Cedar Point Biological Station's "Art Adventure Camp" is a summer camp for kids from the Ogallala, Nebraska area taught by University of Nebraska-Lincoln undergraduate art students, funded by a grant from the the Kimmel Foundation and in partnership with Ogallala Public Schools. The program began in 2016 and has run every summer except the 2020 season. The camp is a great opportunity for our undergraduates to gain teaching experience in a unique environment with an underserved population.
Check out this article about our camp in "Nebraska Today"
Some reflections from our undergraduate instructors:
“The first day of camp really broadened my perspective on how living in rural areas can impact children. I think growing up in the country can lead to a lack of cultural vocabulary, but on the other hand a lot of kids had a broader understanding of plants than did the staff. It was cool to see them bring their own survival knowledge and some agricultural background to the class.”
– Kat Wiese, UNL undergraduate instructor
“This was an experience that I will never forget. I learned so much regarding children, conflict resolution, planning, teaching, patience, and many other topics. After being asked to assist in this camp, I immediately decided to do it because I
wanted as many kids as possible to participate in exploring the outdoors and be creative in the off-the-grid setting of Cedar Point.Not every kid lives on a farm with wide open space to enjoy and explore, I want every child to have that experience.”
-Jordan Geisert, UNL undergraduate instructor
“I explained the process I went through to get the clay from raw earth to workable clay. I first dug the clay up, then broke it up into pieces, soaked the pieces of clay, blended it, sieved it and then set it out to dry in the sun. I put some of the clay from each step aside so the kids could see and feel each step. The kids really enjoyed getting messy and the hands-on experience of touching the clay and building things from it.”
-Austin Coudriet, UNL undergraduate instructor
“This year brought so many beautiful moments for myself that caught me by surprise. Each and every day, the student’s excitement and curiosity encouraged and pushed me to be with them more. I hadn’t planned to be talking to the boys about their personal life stories, and I’m glad I was there to have those conversations with them. I personally learned many new things with the activities the camp leaders had planned and I really enjoyed doing it among the kids.”
-Pha Nguyen, UNL undergraduate instructor