EL Camp: The Latinx Leadership & College Experience Camp 2024
LLCEC is a holistic, culturally responsive, and community rooted program empowering the will to act, inspiring transformation, cultivating self-reflection and sharing precious, beautiful knowledge with and for Kentucky’s growing and emerging Latinx, immigrant and refugee populations. Created in 2006, El Camp: LLCEC provides Latinx youth an intensive college/career preparation, social justice education, and leadership development program that includes mock college classes, college/career planning sessions, and social justice arts and science based project classes. Additionally, the program themes and curriculum is further developed during peer mentoring sessions, health and wellness activities and follow-up mentoring and outreach throughout the school year including full “familia” gatherings and high school /community visits.
PURPOSE:
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EL Camp hosts up to 100 Underrepresented minority youth and provides mock college classes, field trips / excursions, culturally responsive and culturally specific workshops for resiliency and identity exploration, and college and career readiness resources and mentorships.
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UNDERREPRESENTED LATINX YOUTH: 11th and 12th graders (juniors and Seniors) and to experience a summer camp, community in a larger, yet, intimate setting language development (ESL English Language Learners) and so much more with a culturally unapologetic approach.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: serves current college students (attending school all over the nation and BCTC) by providing an opportunity for a week of community service, mentorship, leadership development, counseling and relationship building with underrepresented youth just like them.
COMMUNITY: fosters community across the Bluegrass, network development for rising young professionals, and creates a pipeline from High School to College and Career with an exceptional emphasis on cultural resiliency and identity celebration.
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: serves current college students (attending school all over the nation and BCTC) by providing an opportunity for a week of community service, mentorship, leadership development, counseling and relationship building with underrepresented youth just like them.
COMMUNITY: fosters community across the Bluegrass, network development for rising young professionals, and creates a pipeline from High School to College and Career with an exceptional emphasis on cultural resiliency and identity celebration.
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BCTC has served the community and the world for 20+ years and the Latino Initiatives (previously Immigrant) and Services Office has served youth for over a decade; serving immeasurable amounts of youth, immigrant parents, and others in our communities to gain English skills, coordinate culturally-based programs and study abroad opportunities. The office supports college applications, and college retention and completion for credential acquisition and/or transfer to four-year institutions all over the world.
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LLCEC GOALS
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Youth/participants leave -
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Learning Outcomes
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During the camp, each student is able to visit with representatives from all major colleges and universities in Kentucky, participate in workshops on college planning, financial aid and scholarships, and gain insights from leadership workshops, motivational speakers, community artists and current college students.
The LLCEC integrates culturally responsive lessons within the courses provided and offers activities that expose the students to African American and Latino American history and cultural in an effort to help students better develop their self-awareness.
Students participate in mock college classes, social justice project courses, interactive activities such as hip hop, baile folklorico, capoiera, salsa, and more as well as outdoor activities, small group discussions, and nightly cultural keynote speakers and performers.
The LLCEC integrates culturally responsive lessons within the courses provided and offers activities that expose the students to African American and Latino American history and cultural in an effort to help students better develop their self-awareness.
Students participate in mock college classes, social justice project courses, interactive activities such as hip hop, baile folklorico, capoiera, salsa, and more as well as outdoor activities, small group discussions, and nightly cultural keynote speakers and performers.
Currently in Kentucky, only 24% of Latinos ages 25-64 have an associate’s degree or higher. According to the CPE, 61% of Latino students graduating from Kentucky’s high schools are not prepared for college. The LLCEC has set out to improve these numbers. The program has served 1,000 students; of those who have completed high school 84% have enrolled in college. LLCEC participants have enrolled in nearly every Kentucky regional/ flagship institution and a variety of institutions within the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. The first LLCEC cohort in 2006 boasts a 79% college completion rate fair exceeding the state average for Latino students.
MILESTONES FOR EL CAMP: THE LLCEC
- In 2019, the Plantory awarded the Lauren K Weinberg Humanitarian Award to the LLCEC.
- In 2015, the LLCEC was selected by the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence of Hispanics as a Bright Spot for Latino student success.
- In 2013, the LLCEC was named as an Excelencia in Education Finalist for the Examples of Excelencia Award.
