Now that another great season of college transition camp has come and gone, we’ve had some time to catch up on news around the world. Many of you have probably heard or read recent news about 16-year-old Greta Thunberg and her School Strike for the Climate movement. Greta has Asperger’s syndrome, and has become the public face of a youth climate change movement and has been met with both appreciation and praise, along with criticism and some harsh comments. After seeing some news about her swirling around social media outlets, we recently read an article from The Guardian that we wanted to share with our community:

Greta Thunberg Article

“When haters go after your looks and differences, it means they have nowhere left to go. And then you know you’re winning!” she wrote, using the hashtag #aspiepower.

While acknowledging that her diagnosis has limited her before, she said it “sometimes makes me a bit different from the norm” and she sees being different as a “superpower”.

One of the biggest challenges our campers have at home is maintaining a strong sense of confidence in who they are. It’s hard for any teen who is going through so many changes in their life to feel confident in themselves, and for teens with Asperger’s syndrome who are working on their social skills, that challenge gets magnified. On the horizon they also see their transition to college and the workforce, which can be daunting to think about. Our campers sometimes think and act differently than their neurotypical peers and are often met with unfair ridicule from peers who don’t understand how their brains work. For teens who struggle with social skills, having to navigate rejection from peers and adults is such a challenging task. Reading this article, it warmed our hearts to see Greta standing up in the face of insensitivity and rejection from adults and remaining confident in who she is, and what her passion is.

One of the more striking comments she had was that before she started the campaign last year, she had “no energy, no friends and [she] didn’t speak to anyone.” It’s amazing how a person can transform with a boost in confidence, no matter what sparks that. For Greta, it was following her passion and connecting with others through that passion. Akeela teens come to our college readiness camp and finally meet others who share and celebrate their interests with them, which is an experience many of them don’t have at home. That feeling of acceptance and confidence is what we hope all our campers feel when they leave camp each summer, and we love hearing the stories about their pursuits beyond camp!

We are excited and honored to announce that Beyond Akeela has been recognized as a recipient of the Eleanor P. Eells Award for Program Excellence by the American Camp Association national office! Here’s an excerpt from the ACA’s website that explains what the Eleanor Eells Award represents:

Eleanor P. Eells Awards for Program Excellence are designed to honor camp programs that:

• Develop effective, creative responses to the needs of people and/or societal problems using the camp environment,
• Encourage continued development of such ideas,
• Stimulate the exchange of creative ideas, and/or
• Present to the public examples of positive contributions camp has made on the well being of individuals and society.

We hear from so many teens and parents that the challenging part of the transition to college is not keeping up with academic course load, but rather the ability of students to advocate for themselves, build meaningful connections, and stay organized. Beyond Akeela was designed to build those skill sets as our campers transition from high school to college and the workforce. At Beyond Akeela, teens practice self-advocacy, executive function, and practical independent living skills in a college environment, while having the support of their peers and a group of staff mentors to guide them along the way. Beyond Akeela campers are further immersed in a group of teens like themselves with whom they form incredible and life-long social connections with.

We are proud of the success so many Beyond Akeela teens have had as they transition to their post-secondary lives. Beyond Akeela started in 2011 with its roots at Camp Akeela in Vermont and has adapted over the years to best support our teens. We have truly learned from each summer and meeting and sharing with other transition programs, all of which has helped Beyond Akeela turn into the program it is today.

Click here for a full list of this year’s ACA award recipients

The Beyond Akeela Circular Spring edition is here! For an intro to Aaron Schultz (our Beyond Akeela Head Counselor), important information about camp forms, itinerary details, and other reminders to get everyone in your family prepared for camp this summer, please read through this newsletter with your camper soon.

Beyond Akeela Spring News (2018)

Prepare your teen for life after 18 – A young adult & Asperger’s transition program

Interested in learning more about Beyond Akeela? You’re in luck! We just posted our recent Beyond Akeela virtual information session. Beyond Akeela’s director, Kevin Trimble, and Akeela co-founder, Eric Sasson, walk the audience through the Beyond Akeela experience. Everything from the big picture philosophy of the program to a day in the life of camp is covered in the 40 minute presentation.

Here’s a brief synopsis:

Program Overview:

• Beyond Akeela was born out of a summer camp program for younger teens that Eric and Debbie help create called Camp Akeela. That is a camp that specializes and is really intentional about helping young people with Asperger’s syndrome or NLD build and maintain friendships. Beyond Akeela takes the magic and intention from that camp environment to build a program that is appropriate for pre-college teens with Asperger’s or NLD.
• Beyond Akeela blends elements of a traditional summer camp focused on social skills growth and community, a classic teen tour, and a summer college transition program with a focus on post-secondary options.

Location:

• Beyond Akeela has a home base at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI. Lawrence is a small community oriented liberal arts college, and in their summer months they don’t have any students on campus for classes. It’s a great location to work on college transition and social skills for teens with Asperger’s and NLD in the summer.

Typical day:

• Breakfast will always be in the campus dining hall. The food services team is great about providing options for all types of eaters at each meal. The dining hall publishes the menu in advance, so we always preview what’s available for each meal.
• After breakfast, you’ll start prepping for your day. Beyond Akeela teens have more independence and responsibility in this part of their day.
• AM Activities: see article on Beyond Akeela activities for more information o Lunch will be either at the campus dining hall, or sometimes when we travel or go out for the day, we’ll have a picnic lunch at a park.
• We try to incorporate an afternoon rest hour into our schedule as much as we can. We know that rest, especially for teens, can be really important!
• PM Activities: see article on Beyond Akeela activities for more information o Once we’ve gone through our activities for the day, it’s time for downtime around campus. Teens can make a quick trip to the health/wellness center for a workout, play a card game in the dorm lounge, or find another activity that helps them recharge.
• Most of our meals will be in the campus dining hall as a large group. There will be a couple nights during camp when teens are responsible for cooking a meal with a small group of friends. There will also be nights when we go out to eat, as a way to celebrate our success at camp.
• We’ll get together each night as a group and have a brief evening meeting. This is an important community gathering time for our group to reflect on our day together, celebrate and recognize each other’s achievements, and preview the upcoming days of camp.
• We’ll wind down our day of camp with a fun evening activity.

I recently read an article from the American Camp Association about a research organization that is measuring the social emotional learning outcomes of summer camp programs. What interested me most in reading the article was not the research about how camp helps campers develop and practice social emotional learning skills, but one specific note in the article:

Research also tells us that effective learning environments are ones where kids have a sense of physical and emotional well-being, a strong sense of belonging, and are engaged — affectively (interest, fun, enthusiasm), behaviorally (active participation), and cognitively (reflecting, making choices, having opportunities to give input) (Conner & Pope, 2013; Osterman, 2000).

In talking with parents and professionals about camp, the concept of being in a community where teens with learning differences or Asperger’s syndrome feel emotionally safe, understood, and have a sense of belonging, is one of the most important things we can provide to our campers. We truly believe in the power of finding your “tribe” as a tool to create better social emotional learning outcomes.

For teens with learning differences and Asperger’s, most of their year is spent trying to fit in communities that aren’t specifically designed for them. In school, they are given the benefit of a structured schedule, however they are among a group of teens who are more socially savvy than they are which creates an environment where they are constantly struggling to fit in. At home, they may have the benefit of being understood, but it is challenging to set up a really structured environment that our campers thrive in.

In addition, there are many college prep summer programs for teens that are soon to enter college. Many of these programs do a great job of teaching post-secondary life skills, study skills for college, vocational skills, and in some cases teens will walk away with college credit. Social activities may be included as part of the program, too. However, the structure of these activities and the peers may not be set up specifically for teens with learning differences and Asperger’s syndrome to thrive.

Insert Beyond Akeela. Beyond Akeela gives teens with learning differences and Asperger’s a community they feel a sense of ownership over and socially engaged in. There are two key components that make this happen.

• Our experienced and well trained staff understands how to facilitate connections between campers and we boast a ratio of better than 1:3 staff to camper. This allows us to build relationships with each camper and individualize our approach to their social success at camp.
• The group of campers that we bring together for the summer. Each camper comes to us fitting a similar profile, which is socially quirky teen who is academically successful, and needing additional support socially to thrive.

The socially engaging community we’ve created provides an avenue for us to foster positive social emotional learning outcomes, as well as outcomes related to post-secondary life skills, too. Our teens thrive when they know what to expect, know what is expected of them, and feel a true sense of belonging.