Camp helps students engage creativity, learning

Fourth through eighth grade students at the Barnwell County Consolidated School District (BCCSD) spent the month of June increasing their creativity through innovative and experiential learning.

Based in Charleston, Engaging Creative Minds (ECM) is a nonprofit funded by the South Carolina Arts Commission and the South Carolina Department of Education through American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) funds.

It aims to ensure every student achieves academically, stays engaged in school, and succeeds in life through engaging teaching strategies such as arts integration, entrepreneurship, critical thinking, self-awareness, and future planning.

ECM reached over 10,000 students across the state in the 2022-23 school year. At BCCSD, 85 students are enrolled in this summer learning endeavor held at Macedonia Elementary-Middle School (MEMS).

“Happy kids come to school, and the arts make kids happy,” said BCCSD band director Jessica Pym who was a key player in integrating the program.

ECM was brought to MEMS after Pym attended a professional development conference at the Columbia Museum of Art where she was connected with Carrie Maastricht, ECM Director of Operations and Starr Jordan, ECM Director Out of School Programs.

At MEMS, the program is structured into blocks focused on either arts or remediation. Students can choose what blocks or classes they take based on their interests.

Art based classes include things like music, visual arts, creative writing, and theater. Remediation courses in ELA and math provide students an opportunity to refresh their skills before starting the upcoming school year.

Running these blocks are 10 teachers and nine teaching artists with the help of 13 student counselors from Williston-Elko High School and Blackville-Hilda High School (BHHS) who are paid an hourly rate.

Two involved educators are BCCSD band director Dawn Vickery and ECM Barnwell County Summer WOOHOO Crew and second grade educator David Bonezzi.

“It's exciting to work with kids and give them something engaging to do over the summer,” said Bonezzi. “This is somewhere they can be creative and implement art.”

Bonezzi has been teaching students with non-verbal acting techniques and refracting light on tin foil art sculptures. Vickery has been teaching students to play traditional African drums.

All the supplies provided to BCCSD to operate ECM is theirs to keep once the program ends. Steel drums, wireless learning systems, art supplies, a heat press, a sublimation printer, drawing tablets for digital art, Legos, and much more are now a part of learning during the BCCSD school year.

After school clubs have also been brought to the district through this program such as the digital arts club, dance, percussion ensemble, winds ensemble, and digital marketing and design.

Soon-to-be seventh grader Markell Jamison particularly enjoys the musical aspect of ECM as he has an interest in making beats. Musician Malachi Smalls has been working with Jamison using equipment provided by ECM to hone this craft.

Jamison is interested in exploring a career in music due in part to ECM. Aside from music, Jamison has been on a creative writing endeavor with classmate Anthony Castillo.

Castillo is going into sixth grade. He and Jamison have been writing a story about a super villain known as The Weather Man in BHHS teacher Kenneth Brown’s class. The Weather Man not only theoretically controls the weather, but gives Jamison and Castillo another creative outlet.

ECM was first brought to MEMS in 2018 and has made its return to create more “ways for kids to enjoy being at school,” said Pym.

“The school system really believes in the value of a strong arts education, and the joy that it brings to students,” said Pym of BCCSD. “We can take those sparks and ignite them into passions for other things.”

To learn more about ECM, visit https://engagingcreativeminds.org/.