Friday Fives: Summer Camps for Teens

In St. Louis, summer camps offer a wide variety of new experiences for every age group, including teenagers. Here are five summer camps with programs for teens, from college prep to performing arts, to learning how to build a drone. The following list of camps has been selected from stlcamps.com, part of stlparent.com. Stlcamps is an online summer camp guide for parents and teens who want to find summer camps and summer learning opportunities. Stlparent.com is a locally-owned media website that contains lots of different resources for parents and families in the St. Louis metro area, including interesting articles about raising kids in St. Louis, family events, classes for kids, birthday party ideas and other information of interest to parents. 

1. Summer at SLU 

Saint Louis University has up to 80 different camps and up to 500 courses that offer college credit. SLU camps connect with any interest, such as medicine or basketball. The camps begin Tuesday, May 26 to Friday, May 29, and run up until Monday, Aug. 3 to Friday, Aug. 7. The camps are day camps. 

2. Challenger Learning Center 

Those interested in a career as an astronaut, scientist or engineer, or those who want to have an out-of-this-world space adventure will find what they’re looking for at the Challenger Learning Center. Teens up to age 18 can fly drones in a simulation and build drones in Drone Makers. Students learn how to combine basic tools with high-tech gadgets in Innovator’s Workshop, as well as different types of rockets in Rocket Lab. The camps are for pre-kindergartners to high-schoolers. Challenger Learning Center is located in St. Louis County and North County. 

3. Washington University 

Washington University offers pre-college programs for high schoolers who want to have more college preparation in arts and science. Different credit and non-credit programs are available for students around the world. 

4. Metro Theatre Company 

Metro Theatre Company offers an advanced theatre camp for high schoolers entering ninth grade to twelfth grade, as well as recent high school graduates. In partnership with Saint Louis University, the camp welcomes high schoolers of all skill levels to learn advanced acting, audition, playwriting and stage combat with professional theatre artists. Camp members have the opportunity to create their own works, as well as perform scenes from previously published works. Lunch is provided. A performance will be at the end of the week featuring the original work. The camp is Monday through Friday, July 6 to 10. 

5. The YMCA 

The YMCA offer a wide variety of camps for teens, such as outdoor camps, sports camps, aquatics, science, music, theater, art and many more. Camps run weekly from May 28 through Aug. 9. Teen Programs and jobs are also offered, such as Teen Leaders, Teen Camp and Youth and Government. The YMCA also runs Camp Lakewood, a sleep-away camp for ages 6 to 17. Camp Lakewood helps kids and teens connect with nature in an area they can feel comfortable in.