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Summer At SLU Recognized as a Top Summer Organization

10/08/2021

Summer At SLU was recognized as a 2021 Top 20 summer organization by Blueprint4Summer at an annual virtual summit of summer camps in the St. Louis area.

Summer At SLU, located within the Office of Summer and Extended Studies at Saint Louis University, aims to provide exceptional summer camps and academies to K-12 students in the St. Louis region and beyond. Programs offered include athletic camps such as soccer, basketball and swimming as well as academic camps such as theater, creative writing, engineering, medicine and technology. 

Though the pandemic presented numerous challenges for youth programming, Summer At SLU K-12 camps and academies continued, offering 19 academic camps online though Zoom and five in-person athletic camps.

“We encountered unprecedented circumstances over the last 18 months, particularly for our K-12 camps that usually take place on our campus in the summer,” said Troy Hargrove, director of the Office of Summer and Extended Studies. “Nevertheless, our camp and academy partners, both internal and external to the University, stepped up to the plate, offering a variety of academic camps online. We even had the opportunity to host several in-person athletic camps, which gave participants the ability to enjoy the outdoors in a safe and fun environment.”

Despite the radically different environment for summer camps, Summer At SLU was listed in the top 20 most searched summer programs out of nearly 200 camp providers that are on the Blueprint4Summer site.

This past summer also demonstrated an increase in attendance, with 246 campers attending athletic camps and 963 participants enrolling in online programs.

Overall, Summer At SLU reported a 300% increase in attendance from 2020, when many programs were canceled or moved online at the last minute due to the pandemic. The rapid growth reinforces the importance of a partnership with Blueprint4Summer, which is an organization in St. Louis that connects families with K-12 summer opportunities in the area, Hargrove said..

“We look forward to strengthening our partnership with Blueprint4Summer in the years to come,” Hargrove said. “We have benefited from the resources they provide for summer camps in the St. Louis region, as they remain a vital part of our outreach efforts to families.”

Summer At SLU will be reaching out to University partners in October to start planning for next year. If a SLU department is interested in running a summer camp on campus in 2022, please contact Jacob Wierson.