Sent on behalf of Ali Sandholm, NIC Youth Outreach Liaison…

As NIC’s new Youth Outreach Liaison (reporting to the Interim Director of Enrolment Planning), I am excited to formally announce the launch of Youth Academy; an initiative supporting the academic pursuits of youth in NIC’s service regions. Youth Academy will offer children and teens the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the post-secondary experience through participation in summer camps, academic support programs, and outreach events. Participants will receive valuable access to the same high-quality infrastructure, learning resources and hands on training currently available to NIC students.

Youth Academy was meant to be introduced to the wider NIC campus community in March, highlighting the broader scope of summer camps being offered on NIC campuses in 2020. Unfortunately, after many months of planning, all scheduled Youth Academy summer camps were cancelled for 2020 due to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In lieu of summer camp offerings, I am pleased to introduce Youth Academy’s new Academic Edge tutoring program. The program will take place on the Comox Valley campus this July and will be geared towards helping students in grades 7-9 review and prepare for a strong start return to school in the fall.

Academic Edge will provide a face-to-face, small group learning environment, ideal for supporting student’s individual progress and academic success. Tutoring will be offered in Math, Science, English and French Immersion. Safety protocols are in place to ensure proper hygiene and physical distancing requirements are maintained while students are in session.

We acknowledge that this has been a challenging few months for students, parents and teachers. We are pleased to offer this additional support through Youth Academy to help students prepare for fall.

For more information about Youth Academy or Academic Edge, please contact ali.sandholm@nic.bc.ca, or visit the Youth Academy webpage at www.nic.bc.ca/youth-academy.