Lincoln Community Learning Centers students stitched together sounds of excitement this summer at fashion design and music production camps.
Students in fifth through eighth grades at six Lincoln CLC middle schools – Culler, Dawes, Goodrich, Lefler, Mickle and Park – enjoyed their time in classrooms at Bay High and Goodrich. They created their own clothes, composed original songs and met new friends from across the city.
Dawes students Muna, Cooper and Alex said they had been sharing happy moments with many people at their camps. Muna smiled next to an outfit she made for a fashion design contest. She picked out the fabric and patterns before placing everything on a mannequin.
“I like making all of the clothes,” Muna said. “It’s something fun for me to do.”
Cooper and Alex both concentrated on fine-tuning their songs during the Thursday session of their weeklong camp. Cooper focused his efforts on combining guitars and drums into his track’s main score, and Alex experimented with a range of instruments for his melody and harmony. Cooper enrolled in the music production camp for the second straight year, and Alex participated in the summer activity for the first time.
“It’s just been fun,” Cooper said. “The club leaders are really nice and fun, and we just get to do what I really like to do, which is make music.”
“I’ve definitely learned how to make things sound good together,” Alex said. “Like, having a chorus and a background with a flute sounds really good if you have them at the right volumes to mix well with each other.”
Lincoln CLC Curriculum Specialist Kate Sydik said those reactions are why she enjoys working with campers each summer. CLC staff members coordinated a full schedule of camps that happened throughout June. Topics included fashion design, music production, tennis, photography, soccer, volleyball, theater, track and field, skateboarding, basketball, baseball and softball. The Lincoln Arts Council provided support for the CLC art camps with a grant.
“I really like our middle school camps,” Sydik said. “It gives an opportunity for students from all of our CLC middle schools to come and have opportunities in arts and sports that they otherwise wouldn’t have in the summer.”
Kayla Steele and Zachary Watkins echoed those sentiments. Steele is Goodrich’s CLC coordinator and Watkins is the founder of the I See Melody art and music organization. Both said their goal was to help students explore and develop new passions.
“The kids have been excited to learn all of these new skills, and what’s really been fun is hearing from parents,” Steele said. “They’ve seen that their kids are coming home with a new tote or a scrunchie that they made, and they’ve expressed to us how happy it makes them feel to see their kid be so happy. It’s been really cool.”
“How do I help these kids feel as passionate about music as I did when I was their age?” Watkins said. “It’s about giving them opportunities and giving them more chances to do this. That’s probably the biggest thing I love about it. It’s seeing them go from ‘I don’t really know what this means’ to having the satisfaction of making music and seeing it all come together into a song.”
Fashion design campers like Muna used scissors, thread and sewing machines to produce new items each day of the week. Steele and several other adults gave them an overview of each product before launching the activity. Students set up tables in Bay High’s main classroom and began choosing textiles, tracing shapes and making their sewing machines hum with life.
Steele said she especially enjoyed watching campers choose to help if they saw their classmates struggling with a particular task. They showcased that compassion even more after learning that one of the campers had a relative who was born without arms. They soon began discussing ideas of how to create clothes the person could comfortably and easily wear.
“They started talking about accessibility and empathy and all of those important things to think about,” Steele said. “It was awesome. To see them approach that in the way that they did was really inspiring, to be honest.”
Watkins said Cooper, Alex and other music campers were building the same long-term talents. Students began the week by choosing band names such as Dovesica, Purely Gold and 7 Wings. They then penned songs lasting 60-120 seconds with software applications on their computer tablets. After writing their tunes, they created artwork for album covers and band apparel.
“There are so many life skills that they’re learning from doing this,” Watkins said. “They’re learning collaboration, how to work together, being able to focus on a task, finishing something that you’ve started. These are things that they can use not only in music, but they can apply them to any career that they go into.”
Watkins, who has been a music producer for 20 years, said he has watched many students gain confidence by plugging into creative outlets like music, art and writing. He felt the CLC summer camps were laying the foundation for them to become leaders in their schools, neighborhoods and communities.
“The best part about music is that it’s not just something for myself, but it’s something other people can connect with too after you make it,” Watkins said. “Music can change lives. There are so many cool things that can come out of this, and that’s what I want them to discover.”
Discover more about Lincoln CLC opportunities for students throughout the year.
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