Program Overview

The Creative Scholars Program is an overnight summer camp for 8th-10th graders hosted on the UGA campus. Creative Scholars can expect a course curriculum in specialty topics they would not typically experience in a regular classroom. Our instructors are trained to use research-driven, creative strategies in the classroom while teaching courses that are innovative, interdisciplinary, and project-based.

Students will take one course for the duration of our two-week program. We will do our best to place our Creative Scholars in their number one course choice. Course size is expected to be approximately 15 students per class, with a student to staff ratio is 10:1 during all academic and residential activities.

Course Descriptions

Saving the Planet with Stories: Podcasting Climate Change

Environmental scholars are turning to storytelling as a way to solve climate change and bring attention to the communities most affected by these environmental changes. This course will give students a chance to critically engage with examples of environmental storytelling ranging from podcasts, documentaries, speculative fiction, and creative nonfiction. Over the course, they will also get a chance to produce a short story of their own through the medium of podcasting. This course will give students a chance to engage with environmental humanities, multimedia storytelling, creative writing, and audio production. It will also provide them with an example of their work to add to their resume or portfolios.

Instructor: Andrew Craig

Creative Writing Deep Dive: Honing your Craft

Honing your writing skills requires two major elements: reading a lot and writing a lot. In this course, students will immerse themselves in their own writing, their peers’ writing, and published writing. We will closely examine fiction and poetry (and some things in between), discussing how we as readers react to writing and how writers achieve those effects. To develop original writing, students will respond to writing prompts, give and receive feedback in class workshops, and meet with their instructor in one-on-one conferences to talk about potential revisions. This course will center on growth: no matter how much our students know about writing when they enter, they will learn more about craft when they leave. Genre-writing is welcome; in fact, we will talk about genre a great deal, from fairy tale poetry to ghost stories. Alongside all this vigorous writing and reading, we will spend time in some of UGA’s most inspiring spaces; taking trips through the campus’ gardens and museums and identifying how these experiences can change our writing practices. This course will culminate in a revised portfolio of students’ favorite written pieces, along with a few reflections on how they can carry what they have learned into their future writing.

Instructor: Hannah V. Warren

The Young and Successful: Entrepreneurship Workshop in Fashion Design

This course provides a fast-paced, hands-on experience in how to develop an apparel product for customers and take it to market! Students will find inspiration, collaborate, and critically evaluate the nuances pertaining to product design, production, marketing, and sales. They also will also have the chance to use some of UGA’s incredible maker spaces, tools, and resources! The goal of the course will be to move students quickly from ideation to a final product so not only will they leave with a tangible product, they also will leave knowing how to start their own business.

Instructor: Amy Manley

On the Beat: Introduction to Journalism

This course is designed to teach students how to write for the mass media with an emphasis on print and online journalism. Students learn the inverted-pyramid style of journalistic writing as well as basic photography skills appropriate for media publications. Students will demonstrate their journalism skills by covering an assigned "beat" that features the other courses available at the Creative Scholars Program. At the end of the course, their stories and photos will be compiled to create a newspaper or newsmagazine that details students' experiences of the camp.

Instructor: Leslie Klein

Infection Detection: Battling Transmissible Diseases in a Globalized World

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the importance of infectious disease research, surveillance, and public health strategies. This course will be comprised of lessons on: pathogens and the immune system, vaccine development, health policy, and fundamentals of epidemiology. Daily lessons will be enhanced with engaging activities such as a demonstration of the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in different biohazard levels, an Ebola case study, and an outbreak simulation. Through completion of this course, the student will not only develop knowledge and insight into the topic of infectious diseases, but will also develop skills such as advocacy, problem-solving, and professionalism.

Instructor: Sarah Hartley

Beyond the Physical Realm: Virtual and Augmented Reality

Go beyond reality! Students in the Virtual and Augmented Reality course will have the chance to explore the cutting edge of technology as it seeks to entertain, educate, and explore far beyond what we see around us. Students will learn the concepts and underlying technology that goes into VR/AR content, its possibilities, and the myriad of ways it can be applied in both practical and theoretical fields. They will learn how VR/AR works at the psychological level to pull them into a world of someone else’s (or their own) making.

Instructor: Yulong Wang

General Schedule

Sunday, July 10  - Arrival Day

Monday, 7/11-Friday, 7/15, M-F, 7/18-7/22

*Times subject to change

8am-8:45am  Breakfast

9am-noon  Class

noon-1pm  Lunch

1pm-4pm  Class

4pm-5:30pm  Free time

5:30pm-6:30pm  Dinner

6:30pm-8:30pm  Residential Activities

8:30pm-9:30pm  RC group time

9:30pm-10:30pm  Free time/quiet time

10:30pm  Lights out

Saturday, 7/16, 7/23

8am-8:45  Breakfast

9am-noon  Class

noon-1pm  Lunch

1pm-4pm  Residential activities

4pm-5:30pm  Free Time

5:30pm-6:30pm  Dinner

6:30pm-9:30pm  Saturday Evening Event

9:30pm-10:30pm  Free time/quiet time

10:30pm  Lights out

Sunday, 7/17

8am-8:45  Breakfast

9am-noon  Free time (inc. opportunities to attend religious services)

noon-1pm  Lunch

1pm-4pm  Residential activities

4pm-5:30pm  Free Time

5:30pm-6:30pm  Dinner

6:30pm-9:30pm  Sunday Movie Night

9:30pm-10:30pm  Free time/quiet time

10:30pm  Lights out

Sunday 7/24

Check-out day

Tuition and Fee Schedule

Total tuition for the program is $2500, which includes dining and housing costs, classroom supply fees, camp fees, and most program-associated recreational activity costs. The fee schedule is:

• Payment 1: $850                  due by June 10^th
• Payment 2: $850                 due by June 20^th
• Final payment: $800          due by July 7^th

Health and Safety Statement

The safety of our staff and students is our first priority, and we will take all necessary precautions dictated by CDC and UGA guidelines based on the status of the coronavirus pandemic. If the public health situation is not safe enough for an in-person camp, we will be providing our courses online for our students.

We are accepting applications through June 17th! Apply Now to secure a spot!

Apply here: Creative Scholars Program application