Hopkins camp full strength after cancellations in 2022

“It’s really reassuring. We took a reputational hit last year, rightfully so. … It does feel like we got the forgiveness we were looking for.”

A year after the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth canceled about 160 programs at the last minute due to staffing shortages, campers and staff members report having a smoother experience this summer.

Launched in 1979, the center offers in-person and online summer courses at U.S. colleges to gifted students from around the world. But last year, its first summer back from the coronavirus pandemic, the cancellations affected more than 1,700 students of the 5,200 scheduled to participate. Roughly 3,500 students still participated in the center’s in-person summer programming.

Some of those affected were on international flights when the announcement was made. A Facebook group called “The Fyre Festival Of Nerd Camps” attracted hundreds of members, likening the center to an infamous luxury music festival that was canceled in 2017.

As a result, the Johns Hopkins University shook up the center’s leadership, naming Stephen Gange, a Hopkins professor and the executive vice provost for academic affairs, the interim executive director of the program, replacing Virginia Roach. It appointed Amy Shelton as executive director in October 2022. She previously served as an interim leader of the center from January 2019 to July 2020.

Shelton said many students and staff members, even those whose programs were canceled last year, have returned to the program, which has intentionally become a little smaller.

This summer, the center will host about 4,100 students at eight U.S. sites, its spokesperson Maria Blackburn said in an email. The center has two sites in Baltimore, one at the Hopkins Homewood campus and another at The Gilman School.

To participate, students must meet certain score requirements on accepted testing formats, such as the SAT or ACT. On-campus tuition ranges from $2,999 to $6,199, with financial aid available.

Courses cover topics like fiction and poetry, astrophysics and cognitive psychology. This year, rather than scrambling for last-minute travel plans and hoping for placements in other summer camps, students have enjoyed activities ranging from testing spaghetti-constructed bridges in engineering classes to dressing up for a social dance.

“It’s really reassuring,” Shelton said. “We

— Amy Shelton, executive director for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth

took a reputational hit last year, rightfully so. … It does feel like we got the forgiveness we were looking for.”

Shelton, who holds other positions at Hopkins and was not involved with last year’s hiccups, said there have been structural changes to ensure operations run effectively. For example, the center has extra substitutes on deck who can be pulled in when necessary. There’s a temp agency on contract just in case. And central office staff members have been background checked so they can step into staff roles.

Although thankful for the chance to help the program, Shelton said she knows the center is still under scrutiny and that there won’t be any more chances going forward. Come September, the center will review what changes and decisions need to be made to ensure future summers go well, she said.

This is Hopkins student Yarin Camacho Aparicio’s second year teaching with the program. They started out working at a campus in Santa Cruz, California, last summer, and this year, they found themself at the Hopkins campus. Camacho Aparicio said working with the center has been an “eye-opening experience,” giving them the opportunity to explore a passion for teaching.

Ainsley Owen, a 16-year-old from Austin, Texas, completed the first summer session at the Hopkins campus, her fourth year participating in the program. She said her site last year at Skidmore College in New York was not affected by the cancellations.

“I was one of the lucky people,” Owen said.

She said this summer has probably been her best, raving about the city of Baltimore and her mathematics program. Owen said she also enjoyed learning from her peers, some of whom were international students.

“It’s just fantastic,” she said. “I hope [CTY] continues for many years to come.”