Aim for the Stars partners with The Simple Foundation for tech camp
This year, the Aim for the Stars camp, traditionally held at the UNO campus each summer, is expanding its reach. Through a partnership with The Simple Foundation, one camp will meet at a special location to engage a new group of students.
The Simple Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, seeks to close the gap in educational programming for Omaha-area refugees and low-income families through addressing poverty, promoting cultural integration, and fostering academic excellence. The organization identified about a dozen campers to participate in the camp, which is being hosted at the Simple Foundation's South Omaha location.
"One of The Simple Foundation’s missions is to welcome youth from diverse backgrounds through our programs in order to build self-confidence, develop new skills and achieve educational success," said Osuman Issaka, president and CEO of the Simple Foundation. "This camp is designed to give students a chance to learn block coding, which is such a valuable skill for our youth in today’s tech-driven world."
Aim for the Stars, of which the UNO's STEM TRAIL Center served as the administrative home, is providing counselors for the camp, as well as the curriculum, which is based on lessons developed by Harvard University's Creative Computing Lab. The instructor is Dr. Alfredo Perez, associate professor of computer science at UNO.
"Dr. Perez will introduce young learners to the fundamentals of computer programming, a subject area that historically hasn't been accessible to everyone," said Erin Dahl, Aim for the Stars director.
Aim for the Stars and The Simple Foundation are working together to offer the one-week camp twice this summer. The activities include a visit to the Peter Kiewit Institute on UNO's campus, where participants in the College of information Science and Technology's Summer High School Internship Program will give a presentation to the campers about various projects they've been pursuing.
"Campers will have the chance to engage with older students who share similar career interests, providing them with a practical perspective on how their camp activities translate into more advanced, real-world applications," explained Dahl.
Dahl says in the future, the collaborative satellite camp could become a long-term experience where campers return over multiple summers to further develop their computer programming skills.
"Aim for the Stars, along with the Simple Foundation, is aiming to create a lifelong passion for technology as well as the invaluable skills that come along with that, and we're fortunate to be partnering with Osuman and the Simple Foundation for this vital--not to mention super-fun--initiative."