Summer Opportunities for Students
Following are a number of summer programs that may appeal to students with a variety of interests and needs.
Spark Summer Learning
Spark Summer Learning is a STEAM-focused summer camp for Lincoln-area elementary students (post-K-post 5th grade). Each of the ten weeks of camp has a different theme – from the science of sports to genetics and medical sciences, coding to wildlife, and forensics sciences to vet sciences. Spark provides high-quality experiential learning opportunities, engaging lesson plans and activities, weekly theme-based field trips, weekly time at the pool, and plenty of time for play, discovery, and wonder. Weekly fees include breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks, all field trips, lessons, and care from 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
4-H Summer Camps and Trips
The summer programs offered at the Nebraska State 4-H Camp in Halsey provide all youth a place to discover, learn, and grow. Youth do not have to be a member of 4-H to attend one of the many summer camps. The mission of Nebraska 4-H encourages all young people to reach their full potential, by working and learning in partnership with caring adults. Amidst the beauty of the Nebraska National Forest, we are able to do what we do best: provide a life-changing summer camp experience for all youth! 4-H is education for life and focuses on helping young people explore science in their everyday lives, grow leadership and citizenship skills, explore future career opportunities, and make healthier decisions.
Architecture & Interior Design Career Exploration
Architecture & Interior Design Career Exploration, sponsored by the UNL Department of Architecture, enables students in high school to investigate issues surrounding design and learn more about the design professions of architecture, landscape architecture, and interior design.
Big Red Summer Academic Camps
Held at UNL, these career exploration camps allow students in grades 9-12 to immerse themselves in a specific topic such asanimal science, weather and climate science, filmmaking, engineering, culinary arts, natural resources and Unicameral Youth Legislature; the camp culminates with a capstone event in which the student can showcase his or her work. These are residence camps, which provide housing and food for all participants. Tuition: $575-$800 (early bird fee and limited scholarships available).
Bright Lights
Serving elementary and middle school students in Lincoln, Bright Lights offers five weeks of half- and full-day camps in the summer to students who have completed grades K-8, as well as Camp Assistant volunteer opportunities for students who have completed 8th grade and up. Hands-on camps cover a wide spectrum of fun, unique, and engaging topics. Educational activities are provided in intensive, three-hour blocks of time, allowing students to pursue focused interests beyond the traditional classroom. Most camps take place at Roper Elementary School. Before care and supervised lunch available. Need-based scholarships can be applied for during registration.
Folsom Children’s Zoo
A number of classes and camps for children exist. Classes extend from preschool to age 12 and include a variety of topics: pony clinics, photography, zoologist club, and much more. Both half-and full-day options exist. The zoo crew offers the opportunity to help others enjoy their zoo experience.
Lincoln Children’s Museum
Guaranteed to be full of play and learning, these fun-filled camps are offered all summer long as well as when LPS is out of session during the school year.
Join us for one day, one week, multiple weeks, or all summer long…Camp Play is a place where we can all belong! With unique weekly themes that are sure to excite, our time together is sure to be bright. So pick your dates and sign up today, your kids will cheer and shout hooray!!
We take our camp responsibility seriously…the responsibility to provide a safe, healthy, and FUN environment where you kids can jive and thrive from the moment they arrive.
Lincoln Parks and Recreation Camps
These camps focus on health, nutrition, nature and fitness, and are designed to help young people experience healthier lifestyle choices through fun recreation day camp activities. Camps are held in a variety of locations, based on age (completed grades K-7). Need-based scholarships are available.
Lincoln Public Libraries
Offers teens of all ages and abilities volunteer opportunities:
- Students who need to fulfill citizenship issues credit for graduation can volunteer with various departments and branches of Lincoln City Libraries. See your high school for details.
- Students aged 12-18 who are interested in a long-term assignment lending their time and talents to benefit their neighborhood are encouraged to contact their local library about the Youth Volunteer Program. The purpose of this program is to provide the library with assistance while teaching youth basic library skills and giving them an active role in their community. Tasks vary from organizing materials to helping with bulletin board to reading and reviewing materials.
- Interested teens can also participate in a dialogue with library staff concerning library programs and services for their age group. Contact your library for more information. To volunteer, contact Outreach Services at 402-441-8546 or call the library of your choice for more information.
Lincoln Public Schools Summer Music Camps
LPS offers a number of music camps for students during the summer break.
LUX Center for the Arts
The LUX Center for the Arts offers a variety of classes and camps for students K-12. At their camps, students will explore new art techniques, work with real artists, and make their own artwork while learning and refining their own artistic abilities. LUX summer camps are led by our skilled teaching artists who will guide your child through hands-on learning in a fun and friendly environment.
They offer spring break and summer camps for K-12 in painting, drawing, pottery, and more. Register for a morning session (9am-noon), lunch care (noon-2pm), and an afternoon session (2-5pm) during the same week to make it a full day camp. Before care is also available (8am-9am).
Morrill Hall, University of Nebraska State Museum Camps
They provide half day camps for students to explore natural history and science topics through hands-on activities. Tuition is discounted for members. Sessions include:
- Mini and Mighty: Explore insects underfoot that often get overlooked! Campers will be examining our crawly invertebrate friends and their importance to the world around them by interacting with live specimens, collecting samples, and even creating their own mini exhibit.
- Elephants, Dinos, and Rhinos, Oh My!: Nebraska has a rich fossil history from sea monsters to elephants in our backyard! We will lead young paleontologists on a journey through time, looking at some of the gigantic creatures that used to call Nebraska home. Campers will have opportunities to work with actual fossils as we use them to investigate these great beasts and what they can tell us about how they lived.
- Space Camp: Join us on a voyage through the solar system and the universe beyond! Campers will investigate phases of the moon, explore Earth’s rotation and revolution, and come face to face with larger-than-life meteorites in our planetarium.
Nebraska Now Program
Looking for a real head start on your transition to college? As a high school student you can take real college classes taught by real college professors to earn real college credit through Nebraska Now.
Nebraska State Historical Society’s Nebraska History Museum
The Nebraska State Historical Society offers workshops over the summer for groups of ten or more. Topics include Time Machine of Fun: The 1920s, Working Dogs and Game or Job?
Nebraska Writing Project Workshops and Camps
I/We Love to Write Workshops at UNL provide two-hour workshops each day for students ages 7-15, and family writing for children and adults in the evening. The Young Writers Camp is three hours daily for students in grades 8-12. Scholarships are available.
Pioneers Park Nature Center
Various classes exist for all ages and all abilities, as well as guided hikes, activities, demonstration, classes, and winter camps. All programs have a common theme of interpreting natural history of the Central Great Plains. All camps focus on environmental education, using hands-on activities led by trained staff. The mission of Pioneers Park Nature Center is to interpret the natural history of Nebraska and the Central Great Plains; to promote the enjoyment, appreciation, and awareness of our natural environment; to practice and foster a conservation ethic; and to provide a sanctuary for wildlife and a peaceful retreat for people.
They are offering three camps this summer:
- Discovery Camp: a half day camp for 3-6 year olds
- Explorers Camp: a full day camp for grades K-5
- Navigators Camp: a full day camp for grades 6-8
SAIL Camps
A strings day camp for elementary and middle school students that provides opportunities for students to learn how to play a stringed instrument, expand their current stringed instrument knowledge, and perform with a large string ensemble. Beginning and advanced levels are available.
Summer Theatre Arts Academy
The Theatre Arts Academy offers two programs in the summer for ages 9-13. Participants learn acting, movement, and singing. Any student with an interest in theatre is eligible for this program, but auditions are held in spring.
Young Nebraska Scientists Camp
Conducted by Nebraska EPSCoR with support from the National Science Foundation to encourage youth participation (grades 6-8 & 9-12) in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning with a hands-on approach in and outside of the lab.
Youth Actors Academy of Lincoln
Camps serve students ages 7-17, with each camp focusing on a particular play or production. Students explore their creativity through a variety of dramatic media and production techniques. Some camps require previous stage experience. For more information, call 402-417-4137.
Aim For the Stars Summer Science and Math Camp
University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Durham Science Center Eight weeks of camp are offered throughout the summer for students between grades pre-fourth through pre-eighth. Sessions cover a variety of science topics and emphasize hands-on learning to excite students about math and science. See more details at the UNO web site: www.unomaha.edu/camps/ or contact kriegler@unomaha.edu. For information about camps for ninth graders call 402-554-4999 or 1-877-UNO-CAMP (866-2267).
Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival
(formerly the Wind on the Buffalo Grass Summer Enrichment Camps) workshops are free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Please call the Mid-Plains Center for Enterprise at 308-345-8122 or email CFEMcCook@mpcc.edu to register for these offerings.
Carol Joy Holling Camps
These camps provide week-long camps for grade 1-12. Outdoor activities include high ropes course, boating, swimming, hiking, horseback riding, backpacking. For information call 402-944-2544.
Central Honors Institute
The Central Honors Institute (CHI) is held at Central Community College on its Columbus Campus in Columbus. CHI is a one-week residential academic camp for Nebraska students who have completed the sixth or seventh grades and have demonstrated academic accomplishments, leadership and maturity among their peers. Students must complete an application and submit a recommendation from a recent teacher or counselor to be eligible to attend the camp. CHI campers attend classes during the day, socialize with peers in the evenings and experience life on a community college campus, complete with dorm food and residence halls.
Crow Canyon Archeological Center
Located in just a few miles from Mesa Verde National Park, Crow Canyon allows school groups (grades 4-12) to experience archaeology in one- to five-day programs. For more information, call 800- 422-8975.
Human Society of Nebraska Camp Kindness
The Humane Society of Nebraska Camp Kindness in Omaha offers a variety of summer camps for students between ages 6 and 13. Eight one-week sessions are available.
Joslyn Art Museum
Ages 4-teens. Most camps meet Monday-Friday for one week. Financial assistance may be available.
KANEKO Summer Kids Camps
Omaha. Students in grades 4-6 or 6-9 will engage with local professionals to learn about Video Game Design, Architecture Design and Virtual Reality! Info: thekaneko.org.
Launch Leadership Summer Workshop
Students entering grades 6-12 learn leadership skills at Doane University in Crete. Cost: $575. Scholarships available.
Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum Adventure Camps
Ashland. Educational programming in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts. One- and five-day camps with space, robotics, aviation, and survival themes, for ages 6-12. Discounts apply for members. Before and after care is available. Info: www.SACMuseum.org or 402-944-3400 Ext. 204.
Camps include:
- Robotics Camp
- Flight Camp
- Astronaut Academy
- Drone Soccer
- Exploration Engineering
- Third Rock From The Sun: Earth Science
- Mad Scientist: Stranger than Strange Things
- Weekend Flight Camp
- Mission Astronaut
Concordia Language Villages
Concordia Language Villages provides cultural and language immersion programs. Located in a variety of towns in Northern Minnesota, these camps seek to create thoughtful and informed students who understand the impact of cultural understanding.
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation enables high-ability middle school students with financial need to realize their full academic potential. Through the Young Scholars Program, the Foundation has to date supported 600 students from across the nation, providing them with individualized educational advising combined with comprehensive financial support from entering the 8th grade.
Beginning in the eighth grade, the Young Scholars Program, working through fourteen on-staff educational advisers, enables students to:
Participate in high-quality academic and extracurricular opportunities in their local community, on college campuses, and around the globe.
Develop the knowledge, talents, and leadership skills to be significant contributors to their field of interest and society at large.
Set and reach academic and talent goals that will prepare them to be competitive, well-informed applicants for our nation’s best colleges and universities.
Oxbridge Foundation
Primarily for students ages 13-18, Oxbridge Programs provide summer programs abroad at Oxford and Cambridge, England, Paris, France and Barcelona, Spain.
Summer Enrichment Program (SEP)
Sponsored by the University of Northern Colorado, SEP selects students in grades 5-10 who would benefit from different educational programs. Some scholarships exist. For more information, call 970-351-2683.
Their online programs include:
- Young Child Program (1st-4th Grade)
- Leadership Program (11th & 12th Grade)
Summer Institute for the Gifted
Summer Institute for the Gifted is the ultimate three-week academic, recreational, and social summer program for gifted students in grades 1-12. SIG offers eleven residential programs in seven states and six day programs in four states. Choose from over 50 challenging academic classes including Engineering in Action, Cosmic Collision, Mysteries in History, Crime Scene Investigation, Fencing with Foils, Broadway Beckons, and more. Residential programs are for grades 6-12. Summer day programs are for grades 1-12. National Society for Gifted and Talented offers some scholarships for students who would like to defray their costs for attending Summer Institute for the Gifted (SIG).
University of Iowa Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education
Ranging from science, technology, math, art, writing and leadership, the courses are recommended for students in grades 3 through 11.
Western Kentucky University
Western Kentucky University summer programs exist for a variety of ages and purposes, focusing on the needs of gifted youth, particularly those who are mathematically and verbally precocious.
Women’s Technology Program at MIT
MIT is seeking 20 female juniors to be selected for a summer program following their junior year. MIT is looking for females who love and excel at math and science; have little or no engineering or computer science background; would like to experience hands-on activities designing and building engineering projects; enjoy problem solving and collaborative learning; and want to spend 4 weeks challenging their minds, working intensely in an academic environment, and making friends from around the U.S.
