Camp Canal Summer and After School Camps for Immigrants and Underprivileged Students

Camp Canal Summer and After School Camps for Immigrants and Underprivileged Students

A good place to start in understanding Camp Canal is to compare the differences and similarities with Boys and Girls Clubs of America with the vision of Camp Canal. Both have a desire to help those who come from less fortunate backgrounds. Both have a desire to see boys and girls succeed. But they are different in that one has been around for decades and is well funded, and Camp Canal is a new concept focused exclusively on immigrant students that may require inspired State and local communities as well as Government and private foundations to help make this vision of success for immigrant families a reality.

Although there are several programs available for younger kids, Boys & Girls clubs tend to focus on older youths and teens. Camp Canal, on the other hand, focuses exclusively on Pre-K to 5th grade or ages 5–11 year-olds. Our reasoning for focusing on the very young immigrant students is that when they reach middle and high school, they are so far behind that by the time they start getting academic help in teen years it is too late. A small percentage might make it to a 4-year college or some a Community College and a good paying job, but the vast majority will either end up doing menial work, working low paying jobs, or worst case - joining gangs and becoming criminals. 

Things have definitely improved over the last decade, but Camp Canal believes that the gap between Hispanics and other groups can still improve dramatically with the right focus.

In 2014, 35% of Hispanics ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in a two- or four-year college, up from 22% in 1993 – a 13-percentage-point increase. That amounted to 2.3 million Hispanic college students in 2014. By comparison, college enrollment during this time among blacks (33% in 2014) increased by 8 percentage points, and among whites (42% in 2014) the share increased 5 points. Among Asians, 64% were enrolled in college in 2014, a nearly 9-point increase over 1999 (no data are available for Asians before 1999). (Pew Research.)

The most telling statistic is the recent 2022/23 results of the local High School where most of these children go after graduating from elementary and middle school:

· Grades: 9-12

· Enrollment: 1,298 students

· Student: Teacher Ratio: 21:1

· Minority Enrollment: 72%

· Graduation Rate

: 78% (Btm 50%)

· Overall Testing Rank

: Bottom 50%

· Math Proficiency

: 29% (Btm 50%)

· Reading Proficiency

: 46% (Btm 50%)

· Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), CA Dept. of Education

This confirms our assessment that despite a large investment in schools, computers and teachers (21-1 ratio which is LOWER than the state average 22-1), the majority Hispanic community at the local high school score well below in math proficiency – 29%, and 46% in Reading- and this is with 25% of the student population being predominantly white and nonimmigrant families. And though there is a high proportion of Minority students 72% (vast majority Hispanic), that is still lower than the state of California average of 78% (majority Hispanic) – which suggests that this program is needed not just in Marin County, but in the entire state!

STEM (at Boys & Girls Club) - one of the few areas open to all ages - is a nice hot button topic. And for the older kids, it will certainly help to have more kids become proficient in science, technology and engineering, but pragmatically, the two things that will actually get students into a 4-year college is Math and English proficiency. Right now, the three elementary schools in the area where most of the Hispanic student population resides - only 20% to 30% score above proficiency in their age group in Math and English. That is 70% to 80% of these students are below proficiency levels in math and English! (As reported by News and World Report)

These elementary schools have obviously failed - not because they lack computers, equipment or good teachers. They fail, because few of these immigrant students have educated English speakers at home. It will take a year-round focus on Math and English to get them to a place where a majority of the students are at or above age level proficiency, to overcome the disadvantages they have when both parents work, are themselves illiterate, and do not speak English. 

If you look through the programs Boys and Girls Clubs offer, nothing focuses on this very specific age group. Instead, there are programs that may offer some benefit to the younger kids, but nothing like the intensive program that we are proposing.

The camp will require at least 1 bilingual aid per class room with preference shown for the primary teacher being bilingual as well. There will be 2 adult teachers (one teacher one aid) per class with middle and high school student aids to act as tutors so that any class room could have as many 7 or 8 educators (1 primary teacher, 1 bilingual aid, 5 or 6 student aids) per 20 student class size. The curriculum will be very targeted to have exercises for each age group with the primary goal to achieve proficiency in Math and English for that age group. 

Camp Canal will focus on the reading, writing skills required to get a score that will be acceptable to 4-year colleges. Achieving proficiency in English Language skills is a requirement to succeed in America. Our only goal is to augment what the schools are failing to achieve – to repeat - not because of poor teachers and lack of resources, but rather because these students have parents who don't speak English and are for the most part uneducated in both Math as well as English - unlike nonimmigrants who have fluent English speakers at home - and a higher percentage of parents who have some college education and math skills. The goal is to have 4 solid hours of Math and English and 2 hours of sports and play to balance off the intense academics every day for 10 weeks during the summer. A scaled down variation of this program will also be available as an after-school program - not to babysit – but to help these students reach proficiency in Math and English. Yes, it's a camp. Yes, it's intense. But this is how these immigrants catch up. Just having them play games is just not going to cut it. Fun and games in camp will definitely be a significant part of this program, but gaining math, reading and writing skills necessary to get into college is the only way to help these immigrant students compete in modern America.