“Make, Bake and Donate” culinary camp

Chef Kim Carter led the “Make, Bake and Donate” culinary camp last week. Participants in the camp prepared a variety of baked goods, including made-from-scratch dog treats, breads and cupcakes. Then, the students shared the love by donating some of the baked goods made in class — 800 frozen and baked dog treats, mover than 200 cookies, eight loaves of honey wheat bread, 100 buttermilk dinner rolls and 55 cupcakes — to local charities and animal shelters.

Two students standing by mixerThree students mixing batterTwo students pouring batter into cupcake tinsStudent adding icing to the pans of cupcakes

College for Kids has more camps than ever before!

College for Kids at LLCC will offer more than 60 programs this summer from June 10-July 25 thanks to new and continuing partnerships. Most programs will be held at the Springfield campus, 5250 Shepherd Rd.

College for Kids June 10-July 25. Registration is now open.New this year are theater camps for grades 1-8. There are three camps — Introduction to Theater, Auditioning for Theater and Introduction to Production, which includes backstage elements like set and costume design.

Girls in Construction, a career exploration camp (grades 9-12), is a partnership with O’Shea Builders and the YMCA. It will include meeting women in the construction industry, tool safety and hands-on building experience with a project at the YMCA soccer fields. Additional career exploration camps will feature electrical circuitry, construction and health care careers.

College for Kids (grades 1-8) also has camps covering a variety of interests, including art, yoga, culinary, science, space exploration, LEGO®, archaeology, journalism and web design.

Space for camps is limited; early registration is recommended. Dates, times, grade-level categories and registration can be found at www.llcc.edu/summer-CFK or by calling 217-786-2432.

First Teen Learning Labs held last week

Teen Learning Lab participants pictured with Dave Pietrzak at the opening of the hangar by the tarmacThe first sessions of LLCC Community Education’s Teen Learning Labs were held last week on campus. They included:

  • Introduction to Trades – participants explored the world of trades, including HVAC, welding, auto and aviation, in this hands-on class.
  • Dungeons and Dragons – students learned how to play the world’s most popular table-top, role-playing game and to create their own adventurer character.

College for Kids and Teen Learning Labs run through July. Learn more about upcoming programs at www.llcc.edu/youth-programs.

Brian Earley working on a car tire and teaching six teens in the auto labArnold Tullis working with students at workbench in the aviation hangar

Updates for 2023 College for Kids

In summer 2023, the LLCC College for Kids program will be getting an update! Taught by experienced educators, and with staff support, many camps for younger students are STEAM-based (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) and utilize LLCC’s vast resources and teaching options. These camps cleverly disguise academic enrichment as fun. LEGO workshops, storytelling, engineering and film making are all possibilities for this summer.

High school students will choose from career exploration camps where they sample careers before committing to a course of study. Most of these sessions will be taught in lab classrooms, just like the regular college classes by LLCC instructors. Camps are the perfect way for teens to test-drive a career before they commit.

Camps start the week of June 12 and run through the end of July, with no camps during the week of July 4. Camps are one-week long, Monday-Thursday, either morning or afternoon.

Program ideas from around the state include manufacturing camp, scrubs academy, coding camp, criminal justice, GLoW (Girls Learning Welding), robo camp, scratch programming, auto technology, culinary, digital photography, GLAD, Java, Python, architecture, carpentry, college outdoors, summer strings, Procreate, citizen science, ag in the classroom, drones, entrepreneurship and digital music labs.

Questions? Amazing idea? Know someone who would be perfect? Let us help you create a great summer program. Contact Becky Newton, director, community education becky.newton@llcc.edu or 217-786-2430.

LLCC offers fun enrichment opportunities for children this summer

College for KidsLLCC is offering a variety of online College for Kids classes and Black Rocket Technology camps as well as in-person culinary experiences for youth this summer. Registration is now open.

“We are excited to help youth learn and thrive this summer,” said Jessica Ingold, youth programs coordinator. “Our lineup of programming offers in-person culinary classes and accommodates those who prefer real-time online experiences in addition to those who want to take control and learn on their own time.”

College for Kids’ online classes offer activities from June 29-Aug. 3 for students who have completed grades preK-12. Students may register for one or more classes each week. Each course includes instructional videos and accompanying supply kits. For those who want to share in the experience with family or friends, “Crew Kits” are also available for groups of five or 10.

Classes being offered this summer include: American Sign Language, Lightning Catcher, Simple Science at Home I and II, Watercolor Creations, Birds of a Feather, Fantastical Beasts, Mythological Egypt, Photography for All, Tune up Time!, Young Opera, Safari Time and more.

The popular virtual Black Rocket Technology camps are available during June and July with 3D Game Design with Unity, App Attack!, Code Breakers, Make Your First Video Game! and other tech-based fun for ages 8-14.

Youth in-person culinary experiences are available for students who have completed grades 4-12. Each three-hour course meets in the Workforce Careers Center on LLCC’s Springfield campus, 5250 Shepherd Rd. Classes include Design on a Cake, Let the Sushi Roll, Pizza Three Ways, Scratchin’ Chicken and Noodles, and Make’n’Take’n’Bake Lasagna Roll-Ups.

Visit www.llcc.edu/youth-programs or call 217-786-2432 for more information on classes, pricing and registration.

Registration open for summer 2020 online College for Kids programs

College for KidsLLCC’s College for Kids programs will be offered online for summer 2020. Registration is open through June 15.

“We are excited to continue our tradition of providing quality youth enrichment activities and look forward to sharing innovative online experiences to help youth learn and thrive this summer,” said Jessica Ingold, youth programs coordinator. “Our lineup of programming accommodates those who prefer real-time experiences in addition to those who want to take control and learn on their own time.”

An expanded menu of popular Black Rocket S.T.E.A.M. Camps is now available for ages 8-14. These courses offer real-time experiences with instructors and other area students Monday-Friday from 8:30-11:30 a.m. or 12:30-3:30 p.m.

Youth culinary experiences are available for ages 8 and over. Students can choose up to three classes each from the categories of Bakeshop, Junior Chef and Pastry Arts. Ingredient kits will be provided to complete the recipes that are demonstrated in the accompanying instructional video.

Other online College for Kids classes are available in the following categories: Get Crafty, Science Studio, Language and Artistry, and Teen Time. Each course includes instructional videos and accompanying supply kits.

Culinary kits will be available for pickup at the Springfield campus. All other College for Kids supply kits can be picked up from the Springfield campus or one of LLCC’s Outreach Centers in Litchfield, Taylorville, Beardstown or Jacksonville.

Visit www.llcc.edu/youth-programs for more information on classes, pricing and registration.