Saratoga News

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Students at Camp G discover 'special window' of summer

By Shannon Burkey

Camp Galileo is not your typical summer camp. It's a place where art and science collide, and children walk away with knowledge they didn't even realize they were receiving amid all the fun.

And that's just how Glen Tripp wanted it to be when he founded the educational camp.

"We want to inspire kids to imagine things that don't yet exist, then give them the tools to make them a reality," Tripp said. "We've created an environment that embraces and encourages creativity."

Tripp started the camp in Palo Alto in 2002 because he felt kids needed a place where they could really delve into subjects that are sometimes overlooked during the school year. Science and art fit into that category, while English and math are often emphasized.

"We believe the summertime provides a really special window for kids to take more risks and explore things they can't during the school year," Tripp said. "We offer a real academic enrichment, but we've wrapped it in a fun environment."

Camp Galileo's focus is on science, art and the outdoors, and since its inception its "learning made fun" attitude has quickly made it the Bay Area's fastest-growing day camp. Today, the camp has 15 locations, including, for the past two years, one in Saratoga.

At Camp G, as it is called by those who work there and the attendees, the sciences, arts and outdoors come alive with weeklong theme camps such as medieval art and ocean explorers or modern masters and invention. The camp works in partnership with the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, the de Young Museum in San Francisco and children's book publisher Klutz to ensure the learning experience is of the highest quality.

"It's really a great mix of education meets fun and it's kind of like the kids don't know what hit them," said lead art instructor Christina Guerra.

Guerra has taught at the Saratoga campus for the past two summers and said she really enjoys teaching in a place that is so hands-on and lets her explore with the kids. She has incorporated all kinds of themes into her classes, including Egyptian art, where students learned how to draw hieroglyphics and '70s art, where students made instruments and learned about Jimi Hendrix.

"There is a curriculum we follow, but Glen always says, 'Make it your own, make it fun, make it Camp G,' " Guerra said.

In Jennifer West's science classes, the themes range from gravity to earthquakes to missions to Mars. She said she is glad there is an environment where kids can learn about science in a unique way that may not otherwise be available to them. During the school year, West, who taught in Saratoga last summer, is a fifth-grade school teacher. She sees the benefits of a camp over schools.

"School districts simply just don't have the money to have the amount of resources Camp G does. We have so much at our disposal to create and learn with," West said.

Although Camp G is all about making learning fun, it takes itself seriously when it comes to hiring instructors.

Each year only about 12 percent of the applicants make it through the four-round screening process. Many of those chosen are teachers during the school year or are college students with an interest in teaching. Camp G has staff and alumni working in every school district in the Bay Area, according to Tripp.

"We've taken recruitment to a whole new level," Tripp said. "We want people to come here and grow as educators, then take what they've learned back to their schools."

The interview process may have been a rigorous one, but West said it was one worth going through.

"They hire people that have enthusiasm for teaching. The people at the top really, truly believe that the best way to spend a day is to get a little person excited about art and science and they look for that in who they hire," West said. "Since coming here, I have not met a child yet that has not said on Friday, 'Can I come back tomorrow?' To me that's the difference."

Robin Seagrave-Beck's two children have attended the camp for several years in other locations and attended the camp in Saratoga the past two summers. Although she said her kids have attended many other camps, she has never before seen the level of enthusiasm and quality of teachers that Camp G has.

"It's a top-notch camp in every regard. They do an exceptional job of recruiting people who really love what they're doing and love the kids," Seagrave-Beck said. "They make science fun, and the kids don't even realize they're doing science. When you pick up your kids and they can't stop talking about what they did, it's a good thing."

For more information on Camp Galileo, visit www.campgalileo.com.