July 7, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Zeke Grandy carefully sanded the leg of a table, designed to hold the concrete top he poured earlier in the week. With other students in Grand Rapids Community College’s summer camp series, he’s thinking about his future and exploring a variety of potential careers.
Students in grades six through nine are learning through hands-on activities and employer tours through the camps, offered by the Grand Rapids Community College Workforce Training team with support from partners including the City of Grand Rapids.
Students are learning about careers in water sustainability, construction, manufacturing, and wood working in four-day sessions. There is a limited number of spots available in the manufacturing and water careers camps.
The camps are an opportunity for students to explore careers and meet people who are experts in their fields. They also are seeing some of the real-world applications for math, science and other subjects.
Zeke attends Wyoming High School and would someday like to be a contractor. Alex Winowiecki said he enjoyed learning about electricity, and working with his friend Brendan Snider.
There are some spots available for the Manufacturing camp at the GRCC Lakeshore Campus from July 18-21. The manufacturing camp costs $119 to attend.
There are three sections of the Water Career Camp which is open to students in grade six through nine and costs $25. Sessions are planned for July 25 to July 27, Aug. 1 to Aug. 3, and Aug. 8 to Aug. 10.
The Water Career Camp explores the urban water cycle and various careers. Campers will follow the lifecycle of our water, including where our water comes from, how it is treated and how to measure water quality. They will see how waste water is treated and returned to the environment.
Campers will participate in hands-on experiments, activities and tour worksites in West Michigan to see all of the careers that make up a public works system and the vital role they play in our communities.
This camp requires permission to travel to tour the drinking water plant on the Lakeshore and to the wastewater treatment plant in Grand Rapids. Students will experience what happens when a water main breaks and how it gets fixed.
"Behind every drop of water you use, there is a huge team of professionals dedicated to ensuring your water is safe and reliable,” Hillary Caron, a chemist for Lake Michigan Filtration Plant, said recently. “The Public Works camp will be an exclusive, behind-the-scenes experience showing each step of the water and wastewater treatment processes and the available careers in an extremely rewarding industry!"
Details are available at grcc.edu/camps.