EDCI BellXcel camp gets Duke Energy Foundation donation, students see academic growth

For 60 students in Durham Public Schools, summer is spent in the halls of Y. E. Smith Elementary School. With math and reading lessons and spelling games, this may seem like summer school. But it’s not — it’s camp. 

The Duke Energy Foundation donated $20,000 to the East Durham Children’s Initiative (EDCI) BellXcel Summer Learning Program on Thursday, May 23.

The EDCI BellXcel (Building Educated Leaders for Life) camp is a five-week, intensive program for 60 rising first, second and third grade students at Y. E. Smith Elementary, Eastway Elementary and Maureen Joy Charter School. The free program targets summer learning loss while providing students that are in the 25th percentile or lower with opportunities they may not otherwise have. 

“Catching these kids up, getting them closer to their peer group, is just phenomenal,” EDCI Board of Directors Chairperson W. Barker French said. “Otherwise, they’ll always be behind.”

The camp also provides breakfast and lunch for all campers. Y.E. Smith Elementary principal Joi Gibson-Robinson said 100 percent of students at the camp qualify for free and reduced lunch. 

EDCI is a nonprofit that works with children from birth through high school graduation, providing students and families with early childhood interventions, after-school and summer programs and nutrition services. The organization collaborated with over 40 partner organizations to serve 855 children in their 2017-2018 fiscal year. 

The nonprofit focuses on a 1.2 square mile area east of downtown Durham known as the EDCI Zone. In 2008, the area was determined to be the most vulnerable neighborhood in Durham.

The EDCI BellXcel program is part of a national network of camps targeted at areas with few resources where students are performing below grade level. The program customizes its instruction based on the needs of that year’s students.

“By the end of the second week, you can see the scholars transforming,” program director Jayven Brown said. “You can see their self-esteem rising. You can see their confidence rising.”

Through pre and post-testing, EDCI said they’re seeing gains of one month in math and one-and-a-half months in reading for BellXcel students. Without access to summer programs that continue a student’s enrichment, students can experience significant summer learning loss, EDCI said. 

BellXcel isn’t just about classroom instruction. The camp hosts guest speakers and takes field trips throughout the summer to the Marbles Kids Museum and a local T.V. station. 

“It’s seen as a true summer camp, instead of a learning camp,” said Gibson-Robinson. “We don’t hide that the main purpose of this is to get our children to sustain what they’ve already learned and to make them grow by at least a month academically. The children see it as them having so much fun all around.”

BellXcel is one of three summer programs offered by EDCI for elementary students. The Science Technology Engineering Arts Math (STEAM) camp is a free six-week program for students in third through fifth grade. EDCI also partners with the YMCA of the Triangle to send 70 students to YMCA Camp High Hopes. 

After seeing students succeed at BellXcel camp, Gibson-Robinson said the program is ready to expand.

“All it takes is money; it’s real easy,” French said. “You give me the money, we can do it.”