Summer In Review

DCI was thrilled to be able to welcome students back in person for an innovative summer of community building, fun, and lots of learning!

IMPACT

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Summer Enrichment Serves 700 Students

Throughout this summer, over 700 students at Durham Public Schools’ camps at RN Harris Elementary and Eastway Elementary participated in summer enrichment courses provided by DCI’s incredible team of 14 Summer Enrichment Specialists.

33 Students Placed in Paid Internships

Students got the chance to work in the field of their choosing for a paid summer internship. Our interns worked with small businesses, nonprofits, with children at summer camps, in bioscience, county government, sports teams and much more!

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60 Students Provided With Professional Skills

60 students enrolled in workforce development programs learned about soft work skills such as communicating with supervisors, punctuality, ambition, appearance, and interviewing. They also received introductions to different job seeking strategies, job applications, resumes, and discrimination and harassment policy understanding.

Students participated in weekly public speaking and mock interviewing practices, 3 financial literacy sessions with the Latino Community Credit Union to learn about budgeting and savings basics, and career panels with community professionals in fields such as finance, STEM, hospitality, human resources, healthcare, and more.

A select group of students also participated in a new pilot program with Durham Tech and Made in Durham that brings young adults into biotech certification careers in just 4-5 months.

As of now, two of our interning students were offered employment by their internship sites!

Summer Highlights

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Summer Enrichment

Throughout this summer, over 700 students at Durham Public Schools’ camps at RN Harris Elementary and Eastway Elementary participated in summer enrichment courses provided by DCI’s incredible team of 14 Summer Enrichment Specialists. Taught alongside subject-based classes such as math and science, Summer Enrichment provided students the opportunity to work on important life skills such as communication, problem solving, and critical thinking that can be used in all facets of life. 

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Coding with Kramden

The Kramden Institute has been “providing technology tools and training to bridge the digital divide” since 2003. Since that time, they have served families and students in 83 counties across North Carolina.
This summer, DCI was excited to be partnering with Kramden for their Summer Coding Camp. This camp allowed students in grades 6-8 to explore technology in new and exciting ways in a safe learning environment.
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Summer Career Exploration

Summer Career Exploration (SCE) is a program that was first started by Partners for Youth Opportunity as a way to prepare students for the workforce through training and teaching life skills. This summer, SCE was reimplemented by Durham Children’s Initiative (DCI) to serve a new batch of students and provide the same skills and lessons to a larger audience.

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Camp High Hopes

This summer, DCI was proud to collaborate with Lakewood YMCA for Camp High Hopes! This fully subsidized camp opportunity offered students high quality classes to combat learning loss while including all of the summer fun involved in a typical camp.