Many children bring home projects from summer camps. For some students in the Urban League of Rochester’s day camp at Finger Lakes Community College, the take-home was an audio file of music they recorded themselves.
The Urban League and FLCC partnered to provide new experiences to students from the city who are starting grades 6 through 9 this fall. The 60 students in this year’s camp selected two focus areas from a list of eight topics: graphic design, American Sign Language (ASL), media, creative exploration, pond life, forest ecology, entrepreneurship and music recording.
For the first four weeks, students spent an hour on each of their chosen subjects daily. Those who chose music recording learned some basic functions of the state-of-the-art consoles used by students working toward an associate degree in music recording technology. The nearly three-minute instrumental track includes one student playing her bass.
“The students loved being able to make music. It has broadened their horizon and excited them for the opportunity to continue learning more in this area,” said Taurean Uthman, vice president of youth education at the Urban League.
The camp ran from July 8 to Aug. 8. For the first four weeks, students participated in activities at FLCC’s main campus, including fishing – most for the first time – in the pond used by the FLCC logging sports team for canoeing competition.
American Sign Language was also a new experience. “The students enjoyed learning ASL, and their parents have mentioned that they’ve been practicing what they learned at home,” Uthman added.
During the fifth week, the students spent each day at the College’s Muller Field Station, an environmental research and education facility at the south end of Honeoye Lake. There, the students took part in hiking, canoeing and other outdoor experiences.
FLCC and the Urban League plan to maintain their partnership, with quarterly admissions events at the main campus and Victor Campus Center for older students.
FLCC is also working on a plan to bring some of its workforce training programs to the Urban League’s site in Rochester.
The mission of the Urban League of Rochester is to enable African-Americans, Latinxs, the poor, and other disadvantaged to secure economic self-reliance, parity and power, and civil rights.
