Camps are offered over three weeks with specific programming for girls in grades 1-5 or 6-8. Registration opens 10AM on January 13th. Learn more about our offerings and registration here by clicking below.
Lucia Pardilla, director of summer camps, brings over 20 years of experience in summer camps to build a summer that is engaging, meaningful, and captures the spirit and philosophy of Willows Academy.
Each camper experiences a variety of activities each day: there is a daily art, sports, and service component alongside the main track and performing arts elective that they select. This variety of activities is meant to ensure that campers receive a holistic all-day camp.
The Willows Academy’s joyful, welcoming, all-girl environment that propels holiday festivities and school traditions during the school year remains strong in the summer as well. Just as Willows faculty make academics engaging while producing measurable social and learning benefits, Camp Soar’s staff-–almost entirely staffed by current Willows students or alumnae–-also incorporate lots of games, music, and movement throughout the day.
Campers will also experience Willows’ strong arts programs. Fine Arts Department Chair Michele Morris is an art instructor for Camp Soar. Middle school campers will have access to the high school art studio and work with a variety of mediums. The theater and voice electives are directly reflective of Willows’ distinguished theater and voice programs as well. They are staffed by alumnae of Willows arts who take a professional approach, focusing on skill building and building confidence instead of just rote memorization.
Camp Soar also seeks to elevate and reinvigorate enthusiasm for practical life skills that are often overlooked. Students get a chance to explore the interdisciplinary nature of fields such as culinary arts, sewing, and fashion. Campers learn about nutritional health and plating, develop their personal sense of style, and even alter thrifted pieces on a sewing machine. No matter which track a camper is in, she will acquire vitally important skills–and have fun doing so!
A key component of Camp Soar that is beloved by campers and parents alike is the final showcase that takes place at the end of each week. The goal of this event is to celebrate the girls’ growth from the camp. Pardilla describes that parents are amazed at how much their daughters are able to achieve in just a short amount of time.
The final showcase is almost entirely a camper-centered event. Campers put on a production of songs, dances, and dramatic performances rehearsed during the week through their arts electives. Fashion students wear the pieces they designed. Parents also browse galleries of completed work and even eat food prepared by campers!
Camp Soar allows girls to focus on self-improvement, a unique opportunity in the landscape of summer camps. Past campers have often expressed appreciation that Camp Soar is not so focused on competition. Pardilla recalls numerous past campers expressing a sense of accomplishment as they are able to see their own growth–from improving technically in art to growing in confidence through drama and more.
“The glitz and the hip hip hoorah gets them through the door and keeps them going for a couple days, but it is exhausting in a different way that doesn’t speak to every need,” Pardilla says, summarizing past campers’ experiences with camps that rely too heavily on entertainment at the cost of substance. “Kids want to be more engaged when they experience success. They gain confidence and they want to come back for more.”
Camps are offered over three weeks with specific programming for girls in grades 1-5 or 6-8. Registration opens 10AM on January 13th. Learn more about our offerings and registration here by clicking below.