Theme Ideas for Humanities Camps
When you apply to host a camp, you’ll be asked to describe your proposed camp or project and think about the following questions:
- What excites you about offering this opportunity to young people in your area?
- What makes it a humanities project?
- How will it provide a non-traditional model of learning?
The following program examples are only presented to spur the curiosity of teachers and educators.
Writing About the Natural World
This program would allow students to explore the wild spaces around their school through outdoor cooking, biking, meditating, building shelters, cataloguing plants and wild edibles, all coupled with discussions of nature writing by people like Camille T. Dungy, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Robinson Jeffers, Mary Oliver, and many more. Student participants could write their own pieces as a final project.
Civics, Activism, and Political Theory
What would it look like to build our own governance structures from the ground up? For a two-week summer program like this, students would come in with a general idea of civically engaging with their community, state, or country but their process would begin as all organizing does: what are our rules? How do we build consensus? Is anyone in charge? What are our goals? Hands-on youth organizing work is enlightening, empowering, and helps build a future generation of activists and leaders. Excerpted chapters from books like This is What Democracy Looks Like, from authors like Frantz Fanon and Emma Goldman, guest speakers from the VT Workers’ Center or the legislature all help in the development of a community of active, thoughtful, and engaged young people.
Storytelling and Film
This two-week crash course on film critique and filmmaking would allow young people to write, direct, act in, and edit their own film with equipment borrowed from the local community access station. Students would begin by sharing their favorite films and compiling a list for them to watch together for further reflection, inspiration, and general critique while they spend the rest of their days scouting locations, writing, and filming scenes all for a final film premiere for the entire community.
Questions?
Contact Jonny Flood at jflood@vermonthumanities.org