Yavapai College is hosting “College for Kids” over the summer, teaching kids about everything from video game design to writing novels.
The program is designed to introduce students to higher education and give them something to do over the summer. This year, classes will cover a variety of topics including blogging, filmmaking and coding.
Through August, the college will be offering live, virtual STEM classes to students ages 6 to 14. The classes will include app and video game design as well as coding. The classes are typically three hours long and are taught by experienced teachers from the college.
Zack Jernigan, the director of community education for the Verde Valley, is teaching a number of classes in the program’s “writer’s bootcamp” series for students in sixth to 12th grade at the Clarkdale campus.
“I don’t often get the chance to teach, myself. Though I’ve taught at the college as a creative writing teacher adjunct for years, it’s rare that I get the opportunity to teach what I’m most passionate about, and to the audience I most like to teach,” he said. “When it became clear that we could do these classes, I jumped at the chance to teach popular fiction to kids.”
This is the first year the college has offered the writers bootcamp series. Each course within the program goes for two weeks. Students meet twice a week for two hours and have covered science fiction, horror and fantasy writing. Upcoming classes include“outlining your novel” and “the writing career.”
The classes will take place at the Clarkdale campus of Yavapai College as well as the Camp Verde Community Library through the third week of July. The class in Camp Verdeis called “How to Write Pop Fiction,” and takes place Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 to 4 p.m. the week of July 6 to 15.
“It’s focused on fiction that is intended for a wide audience — taut thrillers, cozy mysteries, fraught romances, sci-fi blastups, etc.,” Jernigan said.
In addition, College for Kids will be hosting a novel-writing class for ninth through 12th graders in Clarkdale, July 12 to 15 from 10 a.m. to noon in which students will be completing a full novel outline.
From June 22 to July 1, students at the Clarkdale campus learned how to write and design graphic novels. Students have learned the process for building a manuscript and will be preparing an eight-page graphic novel storyboard during their time in the class.
“He [Jernigan] taught us format and how to make that linear story and make it short and simple so we can start writing,” Elise Mejia, an 8th grader at Mountain View Preparatory, said.
Some of the kids decided to sign up for the class because of their love for drawing or writing. Kaiden Mejia, a freshman at Sedona Red Rock High School, said he signed up for the class to help him prepare for the next school year.
“I have trouble in school with writing and stuff sometimes, so I thought that this might make it a little bit easier,” he said. “I think it’s a good way to like, prepare for school mentally and get ahead.”
There have been about five kids signed up in each writers bootcamp course so far, which Jernigan said has been “kind of a blessing.”
“It allows me to focus on the students and get my feet under me. Next summer, I hope to have some of our own faculty teach writing classes, along with a more robust, post-pandemic slate of other classes as well. This summer helps lay the foundation for even more innovative teaching.,” he said.
Jernigan said the idea behind the writers bootcamp was to encourage students to communicate and express their thoughts, as well as take on new challenges over the summer.
This sentiment was echoed by the students in his graphic novels class, including Anika Herman,a homeschool freshman, who said it’s been a great experience to keep her busy over the summer while she would otherwise be bored at home.
“It’s just to keep kids’ brains working, getting inspiration and creativity,” she said.
For more information regarding the College for Kids program, contact Jernigan at 634-6537 or zachary.jernigan@yc.eduor visit the College for Kids website.
