Watkins Mill’s Youth Summer Summit is a program that prepares rising freshmen for high school, taking place during the summer and throughout the school year. Students partake in team building activities in order to build a group mentality and foster cooperation.

The first Youth Summer Summit was a one week camp held in August, held from 9 am to 3 pm. The students participated in activities like white-water rafting, hiking, and zip-lining. These activities allowed the students to work as a team to complete certain tasks.

Two follow-up Summits were then scheduled to help freshmen as they continued to make the transition to high school.  Half of the students who participated over the summer went on a rock-climbing expedition on February 3 and the rest are going rock climbing today.

Students were shown real life situations, like a bad friend trying to lure you into sketchy situations. “It’s all about learning how to handle yourself in high school situations,” program director Lola Rogers said. The Youth Summit also prepares students for high school and the real world.

Rogers and Watkins Mill principal Carol Goddard requested a $150,000 grant from the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation. With their request accepted, Watkins Mill will receive $150,000 every year. This money will go towards the activities, food, shirts, supplies, and to making this program become bigger.

Peer leaders, which consisted of sophomores, juniors and seniors, helped mentor the students and assist the staff with setting up activities. Peer leaders earned $200 and 20 Student Service Learning hours per week. “My favorite part was watching these freshman grow up and how they are now able to look at any challenge and say ‘I can do that,'” peer leader and senior Kush Kharod said.  “It was really rewarding.”

Rising freshmen had a chance to meet and build friendships with the peer leaders, creating trust between campers and peer leaders. This resulted in a bond between staff members, peer leaders, and other incoming freshman.

“[The Youth Summit] was something outside of school that felt like you really had a relationship with these [new students,]” Rogers said.

“I…believe that the students in this group are more active in school activities. I will definitely suggest this group to everyone who wants to attend,” peer leader and junior Heidy Figueroa-Peña added.