Summer Youth Camps Pass 1,000 Campers for the First Time, and Add a Welding Camp

Registration for UW–Porter Falls summer youth camps closed at 1,052 campers, the first time the program has passed 1,000. The 31 camps run from June 16 to August 8. Porter faculty teach them, about 80 current students staff them, and they use the same labs, shops and studios Porter students use during the year.

The new camp this year is Weld Like a Pro, for grades 10 through 12. It is a four-day camp in the welding lab. Campers earn a shop-safety card, run MIG and stick beads on plate, and build a small steel toolbox to take home. Its single session of 16 seats filled in nine days.

“A lot of the kids who signed up for welding camp had never been told that welding was something you could go to college for. Four days later they have a toolbox they made, burn holes in their sweatshirts, and a very different idea of what they might do after high school.”

— Tessa Quam, director of youth programs

Other notes from this summer:

• Scrubs Camp (grades 9–12) moves to the nursing skills lab while the third floor of the Health Sciences Center is under construction. It will return to the new simulation hospital next summer.
• Robotics I and II filled first again, with a 28-name waitlist.
• Overnight camps will house about 260 campers over the summer in Birchwood Suites.
• Youth sports camps run by Ironclad coaches account for about 380 of the total. They are listed separately on youth sports camps.

Grant money from a local foundation and gifts from this spring’s Ironclad Giving Day cover 140 full-scholarship seats for students in the Porter Falls Area and Cedar Bluff school districts. Last year there were 96.

All counselors complete background checks and youth-protection training under the minors on campus policy. Families can join waitlists or find year-round programs, including STEM Saturdays, on the youth camps and programs page.

Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu