While school is now back in session, the residents at the YOC didn’t stop learning over the summer. Education is very important to the YOC and summer is the perfect opportunity to offer fun classes with a more hands-on approach to help keep kids engaged while they are out of school. Annually, the YOC hosts a Summer Enrichment program, which includes classroom instruction, field trips and credit classes for older youth.

This summer, students engaged in classes which ranged from Introduction to Agriculture to Topics in History: World War II to Self-Care through Art to STEM experiments. Each class found a way to engage students using various techniques such as games, crafts, and model building. The STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) class was a huge hit with residents as they got to learn about physics by building practical models and testing them in class.

During one class they made hydraulic robot arms out of tongue depressors and syringes and put them in a battle to test them out. Megann Parkison, YOC Educational Coordinator, expressed how awesome these opportunities are for the kids. The kids were able to take the knowledge they learned and apply it to other educational activities. The YOC kids had a great summer on campus.