JEREMIAH SUMMER CAMP

The Jeremiah Summer Camp program is a summer reading, language skills, pottery and drama program.  This program incorporates elements of the Jeremiah Project and uses the Information Technology Center, Pottery Room and Media Center on an intensive level in the summer.  Making Gurtler Center resources available to students who may not otherwise have this opportunity levels the playing field by keeping them engaged and intellectually and creatively stimulated.

Overall goals of this program are:

1. Improve and maintain students' reading, reading comprehension and vocabulary
   skills during critical "away from school" time.
2. Develop skills students need to be competitive in school.
3. Create from the heart with clay in the pottery studio, building self-esteem
   and self-confidence and mold themselves in new ways.
4. Develop poise and self-confidence through self-expression in the drama component.

The information technology part of the program focuses on developing and improving reading skills in 5^th - 9^th grade students. Students are introduced to the various search engines on the Internet to help increase their research skills.  FCAT preparation is an ongoing focus of the IT Program.  Our goal is to stimulate intellectual activity and create curiosity so that students do not lose ground over the summer.

The pottery art part of the program helps students create from the heart through working with clay in the pottery studio. 
Students learn to throw pottery on the wheel and construct hand-built projects like tea pots, animal pinch pots and vases.  They
leave with bowls, mugs, pitchers and pencil holders they have created and glazed.  The pottery program focuses on building self-esteem through creative expression and instilling confidence and patience in its participants.

The drama part of the program uses improvisational techniques to help encourage quick thinking and a level of comfort in front of peers and adults.  This program equips youth to be at ease while presenting them in a poised and articulate manner when
faced with new and even outrageous scenarios.  Value is given to stories and events as told from the youth's point of view. It also encourages positive reinforcement from peers and adults through laughter and applause.  Improvisation teaches working together in community to create something together in the spirit of fun and play.

The Gurtler Center for Families, Youth and Children thanks the Winter Park Community Redevelopment Agency for its support by providing funding for this program.