AWARD YEAR: 2021

ASSOCIATION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE ENO RIVER VALLEY, INC.

DIRECTOR: HILLARY ROCK HARRISON

PROJECT TITLE: ENO RIVER ASSOCIATION STEM SUMMER CAMPS AND YEAR-ROUND EDUCATION

Funding from Burroughs Wellcome Fund SSEP will increase the Eno River Association’s ability to deliver high-quality, experiential environmental education programs to 3,100 K-12 students through the expansion of its graduated STEM experiences, ranging from single-session outreach & special educational events to multi-session partnerships & field trips with local schools to intensive STEM summer camp programs. Chiefly among these will be the use of in-school and field trip programming to identify and engage camp participants year-round, expanding the impact of their STEM leadership journey.

All Eno River Association programs support current science curricula as requested by schools and are delivered by qualified Association staff and volunteers. Many of the schools in our service area have large concentrations of low-income students, so our STEM programming is offered at free or low cost, and many schools rely on our free education services and supplies to enrich their science curriculum. Funding from Burroughs Wellcome Fund SSEP will allow the Association to offer educational field trips to the Eno River or in-school programming with trained environmental educators.

To connect youth with a deeper science and conservation experience, the Association offers two intensive, hands-on, feet-wet summer camp programs: iWalk the Eno Science and Nature Camp for 117 students ages 8-12 and Eno River Field Station for 39 students ages 12-15. With 34.5 contact hours with each iWalk student and 46 hours with each Field Station student, our programs go in-depth to develop scientific interest, literacy, and career exploration. Both camps recruit from schools with high concentrations of populations underrepresented in STEM, and we use school partnerships and single-session events as opportunities to recruit students with talent & interest in STEM to attend our camps, as well as opportunities to continue to engage camp participants throughout the year. Funding from BWF SSEP and other partners allows the Association to make these high-level camps affordable or free to everyone in the community.

The project will cover three summers of day camps, years 2022-2024 and fall and field trips spring 2021 to 2024.

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