Summer Campers Have All the Right Moves — from Chess to Sports

04.04.2024

Campers play a game of chess with giant pieces at Chess Plaza in 2018.

The University of Texas at Dallas features an array of summer camps for youths this year, with sessions focusing on topics including chess, performing arts and biology research. Here are some highlights:

Callier Center

In person. UT Dallas’ Callier Center for Communication Disorders, which offers support to children and adults with speech, language and hearing disorders, presents several summer camps for children and teens. One offering is a summer theater arts camp conducted with the UTD Doctor of Audiology program. This year, Camp Mary Poppins is presented in collaboration with Broadway Dallas and WaterTower Theatre. The weeklong performing arts day camp, July 16-20, is for deaf and hard-of-hearing children and their siblings in grades K-12. Other Callier Center camps include Camp Interact, a weeklong therapeutic day camp for children entering second through sixth grades with social skill difficulties, and Summer Language Camp, a six-week language therapy program for children ages 6 to 12 with language and learning disorders. Visit the Callier Center camps webpage for more information on these and other camps focused on reading and listening.

Chess

Online and in person. The UT Dallas chess program, one of the top collegiate programs in the U.S., presents camps providing training for players of all skill levels ages 8 to 17 in small classes. For the first time since 2019, the camps will include an in-person session for intermediate and advanced players taught by UTD chess coach and grandmaster Julio Catalino Sadorra BS’13. For more information, visit the summer chess camps webpage.

Chinese Language and Culture

In person. The Center for Asian Studies is again offering the “Become a Gong Fu Panda!” camp for kids from 5 to 15. Campers can attend for one to three weeks June 10-28, and can build skills in Chinese language, kung fu, calligraphy, Chinese crafts and more. Visit the program webpage for more information.

Computer Science

In person and online. The Department of Computer Science is offering a nine-week research program for high school students who have already learned the material covered in the department’s summer camps. There are two types of research opportunities available: a competitive intensive research internship in a computer science lab for 20 to 40 hours per week or a summer research workshop that meets twice per week, much like a college class. The department is also offering an eight-week deep dive into artificial intelligence for college students and advanced-level high school students. Visit the program’s website for more information. For children and teens from third grade through high school, there are 18 different coding camps offered throughout the summer.

Other UTD summer camps and clinics for 2024 include:

Mean Green Comet Debate Institute (in person) for middle school and high school students.

Youth soccer — weeklong, full-day sessions for 5- to 12-year-olds.

Basketball developmental — weeklong, full-day sessions for 6- to 18-year-olds.

Elite volleyball – weekend full-day session for girls ages 14-18.

Esports – weeklong, full-day sessions for ages 7-17.

For the most up-to-date information on summer camps and classes, visit UT Dallas’ Programs for Minors webpage.

–Jessica Good