PASCI Camp Provides Tomorrow's Leaders

Tenth-graders from Lowell High School, members of the school’s Gear Up program, gathered for a photo during the group’s Teen Peace Camp, which took place on UML South for four days in June.

Forty prospective 10th-graders from Lowell High School, under the guidance of UMass Lowell students, spent four days this June on UML South learning to be more productive, peace-loving citizens.

The Teen Leadership Peace Camp, sponsored by the University’s Peace and Conflict Studies Institute (PACSI), was open to LHS students who were members of the school’s Gear Up program, to illustrate the point that “everyone can help promote peace and social justice in the community and in the world,” according to Daniel Egan, PACSI director and chair of the University’s Sociology Department.

Gear Up, a partnership among UMass Lowell, Middlesex Community College and the Lowell public schools, is a six-year college-awareness program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Although its principal focus is on academic achievement, says Gear Up project director Bowa Tucker: “We believe programs like this camp are important for our students’ development.”

The camp, held on UML South June 23-26, was co-led by five trained UMass Lowell students, under the direction of Barbara Hildt, a UML adjunct professor of sociology, former Massachusetts state legislator and specialist in youth development and violence prevention. The students’ participation, designed in part to foster their leadership and mentoring skills, was funded through a public service grant.

Gear Up, in addition to its college-awareness focus, provides such services as in- and out-of-school tutoring, after-school field trips, parent-child workshops and parent-education programs. Many of these programs are outgrowths of its collaborations with community partners such as the Revolving Museum, the Greater Lowell Boys and Girls Club, the Girl Scouts, the Merrimack Valley Housing Partnership and others.