Spotlight on Summer
"School's back in session but this week's heatwave makes us wish we were still splashing around in Crystal Lake! Our cool campers beat the heat with water play, magicians, field trips, snow cones, and more. Over one-third of Wellan's students joined in the summer fun led by a spectacular summer staff including some of Wellan's own Voyager students and recent alumni as counselors-in-training."
Over the course of summer’s eight weeks, we welcomed 119 Wellan students back to campus. This summer, our program designer and director Maria Gionfriddo focused on providing students with a day camp style experience, with weekly themes and in-house specialist teachers that taught art, music, STEM, and P.E. Our spectacular summer staff hiked to Crystal Lake every day for a swim with students in 1st grade and up, and our younger campers had lots of outdoor time and weekly waterplay with giant inflatable water slides. We hosted a magician, a traveling planetarium, a snow cone truck, and teachers from the Discovery Museum, and our Upper Elementary and Voyager students took field trips to the Museum of Science, Drumlin Farms, and the Harvard Peabody Museum.
In addition to Wellan’s programs for younger students, we also launched a Counselor in Training program led by Lower Elementary teachers Kayla Keeling and Caroline Chizek. The CIT program was a monumental success, and we could not be prouder of the students and staff who brought the program to life. Open to Wellan students and alumni entering grades 8 – 10, Wellan’s CIT program was designed to blend early job training opportunities and hands-on experience assisting with kids and facilitating games and activities over the course of a two-week session.
Participants completed Pediatric First Aid & CPR training, and learned baby-sitting and child care basics. At the start of the program, they met with Wellan teachers to review expectations, discuss personal goals, and learn classroom management strategies before stepping in as summer classroom assistants. While working in classrooms, the Counselors-in-Training had the opportunity to design, plan, and execute their own activities for their group of children with ample feedback and support from Wellan staff.
By and large, Wellan’s summer programs gave students of all ages the liberty to grow, explore, discover, play, and simply be kids in a space and community that they know and love. We’re already looking forward to summer 2024, and we hope to see all of you then!