WELCOME TO THE AIR SUMMER PROGRAM
Summer 2016 Information will be Available Soon
Summer 2016 Information will be Available Soon
AIR Program welcomes you to the AIR Summer Program 2015, our 22nd year serving the San Diego County region. Our program is established on the ideals of academic success for our American Indian participants through a philosophy of learning and teaching through culture. Within our Summer Program our approach is to provide academic support during a non-academic portion of the school year. We do this within three main areas, which we use to service our participants.
Area 1: Academic workshops— In our program we help our students understand the processes of higher education through college-related mini-workshops that incorporate topics like: getting into college, degrees and careers, and managing time. In addition, we also tackle writing workshops, wherein the students learn how to brainstorm ideas, structure and edit their work. The outcomes of which are always a writing assignment that challenges them academically, inspires them to be creative and connects them to their Native roots.
Area 2: Understanding of Native Issues—Here we both research American Indian issues through assistance of our mentor staff and attempt to understand these issues through various activities to reinforce the ideals that we have researched. The idea is to give research methodology on an academic level that will benefit the student in their current and future academic settings and to induce interest in our American Indian cultures, which will promote greater self-confidence/empowerment for our student participants.
Area 3: Familiarity with Higher Education— In our program we want to show and acclimate the students to the higher educational setting. We hope to give familiarity with the campuses and overcome the initial fears of the university environment. These ideals are used in promoting academics and higher education within our program but it is not limited to these areas. Friendships and enjoying ourselves in a nurturing environment is also part of our goal. Overall, many of our students have gone on to pursue higher education and we hope that this summer you enjoy the program as those in the past have.
SUMMER TOPIC: Indigenous Symbols in Stories and Art
This summer’s topic highlights Native symbols as empowering entities as they are presented through stories and art. We will be demonstrating examples of existing symbols from local Native communities and will be learning the importance of preserving sites that contain them. In addition, we will be learning about the acts in place that protect Native artistry and the crafts that contain these symbolic images. We will be opening the doors to an interest in writing by guiding our students through a creative story writing assignment which allows them to create their own symbols or characters, or to even draw inspiration from their home communities. In this way, we allow the m to get the academic juices flowing by providing them with writing lesson plans, but also let them have fun by giving them the power to shape their work.
