The Préville Fine Arts Centre welcomes new summer camp director, Alcina Chiu!
Since joining the Préville team, Alcina has been working hard behind the scenes to get our summer day camp organized for 2024.
With the first day of camp fast approaching, we’re taking the opportunity to officially introduce Alcina with a Q & A about her life and a sneak preview of what’s in store for active, arts-loving day campers this summer.
What makes you most excited to be joining the team as camp director, and in what ways do you feel that your life and work experience has led you here?
A.C.: I love working with kids. Their pure energy is so much fun. That’s what makes me most excited about joining the team as camp director. I want to provide an opportunity for them to experience things they’ve never tried before, make new friends, create interesting projects, and explore the arts and STEM subjects in a positive and welcoming environment.
I’ve been running (or at least helping to run) summer camps since I was 15 years old. I started with a local church that ran a summer camp with stories, arts, physical activities, and music for just one week. In university, I worked with Shakespearience, a Shakespeare company that ran a summer drama camp for underprivileged kids. Later, when I founded Scherzo, my own music and dance studio, I ran a creative music theatre camp where we would write and perform an original musical each week.
There are so many summer day camp options for parents. What elements of this camp really make it stand out from the rest?
A.C.: What sets Préville apart is the variety of different activities that campers can choose from. Whether you’re interested in music, theatre, art, science, computers, dance, or board games, there is something that can appeal to you at camp. Campers are immersed in their own choice of activities that they get to explore in depth with a small group of peers.
Another element that stands out is our bilingual community. It feels like a family and camp is like a second home. We are also constantly evolving to meet the needs of the community. Our staff take part in training to learn about managing different situations that might come up when working with children, creating an environment that is inclusive, and implementing safety and first aid procedures. The diversity of our staff creates a great group of leaders for our campers.
Can you tell us about what’s new and exciting for the 2024 edition of Préville’s summer day camp?
A.C: There are lots of new things in the works at Préville summer camp this year! Here are just a few examples:
- New classes, in addition to our popular classics:
- Fun with Science & Math
- Computer Science
- Strategy Board Games
- New staff and direction
- Some familiar faces and a whole crop of new staff to make 2024 an awesome summer
- Smorgasbord of trial classes at lunch
- A chance to try an activity that is not on your schedule
- End of week extravaganza – last period on Fridays
- A camp-wide activity! A student or teacher performance, a fashion show, a group game, or all of the above!
- More space!
- While construction at NDL is not entirely over, we should have more of the spaces we love to use, and we’ll head to the park or eat outside when the weather is nice.
What do you hope that Préville summer day camp participants will come away with from their experience this summer?
A.C.: The summer is the perfect time to get in touch with or discover our passions! What I’d love for participants to take away from camp are the memories of the fun they had. I’d love for them to wake up every morning ready and eager to start their day, looking forward to seeing the friends in their group and all the staff. That they will learn a bunch of new things amidst all that fun is a great bonus!
