Four Reasons My Kid's Going to Career Camp This Summer

Like thousands of kids around the country this summer, my kid is going to go to camp. But her camp won’t consist of sailing, crafts and bonfires. Insteadthere will be cow hearts, robotics, and bridge building, and hopefully a “light switch” that ignites her passion and helps her to build a plan towards herfuture. She’s going to go to an Envision Career Camp.

Let me give you some background on Pathways to STEM, thespecific program my daughter will be attending. It’s a program for third through fifth graders that is a kind of “sampler platter” of careers in theScience, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) field. The Pathways program, like all Envision programs (22 in all, spanning elementary, middle andhigh school) is based on principles of experiential and project-based learning—that students learn best by doing. Hands on activities,simulations, and lots of collaborative group work all combine to build their teamwork and communication skills.

Now, there is a clear need for disclosure here: I am the CEO of Envision, and for obvious reasons I feel passionate about what we do. But let me lay outfour reasons why, regardless of this fact, my daughter will be spending this summer “trying her future” at an Envision Career Camp.

Like every parent, I want to see my child show true passion for something, and to see the spark and love of learning in her eye. Like every parent, I amproud and excited when I see that, and concerned when I don’t. I believe that in most kids, that spark is ever-present, even if it is hiding beneath thesurface and needs some encouragement to come out. Sometimes that encouragement means banning the binge-watching of all Disney Channel TV shows in thehouse, but other times it can take the form of a truly transformational summer experience. Envision Career Camps are a great example of the latter—offeringan incredible number of opportunities for students to make a connection and nurture their natural and innate curiosity.

By the time we retire, most of us will have spent in excess of 100,000 hours involved in our jobs and careers. This is a tremendous amount of our time andof our lives, so we should make it count and do something that we truly enjoy. This is a message I want my kids to absorb, and one that a career camp willconvey. Envision programs don’t present jobs in a boring and traditional way; rather,students get a chance to go “behind the scenes”, to interact directly with experts from different career fields, and to get hands-on experience in whatit’s like to pursue a career. And the use of experiential learning presents topics in a fresh, new way that is different from many school districts It’s the way learning should be.

My wife and I are not “tiger parents” and by no means do I believe that a fourth grader should have her entire college and career path planned out. Butit’s never too early for a child to have a dream and a vision for what they want to do with their lives—and many kids do. But too few kids have theirdreams bolstered with some semblance of a plan, and that can make accomplishing a goal challenging later in life. Career Camps help kids form that plan andunderstand the broad brushstrokes of what’s required to pursue a given career field. So if, as a result of this summer, my daughter thinks that she maywant to be a doctor, an Envision program will help her to understand that to accomplish that goal she will need to complete a four-year college degree andgo to medical school. Simple, but powerful.

Summers are transformational times in kids’ lives. Show me an adult and I will show you someone whose fondest memories invariably involve something amazingduring their childhood summers. And Envision Career Camps are the definition of fun—students are interacting with an amazing group of peers, getting thekinds of academic experiences they don’t always get in school, and making memories that will last a lifetime.

I could go on, but these are four simple reasons why we, along with thousands of other parents, have made the choice for our child to go the “Career Camp”route this summer. There’s nothing wrong with a bonfire- but I’ll take a light switch for my kids any day.

-Duncan Young

Chief Executive Officer

Envision Experience