SOU Youth Programs

SOU Youth Programs offers day classes, week-long classes, and overnight camps that include classes, lectures, cultural events, recreational activities, and friendly competitions in math, trivia, and art. Students can take part in summer enrichment through ACADEMY and Summer Better Than Others, choose between day classes or an overnight week-long experience, and join family events, after school meetings, leadership conferences, and a year-long virtual engagement that focuses on learning, culture, and community. Programs include ACADEMY, Academia Latino, Academia Leadership, Black Youth Summer Institute, Konaway Nika Tillicum, and All My Relations, where students take classes, experience Ashland, and engage with the SOU community.

• Ages: 8–18 years old
• Schedule: Week-long overnight camp; 9-day overnight camp; week-long classes

For more than 40 years, Southern Oregon University’s Office of Youth Programs has offered educational programs to youth from across the country. Since 1981, ACADEMY has been a destination summer camp for talented and highly able students completing grades 5 through 10. Developed in 2000, Academia Latino brings students in grades 7 through 9 to campus for a week to participate in classes, explore the Ashland community, and learn and grow in their culture, while Academia Leadership is a 9-day overnight camp for students completing grades 10 and 11. With roots dating back to 1996, Konaway Nika Tillicum is recognized as a destination summer camp experience for students in the Native American and/or Indigenous communities and focuses on students in grades 7–12, with campers taking part in cultural classes, activities in and around the Rogue Valley, and engagement with peers from across the nation.

With a focus on cultural identities, academics, and community connection, SOU Youth Programs includes summer camps, enrichment classes and workshops, regional academic competitions, and early college credit pathways, including college credit opportunities that can save students time and money while in high school. Summer Better Than Others offers summer enrichment day classes on the university campus for students aged 8–15, with week-long classes that range in subject area and can be stacked for multiple weeks. Youth Programs offer assistance to students from multicultural backgrounds through cultural and identity-focused events and gatherings, including programs such as All My Relations and the Black Youth Summer Institute, which is geared towards youth within the African diaspora and includes celebrations of Black culture and community alongside peers from across the region. Thoughtful and intentional programming for youth who are part of the Native American, Latino/a/x, and/or Black communities is used to further enrich cultural and community bonds, and families can take part in All My Relations, which offers year-long virtual engagement centered on learning, culture, and community.

Last updated December 27, 2025.