07/11/2025
If you walk into Austin Achieve Public Schools this summer you might find busy Urban University Summer Camp students knitting blankets, creating a digital escape-room game, shooting basketballs, or challenging one another in an algebra-centered card game.
More than 300 students ranging from age eight to 18 are participating in the five-week summer camp hosted by the African American Youth Harvest Foundation. The camp features an entertaining and educational curriculum to equip students with the intellectual, social and creative resources needed to succeed in school, jobs, and life.
The camp teaches technology, entrepreneurship, and social emotional wellbeing – tailored to different age groups. Partner organizations host field trips or send guest speakers. Casa de Miel teaches students to ride horses and connect with nature. Visiting Dell Technologies employees help students envision future tech careers. Speakers from Frost Bank teach financial literacy. Wayne Dungee teaches such entrepreneurship skills as marketing, product design, and sales. Local youth business owner Mikaila Ulmer explains how she created her company Be Sweet Lemonade.
Students learn a new craft each week: painting, t-shirt design, knitting, and making soap and jewelry. At graduation on July 3, students will price and sell their creations, splitting the profits among themselves.
Prioritizing tech classes, teacher Carolina Martinez ensures that each student has a personal email address and knows how to navigate the Internet. Students then complete Dell certification courses in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) topics.
Life Anew, a restorative-justice nonprofit, works with students on their social and emotional wellness, providing a safe place for students to explore who they are. One week, the lessons focused on “The Lion King” movie, to explore themes of friendship, belonging, and leadership. “We reflected on the bird character’s attempt to break the ice by asking a question, which reflects how we open our restorative circles, with check-ins, icebreakers, and storytelling prompts.” Life Anew said that these group reflections build trust and community while encouraging students to share authentically.
African American Youth Harvest Foundation also holds year-round youth mentoring activities to support learning and wellness for students and families. AAYHF Manor Wellness Center hosts weekly after-school STEM lessons, where students can build rockets or participate in Krew 12, a program that teaches photography, videography, podcasting, and interviewing skills.
The camp costs just $50 per child, which works out to 52 hours of childcare for $10 a week. Still, camp director Elaine Lofton makes sure that the cost is not prohibitive for any interested families. “We won’t ever break anyone’s pocketbook,” she said. Some families volunteer to pay extra to subsidize other campers.
Lofton works to apply for grants that fund the additional programming throughout the summer. Travis County sponsors the camp through providing paid internships for high school students over the summer working to start their professional careers.
The Urban University Summer Camp provides an opportunity to prevent summer ‘learning loss’ by keeping students’ brains engaged in exciting activities that encourage them to grow academically, socially, and creatively throughout the break.
