Summer camps are back at the School of Communications, Media, Arts and Design (SCMAD)! From animation and design to arts and media, kids between the ages of 7-15 years old can take part in our camp experiences taught by industry professionals who will guide them using our state-of-the-art facilities and technology on campus. “This is the first time since 2019 that we are going to be running face-to-face, in-person summer camps. They are proven to be very popular with children and their parents right across Toronto,” says SCMAD Dean Nate Horowitz.
In addition to our camps, Rohan McLeish, Storyworks instructor at the Story Arts Centre, will lead multimedia workshops on campus. Rohan has taken part in the SCMAD summer camps since the start in 2017, and over the years, he has worked with a great number of campers. Since our summer camp attendees fall into a wide age range, they each come with their own learning and engagement styles, and Rohan says, “The magic is bringing them to a place where they can express themselves creatively and introduce them to equipment that they would see online. We had a red carpet show at the end of each week and just to see the faces of their parents, tell how much they enjoyed the camps.”
This summer, Rohan’s workshops are called SummerUp 2022. “It will involve 30 students from grade 10 to 12 from underserved communities who want to be storytellers,” he explains. Maango Media Training, a media training institute co-founded in 2020 by Rohan, along with Dr. Carole J. Embden-Peterson, Errol O. James, and Roy H. Brown O.D, will be working with the Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI). “They will connect us with students through an application process. LLI was founded by the former Centennial College Registrar, Trevor Massey, and is the person responsible for us calling SAC home,” Rohan explains.
“The workshops are similar to the summer camps that Centennial will offer. The format is two days online and every Saturday for five weeks. The first two Saturdays will be in the studios of SAC, then two field trips, and back to SAC for a big show.” Nate Horowitz welcomes Rohan’s workshops to our campus and is thrilled with the opportunities it will offer attendees.
MORE INFORMATION ON SUMMERUP:
SummerUp invites Black youth from across Ontario to collaborate and learn from programs that fall under three categories: Academic, Arts, and Aspirations. “If nothing else I have learned from teaching youth, it is that they are creative, out-of-the-box thinkers and will try everything. They have watched lots of videos and want to try most of what they think they know; the genuinely interested ones catch on and want to learn as much as they can in the time [provided],” Rohan says “Come as an open book. Allow the skills and knowledge to be written in your life, then create chapters.”
For more information about the camps being offered this summer, and to register, click here.
Article by: Alexandra Few
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