'Explore And Embrace Your Identity': colleges offer kids social justice camps
Gallaudet University's 'Deaf Youth Pride' camp will be held for 'deaf ... students who identify as a part of the LGBTQIA+ community.'
Northern Illinois University's 'Social Justice Summer Camp for Educators' recently featured a Soros Justice Fellow and a professor who specializes in 'post-White vindicationist philosophy.'
This summer, various universities will be hosting LGBT and social justice-themed camps for students and faculty alike, with learning initiatives like how to become “an advocate for yourself and others.”
Gallaudet University, a private university for deaf students in Washington, D.C., is organizing a “Deaf Youth Pride” camp for high schoolers to “Explore And Embrace Your Identity” from June 28 to July 5.
According to a promotional flyer, the camp is primarily for “deaf and hard of hearing students who identify as a part of the LGBTQIA+ community and want to learn new skills to become an advocate for themselves and others.”
At a cost of $375, the camp will allow enrollees to “[m]eet with deaf people from diverse backgrounds and people from national LGBTQA+ youth organizations.” Events will also afford students the opportunity to “learn more about yourself and various identities.”
At Camp Michigania, the official campsite of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, campers will have the opportunity to experience “[t]hemed programming for Juneteenth and Pride Month.”
With a selection of 11 weeks of programming at a cost of up to $1,325 per adult, attendees and their families can also enjoy a “weekly gender-expansive meet-up.” This will serve as the camp’s “community space for trans, non-binary, and gender-expansive campers and staff.”
Students and their families are not the only ones who can take advantage of social justice-themed camps this summer.
[RELATED: Columbia to host queer activism retreat for LGBTQ students]
Northern Illinois University recently hosted its sixth annual “Social Justice Summer Camp for Educators” from June 13-16.
This year’s discussion topics included “Understanding social justice education,” “Multicultural children’s literature,” “Social justice education and technology,” “Understanding biases,” “Critical race theory,” “LGBTQ advocacy,” and “Restorative justice.”
Keynote speakers included Marcus Croom, an Indiana University assistant education professor whose research incorporates “case study and qualitative methods using post-White vindicationist philosophy, practice of race theory (PRT), and race critical practice analysis.”
Nicole Nguyen, an associate professor of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, also addressed the social justice camp. A self-described “feminist geographer,” Nguyen was a 2022 Soros Justice Fellow for George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.
Campus Reform has previously covered instances of universities holding similarly-themed camps, including the University of Evansville and the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay recently offering their own versions of “Pride Camp” for teenagers.
Campus Reform has reached out to all relevant figures for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
