ACE Teachers Connect Learning and Fun in Summer Camps for Local Students

How do summer day camp experiences—like the programs offered annually in local Catholic schools, with help from the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE)—affect a typical Notre Dame faculty or staff member's family?

For one thing, you may find three teenage boys sitting around your dinner table trading tips about building bridges, says Tracy Faulkner, administrative assistant in Visitation Hall.

The Faulkner children—Jake and Ben (junior and freshman, respectively, at Saint Joseph High School) and William (in seventh grade at Saint Joseph Grade School)—have been known to have that discussion more than once. In recent years, each of them has attended a science camp that is one of the options for middle-school students registered for summer camps hosted by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend in partnership with ACE.

"They compared notes," Tracy says of her sons. "When one of them was about to start the camp, they still talked about the bridges they had teamed up to build years before. An older one would say, oh, don't make that mistake" with a truss or beam or anything crucial in the contest between bridges' weight-bearing capacities.

All three of them remembered their experiences, whether a given camp season focused on the science and math of bridge design or rocket-building or ecosystem stewardship, Tracy recalls this year's middle-school focus areas, besides science, include "Managing Your Fantasy Team," "The Heroine," and "Monsters in the Movies."

She remembers how engaged the boys became in their camps: "When you can get a child to get up early in the morning in the summer, you know they want to be there."

The boys' teachers immersed in the study of their craft with ACE clearly want to be there, too.

"They're the most amazing group," Tracy says. "They get their energy off the kids' excitement." These Notre Dame graduate students, led by mentors and veteran faculty at schools including Christ the King, St. Adalbert's, St. Vincent's in Elkhart, and Saint Joseph High School, pursue a Master of Education degree and bond with the camp students in exploring subjects they love—like math, language arts, and science.

"It's almost as if [the ACE Teachers in science camp] were older lab partners, as if each student had a lab partner who was older and could reach the top shelf and get the cool stuff," Tracy recalls from her sons' reports.

Because of a team approach in projects, a very favorable teacher-to-student ratio, and a camp environment with minimal pressure (alongside rigors of discipline and safety), "the teachers found a way to make every child fit in," she says.

William remembers the fun of group puzzles and contests in another one of the summer camps he attended, back in third grade, Tracy says. He learned more about everyday math, and the morning-only, three-week sessions allowed all three Faulkner boys to enjoy other kinds of summer fun.

A low-priced, low-pressure injection of learning into students' summers "keeps them ready for the classroom in the fall," she says. While not an all-day, season-long immersion, every morning session adds "something positive" to the summer. "It gets them up and moving, and it's a good way to start their day."

Options for the days of summer 2015 are more numerous, reflecting growth in this Catholic School Educational Program, hosted by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend for more than a decade. The number of students served through the many alternatives has grown from about 100 to more than 250.

ACE summer camp assistant director Patrick Kirkland says the goal is to welcome a larger number of students this year, from all backgrounds and all of Michiana.

A high school summer school format has been added for grades 9-12, and a range of focus subject areas is offered for middle school. Registration is now open. Children from faculty and staff families of the Notre Dame community are among those invited to register at http://ace.nd.edu/summercamp/.

As for the Faulkners, Tracy already knows William will be among the camps' repeat-registrants. "He'll go to one of them this summer," she says. "We're really looking forward to it."