SuperCamp
Encyclopedia
SuperCamp is an international educational summer camp
program which introduces students to accelerated learning
academic skills and life skills. The program is held in several different locations around the world, and has been attended by over 56,000 students since it was founded in 1982.
SuperCamp is run by the Quantum Learning Network
(QLN), a California
-based educational organization. The SuperCamp program aims to teach students skills which will make studying
any subject a faster, easier, more enjoyable and less stressful process. The camp's life skills curriculum focuses on developing communication
skills, building stronger personal relationships
with family and friends, developing teamwork
and leadership
ability, boosting creativity
and problem-solving ability, and setting clear goals. The camp uses metaphors such as an outdoor ropes course
and board-breaking to help students develop strategies for overcoming barriers to success.
, first studied accelerated learning methods with the educational pioneer Dr. Georgi Lozanov
in the 1970s. These methods became the basis of the SuperCamp program which DePorter co-founded in the early-1980s with Eric Jensen and Greg Simmons and further developed with husband/partner, Joe Chapon. The first SuperCamp was held in 1982 at Kirkwood Meadows, California.
The program has since grown rapidly. Presently, camps are held every summer at several college campuses throughout the United States
, including Stanford University
, UCLA
, Loyola Marymount University
, Cal State San Marcos
, the University of Washington
, Colorado College
, Wake Forest University
and Brown University
.
SuperCamp was first held outside the United States in 1990, when camps were conducted in Moscow
and Singapore
. The program is now held every year in various countries in Asia
, Europe
, Central America
and North America
.
Since 1982, over 54,000 students worldwide have been through the SuperCamp program.
SuperCamp has been featured in The Wall Street Journal
, USA Today
, Los Angeles Times
, The Boston Globe
and many other major publications.
Academic Skills
Life Skills
The camp also provides year-round support through on-going contact at its grad support website and at the SuperCamp Facebook fan page, which helps graduates review and integrate the skills that they have learned at the camp into their home and school lives.
Variations on this structure exist outside the United States in order to make the program relevant and appropriate for students in the local school system in each country where the camp is held. A "Youth Forum" program for ages 8-10 used to be run in the US and continues to be held overseas.
There is also a SuperCamp Parent Weekend program, which parents of students who attend SuperCamp can attend.
Summer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
program which introduces students to accelerated learning
Accelerated language learning
Accelerated learning was developed based on the research and theories of Georgi Lozanov's suggestopedia. The term is now associated with diverse methods in education that target accelerated learning. The term "accelerated learning" is a very broad term encompassing diverse techniques, methodologies...
academic skills and life skills. The program is held in several different locations around the world, and has been attended by over 56,000 students since it was founded in 1982.
SuperCamp is run by the Quantum Learning Network
Quantum Learning Network
The Quantum Learning Network is an education and training organization based in Oceanside, California. Prior to 2005, the organization was known as the Learning Forum....
(QLN), a California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
-based educational organization. The SuperCamp program aims to teach students skills which will make studying
Study Skills
Study skills or study strategies are approaches applied to learning. They are generally critical to success in school, are considered essential for acquiring good grades, and are useful for learning throughout one's life....
any subject a faster, easier, more enjoyable and less stressful process. The camp's life skills curriculum focuses on developing communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
skills, building stronger personal relationships
Interpersonal relationship
An interpersonal relationship is an association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. This association may be based on limerence, love, solidarity, regular business interactions, or some other type of social commitment. Interpersonal relationships are formed in the...
with family and friends, developing teamwork
Teamwork
Teamwork is action performed by a team towards a common goal. A team consists of more than one person, each of whom typically has different responsibilities....
and leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
ability, boosting creativity
Creativity
Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...
and problem-solving ability, and setting clear goals. The camp uses metaphors such as an outdoor ropes course
Ropes course
A ropes course is a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which usually consists of high and/or low elements. Low elements take place on the ground or only a few feet above the ground...
and board-breaking to help students develop strategies for overcoming barriers to success.
History
The President of the QLN, Bobbi DePorterBobbi DePorter
Roberta "Bobbi" DePorter is the President of the Quantum Learning Network and co-founder of the SuperCamp program.In the late-1970s, DePorter was co-founder of the Burklyn Business School in Vermont – an avante-garde school that taught traditional business subjects in a non-traditional...
, first studied accelerated learning methods with the educational pioneer Dr. Georgi Lozanov
Georgi Lozanov
Georgi Lozanov is a Bulgarian educator and psychiatrist who developed suggestopedia/suggestopaedia, a learning/teaching theory based on his early-1960s study of suggestion which is called as "suggestology". His suggestopedia theory and practice were examined by UNESCO in the late 1970s and proved...
in the 1970s. These methods became the basis of the SuperCamp program which DePorter co-founded in the early-1980s with Eric Jensen and Greg Simmons and further developed with husband/partner, Joe Chapon. The first SuperCamp was held in 1982 at Kirkwood Meadows, California.
The program has since grown rapidly. Presently, camps are held every summer at several college campuses throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, including Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, UCLA
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
, Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University is a comprehensive co-educational private Roman Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
, Cal State San Marcos
California State University, San Marcos
California State University San Marcos is a public, coeducational university and one of the 23 general campuses of the California State University system. located in San Marcos, California, a suburban town in north San Diego County. It was founded in 1989 as the 20th CSU campus and was the first...
, the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, Colorado College
Colorado College
The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...
, Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a private, coeducational university in the U.S. state of North Carolina, founded in 1834. The university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, North Carolina, the state capital. The Reynolda Campus, the university's main campus, is...
and Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
.
SuperCamp was first held outside the United States in 1990, when camps were conducted in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. The program is now held every year in various countries in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
.
Since 1982, over 54,000 students worldwide have been through the SuperCamp program.
SuperCamp has been featured in The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
and many other major publications.
Curriculum
SuperCamp programs teach the following skills:Academic Skills
- Quantum Strategies – Test-taking, time-management and organizational skills. Discovery of the student's personal learning style and how to make the best of it.
- Quantum Reading – Speed readingSpeed readingSpeed reading is a collection of reading methods which attempt to increase rates of reading without greatly reducing comprehension or retention. Methods include chunking and eliminating subvocalization...
skills designed to cut reading time and simultaneously increase comprehension. - Quantum Writing – Strategies designed to overcome "writer's block" and improve both the structure and creativity of written assignments.
- Note-Taking – Mind Mapping and other techniques to intended to ensure that note-taking parallels the way the brain stores information.
- Memory – Methods designed to make memorizing and recalling information a quick and easy process.
- SATSATThe SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
/ ACTACT (examination)The ACT is a standardized test for high school achievement and college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. It was first administered in November 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test...
Preview – Curriculum developed in partnership with the Princeton ReviewThe Princeton ReviewThe Princeton Review is an American-based standardized test preparation and admissions consulting company. The Princeton Review operates in 41 states and 22 countries across the globe. It offers test preparation for standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT and advice regarding college...
.
Life Skills
- 8 Keys of Excellence – A series of principles based on a study by Bobbi DePorter on the common beliefs of highly successful individuals.
- Communication Skills
- Problem-Solving and Creative-Thinking Skills
- Goal-Setting
- Outdoor Adventure Course – Ropes course designed to be a metaphor for breaking through barriers to achieve success.
The camp also provides year-round support through on-going contact at its grad support website and at the SuperCamp Facebook fan page, which helps graduates review and integrate the skills that they have learned at the camp into their home and school lives.
Program levels
The following SuperCamp programs are conducted the United States:- Junior Forum – 7-day camp, ages 11-13
- Senior Forum – 10-day camp, ages 14-18
- Leadership Team – 10-day camp at Senior Forum for past Senior Forum graduates only, ages 15-18
- Leadership Forum – 7-day camp, ages 16-19 (for past Leadership Team graduates only)
- Quantum U – 8-day camp, ages 19-25
Variations on this structure exist outside the United States in order to make the program relevant and appropriate for students in the local school system in each country where the camp is held. A "Youth Forum" program for ages 8-10 used to be run in the US and continues to be held overseas.
There is also a SuperCamp Parent Weekend program, which parents of students who attend SuperCamp can attend.