CAS Summer Camps
Summer 2025 Camps Coming Soon
Welcome! Below are the available camps for the 2024 College of Arts & Sciences Summer Camp Program. Please be sure to review the dedicated dates and grades of each camp. We offer camps to both the middle school and high school ages. The camps will run through the month of June with each week having several different camps to choose from. If you have any questions or concerns please email uaa_cascamps@alaska.edu, Thank you!
Scholarship Qualification: We offer tuition scholarships for families qualifying for ASD free / reduced lunch. To receive this scholarship, please email uaa_cascamps@alaska.edu and provide documentation that you qualify BEFORE proceeding to the CAS Camps registration and payment process. If you qualify you will receive a promo code that allows you to pay a reduced rate when registering.
*Does not apply to CAS Affiliated Camps
Middle School
-
CLOSED
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Dance Camp
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Dance Camp
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of Theatre and Dance
The purpose of the dance camp is to welcome middle school aged students into the university to take classes in ballet, social dance, musical theatre, and choreography (could be other styles, but a variety of different types of dance is the goal). The goals will be to engage the students in learning dance techniques and choreography and to put on a small showcase at the end of the week to perform for parents.Instructor: Katie O'LoughlinGrades: 6-8th
Dates: June 3-7
M-F 8:30 am- 3:30 pm
-
CLOSED
Papermaking From Scrap! From the Studio to the Recycle Center, and Back Again
Papermaking From Scrap! From the Studio to the Recycle Center, and Back Again
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of Art
This summer camp is a papermaking intensive for middle school-aged kids using recycled materials like newspaper, magazines, lint, and cardboard, along with foraged plant parts like fallen tree bark, berries, food scraps, flowers, and grass. This class will consist of outdoor walks to collect materials for papermaking, a papermaking demo, a lesson on the history of papermaking and industrial processes, a field trip to WestRock Recycle Center, papermaking itself, and finally binding the pages into small booklets for the kids to take home with them. Papermaking can be suited to any age; it is accessible to young artists as it encourages experimentation, can be done from home with relatively simple materials, and is low cost. Further, papermaking with plants and found items connects us back to the Earth through instinct and material creation. Papermaking has a long, complicated global history – leading young makers through the process of making their own paper connects them historically and materially to their surroundings and demystifies the production of industrially made everyday objects.Instructor: Cecilia Karoly-ListerGrades: 6-8th
Dates: June 10-14
M-F 8:30 am- 3:30 pm
-
CLOSED
Behavior Explorer Camp
Behavior Explorer Camp
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of Psychology
This camp will provide students with an overview of topics in psychology with brief teaching, followed by hands-on exploration through labs conducted in small groups. Students participate in age-appropriate labs and generate reports in teams or pairs. Topics covered will include the scientific method, mental health, and an overview of the disciplines of psychology. Learn about the brain and mind, explore careers in psychology, and meet (and train) a real live lab rat!
Instructor: Kristin Riall
Grades: 6-8th
Dates: June 10-14
M-F 8:30 am- 3:30 pm
-
(FULL)
Bone Detectives: Forensic Anthropology
See content disclaimer
Bone Detectives: Forensic Anthropology
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of Anthropology & Geography
This summer camp will introduce forensic anthropology to the campers, and provide them with the opportunity to collect human skeletal remains (plastic) and personal items from a field setting, as well as laboratory analysis of these items. Other outcomes include reconstructions of potential crime scenes, documentation of individual specifics, trauma, and injuries, and generating descriptions of the crime and victim. Laboratory activities will include examining items recovered from outdoor instructor-created crime scenes and examining the recovered human skeletal remains for signs of injury and/or trauma. Other activities will include comparisons of recovered evidence to age-appropriate crime scene photographs and or inventory lists, and generation of crime scene descriptions. Hands-on lab activities include blood spatter analysis, microscopic hair analysis, shoe impression recovery, and analysis. Campers apply the above concepts to a specific forensic case they are reconstructing as a group. During the last day, we will go over their interpretations of this case based on their experiences with the hands-on lab activities.
Disclaimer: This camp will be discussing topics that may be sensitive to some.
Instructor: Mallory Anctil
Grades: 6-8th
Dates: June 17-21
M-F 8:30 am- 3:30 pm
-
CLOSED
Book Binding and Printmaking
Book Binding & Printmaking
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of Art
An introduction to printmaking and bookbinding, culminating in the creation of a hand bound journal/sketchbook. While introducing distinct processes, each lesson will also create a part of the final handmade book. Lessons will include basic paper engineering, sewing simple books, relief printing, paper marbling and basic leather tooling. Campers will sew the block of pages for the inside of their book, marble the end pages, shape and tool a soft leather cover, and carve a block for printing a personalized bookplate.
The goal of the camp is to introduce a variety of art processes each day, while building towards a week-long project that pulls each part together into a whole. Campers will walk away with a personalized book, as well as a better understanding of the book form and some of the processes that go into it. The resulting journal/sketchbook will be useful well after the camp.Instructor: Jimmy RiordanGrades: 6-8th
Dates: June 17-21
M-F 8:30 am- 3:30 pm
-
CLOSED
Guitar Camp
Guitar Camp
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of Music
The purpose of the ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Guitar Camp is to improve participants' technique, musicianship, and ensemble playing. The goals of the camp are to introduce students to important elements of guitar technique, chord reading, fingerpicking, and playing together.Instructor: Armin AbdihodzicGrades: 6-8th
Dates: June 17-21
M-F 8:30 am- 3:30 pm
-
(FULL)
Games, Puzzles, and Math
Games, Puzzles, and Math
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of Math
Do you like solving puzzles, looking for patterns, or tinkering with problems? If so, then join us on a mathematical exploration using puzzles and games. We’ll focus on hands-on exploratory and group activities.Instructor: Mark FitchGrades: 6-8th
Dates: June 10-14
M-F 8:30 am- 3:30 pm
High School
-
CLOSED
Creative Writing
Creative Writing
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of English
The purpose of the Creative Writing Summer Camp is to give students the opportunity to learn and practice good writing techniques and to write a completed short story by the end of the camp. We will have classes, writing time, and peer review during the camps, and at the end I'd like to "publish" all their stories in a little literary journal or anthology that they can take home with them.
Instructor: Sharon Emmerichs
Grades: 9-12th
Dates: June 10-14
M-F 8:30 am- 3:30 pm
-
CLOSED
Understanding the Human Figure Through Drawing and Clothing Adornment
Understanding the Human Figure Through Drawing and Clothing Adornment
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of Art
This summer camp would be a split day of figure drawing and clothing making. The camp is an intensive focus on learning the shape and form of the human body. Each day begins with three hours of figure drawing a clothed model. Students will learn the proportions of the body and how to depict the figure including gesture drawing, contour, foreshortening, perspective, and shading. Students will begin in the week with 30-second motion sketches of the model(s) and will gradually work up to multi-hour drawings of a single pose. They will use charcoal and soft pastels. After lunch, students will learn how to alter a piece of clothing by embroidery, applique, or otherwise adjusting their article by hand. At the beginning of the week, there will be demonstrations and lessons in different embroidery stitches, basic alterations, and applique techniques. Students will then bring in their clothing on the third day and have the opportunity to work with each other and get one-on-one feedback from the instructor. These two classes are being paired together to give students a visual, sculptural, and practical understanding of how the body moves and appears beneath clothing. It is important that we have a selection of models (I’m hoping for three) with different body types for this class. Each model can post individually for the first three days and then we will need one of them to stay for long poses during the last two mornings.Instructor: Cecilia Karoly-ListerGrades: 9-12th
Dates: June 17-21
M-F 8:30 am- 3:30 pm
CAS Affiliated Camps
-
CLOSED
Chamber Music Camp
Chamber Music Camp
ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Department of Music
Grades: High School, Junior High and Elementary levels
Dates: May 27-31 & June 3-7
Application Deadline: May 20
We’ll meet at 10am to learn more about how to get the most enjoyment and improvement out of your practice time, enjoy a daily masterclass with student volunteers and group scales, rhythm and pitch work. Then each student will have a coaching on a chamber music piece (quartet, trio, etc) with a professional faculty member. We’ll break for lunch, casual open performances for each other, and other creative activities. Then in the afternoon it’s back to another coaching or two. The week will wrap up with a celebration recital for friends and family. All this takes place in the Fine Arts Building on the beautiful campus of the University of Alaska, Anchorage.
Click here to check out the recap blogs from 2023 Summer Camps!