From the Program Staff

As we wrap up our virtual summer programming, we thought we would find a moment to sit back and reflect on the past couple months we just had - and what a time it was! 

As with many similar organizations, earlier this year we found ourselves needing to reimagine what programming we were able to safely offer to our camper and alumni community. After making the decision to cancel in-person CRS, we quickly began designing virtual experiences for our alumni, incoming and waitlisted campers. From this process emerged 6 programs, with 1 upcoming this Fall! 

What were they, how did they turn out, and exactly how many moments of needing to say “you’re on mute!” were there? You’re in the right place! We’ve pulled together a virtual program review for you to explore our new programs, which we’re still incredibly excited about!

Tent Talks Back Home

Summary:

We offered this program to the most recent cohort, our 2019 campers. The purpose behind this program is for campers to reconnect with Camp, program staff (we miss them!) and their counselors, as well as provide a space for reflective discussion on how the transition into their home communities has gone.

Participation:

We had 67 campers participate in total with many choosing to participate more than once, and we welcomed 8 counselors to help facilitate sessions - one even chose to join on her birthday!

Moments of Joy: 

• Simply being able to see our camper’s faces 11 months after they left Camp, hearing life updates and about how Camp has impacted their lives.

• Virtually celebrating a counselor’s birthday by having our campers sing her happy birthday in different languages and lifting our computers to celebrate her years!

• Ending each session with a circle of gratitude and hearing everyone’s love and appreciation for each other. 

Future thoughts:

We will start offering this program to the most recent cohort 3 months after campers return to their home communities to encourage continued reflection and connection.

Virtual Alumni Instructions 

Summary:

Virtual Alumni Instructions have been a weekly educational space for alums to share their knowledge in a meaningful and structured way and function much like at Camp! We are grateful to participants for sharing their passions which has allowed us to collectively engage with issues beyond our shared experience as Rising Sun alums. 18 Virtual Instructions have taken place this summer in a wide range of topics. We recorded some of the sessions and hope to make them available in the near future. 

Participation: 
The international nature of our community has shone through in this program. We have been joined by 185 unique alums from over 24 countries and 19 US states, shown on the map below!

This program has also highlighted the fact that our community spans generations. We have been joined by alums from every decade after 1930, including a few of the campers that have deferred to 2021 and our Virtual CRS 2020 alums. 

Moments of joy: 

• An important theme of many of these instructions has been taking action on climate intervention and we have been heartened to see the passion of our alums to fight against climate change in all fronts, from big picture business decisions to the very food we decide to eat. 

• Around 30 alums joined a session where we discussed cultural appropriation as it pertains to our community and programs. This is not always an easy conversation to have and we are grateful to those that joined us for bringing their goodwill to the table. You can learn more about this in our publication here. 

• We started this series of instructions as most of the world was in lockdown due to the pandemic, and were heartened to learn more about COVID-19 from healthcare professionals from around the world in one of the first virtual instructions. 

Future Thoughts: 

We are planning to host events that capture the essence of Virtual Alumni instructions (mutual education & community building) and further our mission a few times a year. If there are any topics you’d love to see covered or any alum we should all learn from, please email us at alumni@lajf.org. 

For now, save the date for a panel presentation and discussion on the upcoming 2020 Presidential Election with election specialists Larry Norden ‘87 (Director of the Election Reform Program at the Brennan Center for Justice), Professor Allan Lichtman ‘62 (American University, Distinguished Professor) and Carrie Levine ‘90 (Money and democracy reporter at Public Integrity) which will take place on October 17th, 2020.   

Virtual CRS 

Summary:

Virtual CRS is a program which reflects the CRS pedagogy and values. Our cohort of 25 campers began working together in May to learn the program model and topics, and concluded in a 10-day program earlier this month. We dedicated an entire blog to it here where you can hear reflections and read articles from the campers themselves!

Participation:

25 campers completed the program and represented 11 countries and 5 continents! We welcomes 5 counselors to assist with sessions and bring their knowledge and expertise to the program. 

Moments of Joy:

• Witnessing how hard campers worked to develop and run instructions, projects, and get in front of their computers every day ready to learn and engage in meaningful discussion and learning.

• Our campers on the final day created skits in their tent talk groups about the Virtual CRS experience, which included a skit which highlighted all of our moments of technical difficulty which caused the program directors to laugh so hard we cried (it was so very, very real).

• Hearing in our 1-1 check-outs that the majority of campers wished the program had been longer than the 10 days (so did we!).

Future thoughts:

We will incorporate feedback from campers and what we learned through the process and run this program in 2021. We are already looking forward to it!

CRS Doc Series

Summary:

This program is our social justice documentary watch and discussion series we began in May. We ran three sessions on Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, Chasing Coral, and 13th. 

Participation:

We had 65 alums and friends join us with around 20 attending more than 1 viewing. 

Moments of Joy: 

• Having CRS alum Jeff Orlowski join us after a screening of his film Chasing Coral to lead a hearty and meaningful discussion on climate change and justice. 

• When conversations from each documentary began considering how Rising Sun related to the topic and how we can do better as a community and organization.

Future thoughts:

We plan to continue this program this Fall once the weather starts to get a bit colder for many of us and watching a documentary and having meaningful discussion with a warm cup of tea is exactly what we all want to do (we’re only half-joking!). 

2021 Camper Programming

Summary:

We interacted with deferred 2021 campers in several exciting ways. We provided the opportunity for campers to meet program staff and fellow campers in small-group sessions and worked with the deferred second year campers to create a program for first year campers. Our  second-year campers worked incredibly hard at developing a program for first years to learn more about Camp and their role during it. 

Participation:

Around 35 campers participated in the small-group discussions with program staff and fellow registered campers, and almost all registered campers participated in their second-year led session.

Moments of Joy:

• Seeing the excitement on the faces of our first-year campers when they realized how many countries their peers represented in each virtual call. In one small-group session, we had 5 continents represented! 

• Hearing the feedback from first year campers that the session ran by their second years made them even more excited about Camp (same!).

Future thoughts:

Our second year campers will run their program again once our additional first year campers are selected to ensure they are provided the same opportunity. 

Virtual College Week

Summary:

This program is geared towards alums about to enter higher education and those already enrolled. We ran 5 workshops and 1 interactive “Ask Me Anything” session using the CRS Instagram page. We covered the following topics in our sessions: F1 visas for international students to study in the U.S., the FAFSA and how to afford college, the GEJ and SIT scholarships available for alumni, college admissions 101: essays and references, how to navigate the college admissions process as an undocumented student, networking, and how to best utilize the CRS alumni network. We recorded our sessions and have them available here!

Participation:

Over the course of the week, we had 3 non-alum specialists join our workshops who specialized in the FAFSA, F1 visas and scholarship opportunities. We additionally had over 10 alumni offer their support and knowledge to the program through participating as a facilitator or contributor to the “Ask Me Anything” session. In all, we had around 30 unique alums join sessions, the majority of whom attended more than one session!

Moments of Joy:

• Witnessing how incredibly knowledgeable our recent alumni are and how much they participated in our Instagram “Ask Me Anything” which can be found here on our instagram highlights.

• Seeing our slightly older college-aged alums in the supportive role of answering questions and sharing insights to our alums about to enter college.

Future thoughts:

We will continue this program next year though restructure the program model. We’re looking forward to sharing the final result with you all!

Heads up, recent alums - Expanded CRS is coming at you this Fall! This program will dive deeper into the CRS curriculum you experienced while at Camp. You will receive an email in the coming months with more information. 

And that’s a wrap! We look forward to continue innovating and creating programs which serve our alumni and camper community in exciting ways. But for now, a bit of a breather as we sit back and reflect on what we have accomplished so far this year, and finalize our “you’re on mute!” count, which we estimate reached over 100 times. :)