If the students on the University City Main Campus this summer seemed younger than usual, it could be because they were. Each summer the University’s Office of Information Resources and Technology (IRT) hosts 40 Philadelphia high school sophomores for a summer computer camp. For the past ten years, this camp has been conducted in partnership with Philadelphia Futures’ Sponsor a Scholar program, which is dedicated to providing support to students who have the potential to go on to post-secondary education but don’t have the monetary resources.

The computer camp, held July 6-August 13, was funded by the Philadelphia Summer Youth Works project through the Philadelphia Youth Network. It was held in half-day sessions Monday through Friday for six weeks. Students in the program were taught basic productivity applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint. They also gained experience with Web site development.

“The goal of the camp was to help these students hone their computer skills in preparation for high school expectations and to get additional experience and practice with language arts skills,” said Dr. Janice Biros, associate vice president of instructional technology support at Drexel.

In addition to the Philadelphia Futures’ camp, IRT also hosted 20 ninth graders as part of the Teens Using Technology (TUT) program. Sponsored by Avaya, Drexel and the School District of Philadelphia, TUT taught students presentation tools, such as PowerPoint, Dreamweaver and Excel. The program ran June 21-July 30.

The lead teachers in the IRT camps were supplied by the School District of Philadelphia. Drexel students served as teaching assistants. IRT’s Connie Williams coordinated the Philadelphia Futures program, while Angelita Wells and Adele Varenas organized TUT.