers are learning a lot

Every day there is something new to learn. Everyone is loving their classes and their specials.


The classes are not like regular school. They are way better.

Daily Challenge Winner

Hello Campers and Parents we are here to tell you how the campers' day went. Well it was pretty good for the most part. The daily challenge today was to pick a camper and learn about their culture. So the daily challenge winner is Luisa!


She chose Clive Young as his culture learning. She said Clive is from Jamaica and the colors of his flag are Gold, Black, and Yellow and described what each color was for and that he liked to eat Bun and Cheese. Now there were many people who did an excellent job with their challenge but we all liked this one for the winner. This is good because it teaches all of us about different cultures. Royce and Linnea are giving the $10 Barnes and Noble gift card at snack time.

PE classes

Mr. Eric said that everyone is doing great in wearing the right clothes for PE. We are hot on the field but it's burning up our energy. The other shots are of Craig and Brenda talking in the afternoon and Mr. Todd lookin' cool in his shades.


Dr. Karen said she's proud of how we are all wearing our camp T shirts every day!

 

Love our teachers!

We really like how the teachers take time to get to know the campers. Here's Ms. Michelle taking to Paul.

Friending

Hello Campers and Parents. Today we had an interesting day.


One today the Camper of the week were Willy Navarete from 6th grade, Dani Planer from 7th grade and Oscar Cortez from 8th grade. They won the Camper of the week because they showed terrific effort, dedication and reached out to others.


Today we decided to do a speed "FRIENDING" session. Now the speed friending is where everyone gets to learn more about others to know new people more and the person who finished first would get to have first pick of ice cream. It was a success I would say.

In specials today
Mr. Sam's class is playing African Drums. They will be doing a show for the final Celebration of Learning. Ms. Michelle's class is doing Yoga, they are making Jewelry in Ms. Jennifer's room, Mr. David's class cooking is making peach cobbler, and some of the girls are doing Step Dance outside.




Some speakers came again and taught the campers how to speak in Chinese. So by far it was a very interesting day.

Today's Classroom

Hello Campers I am here to give another taste of the classrooms today. Today was a really exciting day. As I told you on the last blog Alfredo Sion WON THE DAILY CHALLENGE but besides that we had two speakers one was a man who spoke Chinese and the other was a woman by the name of Jeffri Epps who worked at Four Eyes. Ms. Epps talked about market research in the Media Mania class.

I was in the room in Mr. David's where they were speaking Chinese and learning to write the characters. I learned a few new words like hello, goodbye, sorry, thank you, and good morning. You know the basics, and I learned a saying that the Chinese use a person who teaches a student for one day becomes their father for their whole lives. I also learned about a singer who is very popular and a poet who is extremely famous and wrote many poems. Amazing what you can learn each and everyday.

Daily Challenge Winner by Amber Little

Hello Campers I am here to talk about our daily challenge today. The question was what are two question would you ask president Barack Obama?


Alfredo Sion won the daily challenge he said he would ask the President what he is going to do about immigration laws and ask for him to stop deporting people because they have good jobs here and have families here they can't leave their job and their families.


All of the counselors thought he put a lot of effort into his work because he wanted to win so much so he put more effort than he ever had into it and it surely paid of.


Lots of people are writing very good things for the daily challenge.


Every day has been hot. We love to swim!

Here's a picture outside the Carlos museum taken on the field trip.

A taste of an everyday classroom By Amber Little and Sam Moore

Hello Camper and Parents I am here to give you a taste of what's going on in the classrooms in Challenge & Champions. These two students Lily Li and Davis Cavanagh are in Ms. Jennifer's Media Mania Classroom and were chosen to have as the best advertisement in their classrooms. I interviewed them and got their perspective on their ads and why they designed it and their inspiration to create their ads. This what they had to say.


Lily Li's Project









This is Lily Li she had an advertisement for going natural with make up. The picture she picked was for a cosmetic ad. She cropped the words out from the original ad. She liked the picture of the woman because it looked more natural and more appealing than the other women who have globs of make up on. She wanted an environmentally friendly ad because she believes cosmetics today are hurting the environment and causing disease to other people. She thinks natural is the way to go with everything and it is better to be all natural.


Davis Cavanagh's Project







This is Davis Cavanagh. He had an advertisement for Kodak. His logic for the ad is really simple but creative. He saw a picture of a black and white picture of TI and he used him because he was holding something in his hand. Davis wanted to use that so he can use the camera which was also black and white. He wanted to use a black and white picture so he could make the background stand out and make it look better.