K-12 University Center ‘going full steam ahead’ in welcoming youth back to campus

Last summer only provided a snippet of what Camp Tiger is all about, with just one camp experience offered. Come summer of 2023, organizers through the K-12 University Center at Rochester Institute of Technology said Camp Tiger and other K-12-facilitated activities and events for local youth is slated to be back in its entirety. After all, during traditional Camp Tiger opportunities, pre-pandemic, there were about 300 school-aged students on campus each day.

“All campus experiences, especially with K-12, were impacted; we weren’t allowed to host any students who weren’t eligible to be on campus,” Kids on Campus Director Kraig Farrell said. “Now, we’re looking forward to going full steam ahead to welcoming kids back.”

Farrell added that after a more than two-year hiatus, Camp Tiger will be “back in full swing” for 2023 as the center facilitates activities and events for local youth, while still working with campus mitigation efforts. That also includes other youth-focused opportunities hosted by the K-12 Center that have been phased back in during the 2022-23 school year.

To learn about how RIT has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and other related information, please visit this link: RIT Safety Plan in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The first notable activity since the start of the pandemic came in the summer of 2022 with the GenCyber Camp – a weeklong computing camp for students through the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. Faculty members worked with about 35 middle school students at the university-based facility where they featured curriculum for safeguarding online communities and capabilities.

“That was really the first major event for us,” Farrell said. “We were able to pull that off because of the staff support and crew chiefs we had to promote it, work with registration and eligibility, and everything else it entailed.”

Crew chief is the name given to RIT students who help with Camp Tiger, and work in camp jobs that complement their field of study or other area of interest.

Camp Tiger includes an array of camps held annually at RIT during the summer, and deemed the longest-running and oldest camp experience model in Monroe County. The goal is to connect faculty members, and university colleges and departments to local youth for a variety of academic and athletic activities.

When Camp Tiger is not in session, the K-12 University Center hosts a variety of other activities and events for school-aged student to experience all RIT has to offer, while sparking an interest in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math.