AREA YOUNG PEOPLE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SKYCTC SUMMER CAMPS

Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKYCTC) offered a wide variety of week-long camps for elementary and middle students this past summer. All of the summer camps and teen programs were designed to be both educational and fun!

This year SKYCTC offered three unique camps.

Kids separate pork to be made into barbeque, Thursdau, June12, 2014, at Chef Camp at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College. (Miranda Pederson/Daily News)

SKYCTC Chef Camp for Kids

The College’s Culinary Program hosted their annual Chef Camp for Kids for 56 kids ages  8-12 year olds, June 9^th– 12.^th   

“The kids had a great time learning foundational cooking skills, practicing kitchen safety & sanitation and making new friends,” said Lisa Hunt, a professor at SKYCTC. “For this age group, if you can spark a lifelong interest, they can carry that on for years," Hunt said.

Two of this year’s campers were twelve year old Brayden Ezell and eleven year old Grace Rounce. Both have attended the camp for several years. Grace’s favorite meal to prepare is meatloaf while Brayden likes to put together different layers of pasta and sauces in the baking dish to make lasagna for her family.

SKYCTC Professor Mike Riggs said many kids have attended the camp at the college's Bowling Green main campus for several years. "We want them to know how much fun cooking can be. It's not just opening a box in the kitchen," Riggs said.

Governor’s Minority Student College Preparation Program S.T.E.M. Camp  

Twelve-year-old Larissa Ringuette (from left), Andy Echeverria, 13, and Bailey Dunn, 11, all of Bowling Green, play disc golf as part of Governor’s Minority Student College Preparation Program S.T.E.M. initiative on Monday, June 9, 2014, at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College. (Bac To Trong/Daily News)

    

During the weeks of June 9^th– 23^rd, SKYCTC hosted a multiple event camp for 6-8 year olds referred by the Housing Authority of Bowling Green, Trinity Full Gospel Baptist Church and State Street Baptist Church.

Eugenia Scott, associate professor of oral communications at SKYCTC, has overseen the Governor’s Minority Student College Preparation Program (GMSCPP) camps for seven years.

Usually S.T.E.M. stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Scott interprets S.T.E.M. for the local program as, Strong Teaching Encouraging Minds.

“It has been my pleasure for the past years to lead this initiative at the college and to see these young minds light up with the realization of possibilities,” says Scott. “It is rewarding to work these students and our instructors who volunteer their time to teach these young people”.

GMSCPP is in its 7th year at SKYCTC. It has been in effect with the state universities since the late 1980’s and KCTCS since the early 2000’s. The program has been very successful in enriching the lives of hundreds of young students throughout our state.

Camp workshops designed to help student stretch their thinking muscles were: Basic Public Speaking, The Sociology of Superheroes, news reporting, writing, allied health and nursing, girl power, auto clean-up and detaining, automotive maintenance and disc golf math.

Students design video games Thursday, June 19, 2014, during 3-D Gaming Camp at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College Franklin-Simpson Center in Franklin. (Bac To Trong/Daily News)

SKYCTC Career Craze – 3-D Gaming Camp

Participants attending the Career Craze camps at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College (SKYCTC) this year were exposed to cutting edge technology in 3-D graphics, innovative game design software. The camps were open to students who will be in the 7^th, 8^th, or 9^th grades this fall.

Two camps were held this year; one at the College’s KATI Campus and one at the SKYCTC Franklin-Simpson Center. Mary Helen Hendricks, director of SKYCTC’s Interactive Digital Center, coordinated the camps. She said the program Scratch allows the kids to use a simplified code language that uses more English to explain directions. “We are helping them to understand how to integrate the different concepts,” she said.

Hendricks said math knowledge is important for creating video games. She also said kids should look at existing video games to see how they work. Hendricks said a key to video games’ success is they are addictive. “It’s like trying to eat just one potato chip,” she said, adding that video game companies will initially offer their games for free for the first five plays, then charge a nominal fee like 99 cents to play more often.