Teen will get to mix reading, outdoors fun at AcademiCamp

Carlos Guardado keeps a box in his bedroom filled to the brim with books.

His collection of page-turners counts among the 12-year-old’s prized possessions.

“I can’t be separated from them,” Carlos said, smiling, his eyes bright.

He listens to jazz as he reads, a tactic he learned from his English teacher at the UCLA Community School in Koreatown, where teachers acknowledge him as one of the highest-achieving students in his class.

Carlos comes from a Spanish-speaking household and devours English-language books for a reason.

“I know that if I stop reading, it will affect my literature skills,” he said.

He has a chance to accelerate those skills even further by participating for the next three weeks in a special summer literacy program at the Community School.

The program, AcademiCamp, is the product of a first-time collaboration between UCLA Community School and UCLA UniCamp, a summer camp program in Big Bear that runs seven weeklong sessions specifically aimed at Los Angeles County’s low-income and foster youth.

Discussions between the two organizations began in March, and the program will kick off Thursday, said Sarah Bang, the associate director of bridging and engagement at the Community School, as well as the liaison between the school and UCLA.

The 100 Community School students participating in AcademiCamp, in grades 5-8, will be a mix of children who struggled with reading and writing during the school year and more advanced students such as Carlos, Bang said. Kindles, donated by UniCamp, will supplement a reading and writing workshop format that will also likely include a visual and performance arts component, she said.

The literacy program will be followed by a week with UniCamp in Big Bear, where students will live in cabins and swim and fish with other campers from around L.A. County. For many students, Big Bear will mark their first real camping experience.

“It’s like our struggle with learning, and then at the end we get to have fun,” Carlos said. “It’s really rewarding.”

UniCamp’s focus on underserved youth closely aligns with the mission of the UCLA Community School, officials said. The Pico-Union District area, where the school is located, is among the city’s densest populations of families under the poverty line, Bang said.

The school opened in 2009 as a modern urban public school, outfitted with laptop carts and a focus on project-based learning. In a year, its offerings expanded from grades K-5 up to 11th grade to help ease overcrowding within the Los Angeles Unified School District. The first class of seniors graduated in 2011 and the number of students now stands at about 1,000.

Enrollment is limited to children who live within a mile of the campus. Two years ago, Carlos’ family relocated within Koreatown specifically to be within what officials call the “catchment” area. The family now lives just a block away from the school.

Like many Community School families, Carlos’ is a two-language household. At the school on Wednesday his father, Daniel Martinez, sat quietly next to his son in the front-office conference room, listening to Carlos talk. Martinez immigrated to Los Angeles from Guatemala in 1986. He worked for a long time in the printing business, from newspapers to fliers, and has now shifted to working as a musician. He said Carlos has helped him improve his English.

Sometimes, Martinez shows Carlos articles in the Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion -- both to help maintain his son’s Spanish skills and to build an interest in politics and government.

“He doesn’t want me just to learn about math and English, he wants me to know what’s happening in the government and not be ignorant,” Carlos said.

The Summer Camp Campaign, part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a McCormick Foundation Fund, raises contributions to support programs that provide thousands of Southern California’s at-risk children ages 7 to 17 with enriching, educational and fun camp experiences.

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