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Sounds like summer: Listen as campers share their favourite learning moments from UNB Saint John's Discovery Camps. Recorded and edited by Hilary Creamer Robinson and Dria McKenna.

Throughout the academic year, the University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) Saint John campus teems with bright minds and big ideas.

In July and August, one might assume that learning and research at UNB slow to the flow of a stream in high summer, but a quick look around campus will quickly dispel that assumption.

Instead of the usual bustle of undergraduate and master’s students passing through the quad, you’ll see kids as young as eight and up to 15 scouting scene locations for their debut film; building an oversized, fully-functioning catapult; testing out micro-bit robots made from cardboard – think bunnies with wiggling ears, bears with stubby tails that flick from side to side and creatures whose arms flap up and down; or building functioning cardboard arcade games using the same technology.

Since last summer, the Promise Partnership – which falls under UNB’s Integrated Health Initiative – has coordinated the UNB Saint John Discovery Program, providing kids the opportunity to participate in week-long learning camps. While the camps on offer change from year to year, this summer’s include engineering, entrepreneurship, gaming, health science, maker/creator, Minecraft, moviemaking and science-based programming.

This summer, camps started on July 2 and will run until August 22, with each nearly at capacity. The program is partnered with and grateful for the support they receive from Worlds UNBound, who have offered engineering and science-based summer camps on the university’s Fredericton campus for the past 30 years.

Sarah Hetherington is the Promise Partnership’s youth enrichment program coordinator. “Discovery is a very welcoming, inclusive community made up of really kind people,” she said.

In keeping with the organization’s mission to enrich the lives of kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds, half of this summer’s campers received PETL-funded bursaries covering the week’s fees in full, including meals and snacks.

For the last week of camp, the program will welcome ten kids from Hazen White-St. Francis School and another 10 from Glen Falls School, all of whom will participate for free through the bursary program.

“It’s important that all kids have access to these sorts of learning opportunities – especially on a university campus,” said Hetherington. “We’ve had kids who might have thought that university wasn’t for them say, ‘This is really fun. I’m having a great time and I want to study here one day.’

“We want our campers to leave feeling like university [or post-secondary education] is for them, it’s for everyone, and they are welcome in these spaces.’”

Discovery also provides UNB students from both campuses with summer job opportunities that help grow their leadership skills while giving back to the community in a meaningful way.

Patrick Richard is a third-year bachelor of education student on UNB’s Saint John campus. This is his second summer working as a Discovery Camp instructor. This year, he led July’s engineering camps and August’s STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) maker/creator camps, which he helped develop alongside fellow Discovery instructor and UNB engineering student Maria Mahmood.

“What we [as instructors] are doing is meaningful to these kids’ lives. I feel like I’m helping in some way,” said Richard. “And at the same time, I’m having this great educational experience. So, it’s like we’re all benefiting.”

When Richard started at UNB, he studied engineering but realized it wasn’t for him. He switched to arts and became involved in the Promise Partnership’s mentorship program, where he found working with kids from Saint John’s highest priority schools so rewarding he decided to pursue a bachelor of education.

“There was a young student I had a great connection with. I was able to help him with homework and kind of be there for him when he needed to talk,” said Richard. “I was with him every week and got to see him grow throughout the year. By the end of our time together, his mom made muffins to say thanks. It was the sweetest thing and it validated that what I was doing mattered.

“A year later, we went back to that same school to do some activities. I saw that student and he still remembered my name and gave me a hug. It was just the best feeling seeing him again and talking about the fun we had together.”

That same opportunity for peer-to-mentor connection happens through Discovery, too.

“[Discovery] is a tight-knit community of support,” Richard said – and it’s an environment where campers quickly flourish and come into their own.

“There might be a camper who, at the beginning of camp, is really quiet or doesn't want to work with anyone. By the end of the week, they’ve made friends and are working as a team, problem-solving together.”

Richard also credits much of the program’s success to its camper-led approach to learning.

“There’s less structure than at school – the kids guide the curriculum in a way,” he said. “We really listen to what they have to say and encourage them to dig into what excites them. We let them be free to explore whatever they’re most interested in.”

As a result, Richard said he’s seen young campers articulately explain new and advanced technology hours after learning about it. He also said that access to the program’s robotics equipment, 3D printers, and other new technologies will positively benefit campers well into the future.

“Learning this type of technology is going to be more and more important as time goes on. We have a lot of kids here who don’t really have access to this type of newer technology. Here, they get to learn how it works and use it in a way that makes sense to them.

“They’re learning about stuff they didn’t even know existed,” Richard said. “And sometimes, they’re teaching me too.”

Domenica Vasco, a second-year computer science major at UNB’s Saint John campus and Discovery Camp counsellor, says there are also regular learning moments for her.

“I’ve grown along with the kids,” she said.

Vasco’s work with Discovery has also been a salve for the homesickness she has experienced since moving to Canada from her home country of Ecuador.

“Being with the kids gives me energy and forces me to be more extroverted. I have to improvise and be a problem-solver because what works for some doesn’t work for others,” said Vasco.

"You see them here and they are happy. That feels good.”