Relentless Academy Helps Beat Back Summer Brain Drain
Summer camp can take on many forms. In the basement of Brooklyn Center’s Brookdale Covenant Church, 12-year-old Michael Jones attends a summer camp where he gets to work on a passion project: robotics.
“I love it so much,” said Jones, who will be entering the 7th grade at Jackson Middle School. “I love that it’s just an opportunity I get to do, and ever since I’ve done robotics, I just love it.”
That love of robotics is due in large part to the work of Relentless Academy, a nonprofit that launched five years ago with a focus on youth education.
“The purpose of our program is to ensure that kids are learning over the summer, and that we are combating the learning loss that happens over the summer,” said Nicoshia Wynn, executive director of Relentless Academy. “Historically, that’s happened. Especially in math and reading.”
This year, 80 students signed up for Relentless Academy’s S.M.A.R.T. (science, math, art, reading and technology) program, where they learn about things such as career exploration, coding and robotics. It all happens over the course of eight weeks.
Unlike other camps where families pay week-by-week, this program requires a one-time registration fee of $220 dollars, and $70 for each additional child.
Michael Jones (wearing the Adidas shirt), receives help on a robotics project at Relentless Academy.
“I wanted to make sure that the program that we have is not as expensive for families, and that really all students should be able to have access to coding and robotics,” said Wynn.
Help from Summer Impact Corps
It takes a village to provide kids with this opportunity, and this year, Relentless Academy is getting additional help in the form of a volunteer from AmeriCorps’ Summer Impact Corps.
“We’re really happy to be here to support them,” said Chue Xiong, the program director of Summer Impact Corps. “I know they do a lot of good work in the community and getting young people involved in lots of cool activities over the summertime.”
Michael Jones is one of those young people. One day, he may even pursue a career with the skills he learned through Relentless Academy.
“Maybe I do want to be a coder or something like that,” Jones said.
Relentless Academy is for kids in grades 1-8. The eight-week program finishes up on Aug. 8.
Related: Summer Impact Corps Seeks Tutors, Willing To Pay $6K
