The games may be virtual reality, but the Northeastern experience is real life for Boston Explorers camp
Youth with the Boston Explorers summer camp visited Northeastern on July 16.
They came with lots of important questions: What are the most popular majors at Northeastern University? How many gyms are there on campus? What types of cereal do you have to eat?
Not all of the questions may have been typical for a campus tour. But for a special group of youth from the Boston Explorers summer camp who recently visited Northeastern’s Boston campus, it was lunchtime, and they had priorities. Plus, let’s be honest: dining hall food is an important part of the college experience.
“A big part with the Boston Explorers is we want to provide opportunities for youth to do things that expand their possibilities and give them access to things, to give a sense of opportunism for the future,” said Natasha Wright, director of youth programs for Boston Explorers, a nonprofit organization that offers out-of-school learning experiences for urban youth.
Wright then repeated a mantra that the campers are told: “If I can see her, I can be her.”
“To show them young people walking around engaging in cool things, it can spark their interest,” Wright continued.
Each summer, Northeastern’s Office of City and Community Engagement distributes $50,000 to organizations across the city of Boston who are hiring young people, helping the organizations hire more youth and hosting the groups on campus for a specialized campus tour.
Boston Explorers, which offers programs such as a summer camp for young people to explore the city, is one of the recipients.
“It’s important for Northeastern to have these events and activities for Boston youth and teens because it gives young people from the community a connection to their city and an opportunity they might not otherwise have,” said John Tobin, vice president of city and community engagement at Northeastern. “Whether being at a ballgame, or being on a college campus, or being in a workplace that you thought were previously unobtainable, someone or some organization opened those doors and welcomed people in, and this allows our youth to think and dream about what’s possible.”
On a recent Friday morning, 70 youths arrived on Northeastern’s Boston campus.
Explorers younger than age 13 piled into the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute for a welcome and an overview of their campus visit, which would include a dining hall lunch, a tour of athletic facilities and a visit to the makerspace in EXP, a place for students to create projects using tools that range from high-pressure water cutters and laser cutters to sewing machines.
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“You get to see a very special side of Northeastern that you would normally get to see only if you were a student,” Monée Vance, community relations and program manager on the City and Community Engagement team, told the youngsters.
Yes, Vance clarified, the dining hall has an ice cream machine.
After lunch, 16 older children who serve as camp leaders-in-training visited the Immersive Media Lab in Meserve/Holmes Hall to try out virtual reality equipment.
In one room, the teens played virtual laser tag. Next door, several young camp leaders joined a collaborative cooking game. During the game, filling a pan with water proved quite difficult, campers said, and prompted quite a few virtual spills. Meanwhile, enthusiastic waves and greetings as new campers joined the game sent food tumbling, leading to collective dismay.
“It helps with leadership skills and being able to step up with other kids,” Gabi Bruck, 15, who had progressed from a camper to a leader-in-training, said of the Explorers program.
Kaiden Wise, 16, said that while he had been to the Northeastern Boston campus before as a local resident, he had never actually taken a tour.
“It’s a good experience,” Wise said. Especially, Wise said, for those like himself who were interested in going to college.
Bruck said she was impressed with the Boston campus and what she had learned about the global opportunities, experiential learning and extracurricular activities available at Northeastern.
“It’s all about getting outside the classroom, it’s more using your hands,” Bruck said, noting her father had graduated from the university. “It’s definitely someplace I want to explore – I feel like it could be a good option for me.”
Bruck said she was impressed with the Boston campus and what she had learned about the global opportunities, experiential learning and extracurricular activities available at Northeastern.
“It’s all about getting outside the classroom, it’s more using your hands,” Bruck said, noting her father had graduated from the university. “It’s definitely someplace I want to explore – I feel like it could be a good option for me.”
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