Every year Taylor holds multiple summer programs for high schoolers to come and get a taste of college life including Summer Institute, formerly known as CRAM and Summer Honors, Academic Summer camps and Empower.
All of these programs cater to slightly different needs and interests.
Although all of the students will be in different camps, they will all be staying in Breuninger Hall and having some group activities in the evenings with Taylor student leaders called Student Life Coordinators (SLC).
Empower is a program that partners high school students with a mentor through some of Taylor’s various connections like ActSix, Elevate, Str8up and others.
“The program is designed to develop theologically-minded youth and empower them,” Taylor’s website reads.
The dates have not been officially announced this year, but it will likely be at the same time as the summer camps, in which case the two groups will live in the same building.
Summer Institute is the longest of the programs, running from June 19 to July 1. High school students who have finished their junior year take a condensed version of Foundations as well as one of three elective courses of their choice. The students will get credit for these programs and an exemption from taking Foundations later.
The Academic Summer Camps run June 12-17 and are for high school students who have completed their sophomore or junior year. Students can choose from one of 12 different focuses currently offered such as mathematics, computer game design, music theater and dance and professional writing, among others. If some of the courses do not have at least five students enrolled though, they will have to drop the course.
All of these groups will also be taking part in scripture engagement in the evenings with Department Chair and Professor of Christian Ministries Phil Collins. Kiersten Seeman, director of pre-college programs, is in charge of these programs for the first time this year and said that while she is not planning on making many changes to the programs, she wants to help the students develop devotions from what they learned from scripture engagement the day before.
Wengatz Hall Director Jacob Gerding will be the hall director for the programs this summer and one of his responsibilities is selecting the SLCs. They will serve as short term Personnel Assistants (PAs), as they will lead small groups and help the students figure out campus and how to get around for their stay.
The application process is completed, and Gerding will focus on selecting candidates.
Although Gerding will not have a lot of direct interactions with the students, he will be helping the SLCs as they figure out their leadership roles and also experience it as a time of growth.
“We just hope that these weeks are a microcosm of what a full Taylor experience would be. We hope it wets their appetite to want to know more about Taylor,” Seeman said.
