15 awesome free summer programs for your teens!

Summer is a time of relaxation. School is out and kids need this well deserved break after a year of academic learning. In most states of the US, summer break lasts between 10- 12 weeks. Yes, a minimum of two months off up to almost three months off for all students in PK through Grade 12!

That brings us to the engagement and learning part for all our kids. Do you know that students may loose up to 3 months of school-year learning over the summer break? As mentioned in my previous post about 25+ free online educational learning resources, there are many free websites, camps and programs for our kids all through the year. In this post, I am writing about summer programs that secondary students can apply to and attend free of charge or at a very low cost and learn tremendously and get an exceptional experience in the process. In addition to learning 21st century skills like collaboration, team work, creativity, critical thinking, civic duty and oral presentation skills; they may also help develop leadership and interpersonal skills. They look good on your kids college application process and show their interest and focus. In fact these programs may help your teens decide or finalize their college majors or line of study! Read on about some free summer programs for your tweens and teens this summer.

Disclaimer- This post is written purely from my experience with our own kids who are 17 and 13 year old. Most of these programs are summer programs that my rising senior has participated in since middle school and only a few have a minimal nominal fee and most of them are free! So read on.

Some programs that are year round:

Institute of Engagement. Institute of Engagement Houston. The Insitute of Engagement helps young people take responsible ownership. Curated by youth, for the youth, the Institute of Engagement is a year-long civic fellowship for Greater Houston Area high school students. Fellow explore the present and past civic framework of their communities, engage in project management workshops, and ultimately lead their own community based project.

Mayor Youth Council. Mayor Youth Council. The mission of the Mayor’s Youth Council (MYC) is to promote civic engagement by youth. The MYC provides high school students with opportunities to learn about city government, develop leadership skills, and bring awareness to issues that are important to Houston’s youth. (Each city may have this program so check with your city mayor’s office).

RYLA. Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is a program that originated with Rotary International in 1971. Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) is an intensive leadership experience organized by Rotary clubs and districts where you develop your skills as a leader while having fun and making connections. RYLA encourages leadership growth in youth by recognizing and rewarding deserving high school sophomores and juniors who are chosen to attend RYLA as an “award” for their past and present leadership and service activities. These select young people attend an all-expenses-paid camp where they are inspired by a diverse group of exceptional speakers, make life-long friends through fellowship activities, and discuss the ethical and social issues of today. 

Bits N Bytes. Bits N Bytes. Bits N’ Bytes Cybersecurity Education is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to building a human firewall through education on cybersecurity and privacy for all vulnerable populations!

GripTape. Griptape. Griptape learning challenge gives youth the power to learn how they want, funding to pursue their learning, and a Champion to encourage them along the way. If accepted, all GripTapers receive a $500 stipend to advance their research.

Civics Unplugged. Civics Unplugged. Civics Unplugged (CU) is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) social enterprise and digitally-powered community that provides leaders of Generation Z training, funds, and support to work on projects that strengthen local communities and reform American democracy. Their mission is to empower the leaders of Generation Z to build the future of American democracy. My teen was selected as a Fellow’s Choice Honoree and received $1000 to advance her democracy-enhancing project, WISH.

Summer programs:

FELC. FELC. The Free Enterprise Leadership Challenge is an educational program designed to give high school students the opportunity to learn about free enterprise and leadership through yearly summer camps and workshops. Their mission is to educate students about entrepreneurship, the differences between capitalism and socialism, free market economics, personal responsibility, principled leadership, and corporate/personal philanthropy. 

New York Times. The School of New York Times. This is the only paid opportunity from my list that my rising sophomore attended 2 years ago. Summer Academy Online gives intellectually curious high school students the opportunity to pursue their passions and study with experts in the fields of journalism, media, politics, technology, arts, culture, sports, business, fashion and more. Each two-week course draws on the expertise and unrivaled access of The New York Times and encourages students to think critically and creatively while exploring their passions and building skills for life. 

Haslem School of Business. Haslem College of Business BETS program. Business Education for Talented Students (BETS). BETS is a 12-day residential program designed to introduce rising high school seniors from diverse backgrounds to the various fields of business. This year due to the COVID-19 pandemic the program was offered online from June 8-20 that my teen particpated in and thoroughly enjoyed. Students must be entering the 12th grade with a GPA of 3.0 or better. Students participate in the preparation and presentation of a team project and interact with diverse professionals from business and government.

Energy and Sustainability institute at the local university. Business Summer Institutes for High School Students. High school students from all over the country attend Business Institutes at the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. This unique experience offers them an exploration into Business, entrepreneurship, and Energy and Sustainability, through education and competition. My rising junior attended this fully-funded week long residential camp last year. This summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic all classes were cancelled.

Young Leaders Institute. Young Leaders Institute. AALT’s Young Lead­ers Insti­tute (YLI) is an oppor­tu­ni­ty for stu­dents and young adults age 18–22 in the U.S. to build lead­er­ship skills, con­nect with activists and men­tors, and explore social change strate­gies around issues that affect South Asian and immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties in the U.S. My rising sophomore attended in 2018 and the YLI pro­gram took a hia­tus for the 2019–2020 aca­d­e­m­ic cycle due to the pandemic. It cost $25 for the week.

Isolation Nation. CCJ Center for Collaborative Journalism. Each summer, several dozen rising 11th and 12th graders with an interest in journalism converge on Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism to have a fun week learning new journalism skills and trying their hands at multimedia storytelling.

Youth peace conference. Youth peace conference. NewGen Peacebuilders is a youth peace education program designed for high school and university students (14 to 25). It draws on principles of peace education familiar to Rotary Peace Fellows as well as best practices in peace and global education for youth.

MUN. Model United Nations. Model UN is a popular activity for those interested in learning more about how the UN operates. Hundreds of thousands of students worldwide take part every year at all educational levels. Many of today’s leaders in law, government, business and the arts – including at the UN itself – participated in Model UN as student.

Microsoft AI. Microsoft. Microsoft held an event about artificial intelligence, internet of things and data science in fall of 2019. My 12 year old participated and presented with her group about developing an app to help people with obesity and presented their findings.

Clubs and organizations at school:

WISH club. WISH for equality. WISH is an entirely youth-led community organization that focuses on women’s rights and empowerment.

Interact club. Interact club. Interact is Rotary International’s service club for young people ages 12 to 18. Interact clubs are sponsored by individual Rotary clubs, which provide support and guidance, but they are self-governing and self-supporting.

In addition there are other school-run clubs like Journalism, Swimming Downstream, Math Olympiad, Science Olympiad, Robotics, Chess Club, Student Council and Bollywood Dance that my kids have shown interest in and pursue.

Wrap Up

To conclude, I wrote about some free summer programs in this post. There are hundreds of programs offered as summer camps as well as year round programs that any student in the US and around the world can apply to and get in. Most of them are completely free and offer an exceptional learning opportunity outside of school setting. They help develop leadership skills, interpersonal skills as well as 21st century skills including collaboration, team work, creativity, critical thinking, oral presentation skills and civic duty!

We would love to hear from you about your kids. If your child has attended and enjoyed a learning program thoroughly please feel free to share by commenting below or sending an email to nishtha@dawnandhope.com.