Buckeye sees big turnout for Career Exploration Summer Camp
NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) (June 9, 2022) – Close to 300 kids spent part of the week participating in activities at Buckeye Career Center.
Public Relations Coordinator Shyanne Carroll says that’s a record for their Career Exploration Summer Camp that brings kids in grades 4-6 to the center for three days of hands-on learning based on their job interests.
“Obviously, because all of the kids are really energetic, they want to do those fun, artsy types of projects. And if they were to come here as a high school student, we are very hands-on at the career center, so they are going to be able to do those things on a higher level once they get here in high school.”
Participating students had 12 different career clusters to choose from. 10-year-old Makayla Yoder selected floral design and crafting because she enjoys helping her mom plant flowers.
“We have been making fairy gardens and planting lots of flowers and also we made flowers out of cupcake wrappers. And we also got to paint a lot and have fun.”
Another group of campers that included built miniature catapults and participated in a friendly competition to see which one could launch an object the farthest. Instructor Tim Vandeborne saw bright futures for all of the participants.
“The last thing we did at the end of the day was I walked around the room. All the students that said they wanted to be engineers, they all raised their hands and it was great, so it’s actually cultivating that future.”
The Career Exploration Summer Camp wrapped up this morning with an opportunity for students to share what they had been working on with their parents. Carroll says they offered free transportation this year and had more than three times as many participants as the last camp in 2019.