Summer camps offer educational opportunities for Aboriginal youth

A fresh crop of summer camps targeted to Aboriginal youth are taking place across Canada, aiming to spark interest in education, whether trades, medicine, or environmental studies. Red River College puts on several camps for Manitoba’s Aboriginal youth, including a skilled trades camp and the Hands-on Activities Week for Kids (HAWK) camp, that combine trades-related activities with cultural sessions. The University of Manitoba hosts the New Venture Adventure Camp, an entrepreneurship camp for Aboriginal teens, and the Biomedical Youth Camp, a free day-camp designed to interest teens in medical/health careers. Trent University’s Trent Aboriginal Cultural Knowledge and Science Youth Program (TRACKS) offers Aboriginal youth unique perspectives on the environment by combining Western and Indigenous knowledge systems. “TRACKS’ strengths are in the people that it pulls together and the experiences that we have and share together. Kids can be expected to have new experiences, both indoors and out and challenge their ways of thinking about the world around them,” said one TRACKS instructor. RRC News Release | Winnipeg Free Press | uManitoba News (entrepreneurship) | uManitoba News (biomedical) | CBC |TrentU News