Minnesota helps low-income kids reach summer camps on campuses

During the summer, it's not unusual to find kids as young as third-graders taking classes on college campuses. Throughout Minnesota, there are summer enrichment camps for those who want to master the fundamentals of chess, learn anatomy or study the night sky.

But the cost can be a hurdle, especially for low-income families. So this year, the state has set aside $550,000 to help about 600 children and teenagers try out the camps and get a taste of college at the same time.

The grant program, now in its sixth year, awards up to $1,000 per person to help cover tuition at nearly four dozen "academic enrichment" camps throughout the state.

So far, more than 400 students have signed up for the funds this year, but state officials say they have room for at least 100 more. The grants are open to students in grades 3 to 11 who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs.

One of the goals is to help combat "summer slide," the tendency of students to lose ground academically over the summer months, says Nancy Walters, who manages the program for the state's Office of Higher Education.

The camps offer kids a chance to spend a few days or weeks immersed in subjects like math, science, foreign languages, fine arts and performing arts. Ideally, the experience will inspire them to set their sights on a college education.

At one Middle School Scrubs Camp, for example, kids in sixth to eighth grade spend two days at the Rochester Community and Technical College, dabbling in the world of medicine. Among other things, they make body organs out of clay and collect their own DNA in test tubes as they explore health care careers. Total cost: $45.

At CSI: Bell Museum, campers in grades three to six spend a week at the University of Minnesota's natural history museum, where, for $265, they get to "meet a real crime investigator and assist in solving a crime," according to the program's website.

Among the dozens of other enrichment camps listed in the state program: an Ole Chess Camp at St. Olaf College, a Show Choir Camp at Gustavus Adolphus College, and an intensive $2,995 three-week summer writing program at Carleton College, offered for college credit to students who will be high school seniors next fall.

Low-income students can apply directly to the camps for the state funds, which are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

Until last year, the subsidies were covered by a federal grant, Walters said. But when that money dried up, the Minnesota Legislature voted to contribute $100,000 a year to help keep the program going. The extra funds, she said, will come from the unused portion of a state financial aid program.

Walters says the investment is paying off for both students and colleges by introducing them to one another. The schools, she noted, want "a pipeline that helps bring the students to those campuses."

And the students "are learning all along what that campus may offer them. I see it as a win-win situation."

maura.lerner@startribune.com