Aspire’s six-week summer learning camp may have ended, but the learning students gained during this time will set them up for success in the coming school year and beyond.

Summer school plays a crucial role in preventing summer learning loss, which year over year can make it harder for students whose families cannot afford summer camps and tutors to catch up to their peers. Aspire’s full-day structured learning summer program helps students maintain their academic momentum and ensures they return to school in the fall ready to learn new material, rather than needing to spend time reviewing what they’ve forgotten.

As we look towards the school year, I’m happy to share that the 2025 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) funds have been released! Many of you called on your representatives to ensure that afterschool and summer programs like Aspire had the funds needed to serve local students. Thank you for your using your voice to advocate for historically marginalized students in Arlington and beyond.

Despite this victory, we’re still working to sustain our programs as we continue to face the impact of AmeriCorps cuts and 21st CCLC remains uncertain for the 2026-2027 school year. Earlier this spring, after our federal AmeriCorps funding was eliminated, effective immediately, we anticipated we would have two empty classrooms this fall and could lose as many as one-third of our students.

However, thanks to the continued support of our community, we were able to raise enough funding to support one of these classrooms. As we prepare to welcome 120 students to our afterschool program in September, we continue to work hard and creatively to find ways to fund the opening of our final classroom. This is especially critical as Aspire faces our longest waiting list in history, with over 70 students waiting for a safe and nurturing place to continue their learning after school. 

On the last day of camp, one parent shared, “Aspire is a place out of the ordinary, full of dedication, pure love, and care.” Thank you to our whole community for making this possible. 

Week Five: Legendary Beasts

This week, students entered the fantastical world of Legendary Beasts. They learned about legendary creatures, chemical reactions, data collection, and more!

• Creating their own beast names: From Craggadon to Snorflame, students identified phonics features like digraphs and vowel teams. They invented their own beast names and identified the phonics features inside of them. Not only did they improve their literacy skills, they also drew their favorite beasts!
• Making fire and ice potions: Our campers became legendary alchemists during this week-long project! They spent the week creating and testing magical fire and ice potions using real-life chemical reactions. They explored acid-base reactions, exothermic and endothermic processes, and the science of color-changing mixtures.
• Learning about legendary creatures: Have you heard of La Llorona, a ghostly woman who appears near rivers, or Buda, a human who turns into a hyena at night? On History Thursday, students learned about the cultural significance of these legendary creatures from around the world. After discussing as a class, they used Venn diagrams to compare the characteristics of different creatures. 
• Constructing wind-powered cars:  We ended the week by constructing and racing wind-powered cars! Our campers used their design and problem-solving skills to build their cars using basic materials. In the process, they saw firsthand how wind energy creates motion. They even added designs to transform their racing cars into beast cars!

Week Six: Outer Space & Intergalactic Realms

This week, students “blasted off” on a journey of learning. In outer space-themed lessons, students learned about moon landings, constellations, and even elements of physics!

• Writing space cereal blurbs: To start off the week, students created space cereal flavors and wrote blurbs to describe their flavors using space language. They learned how to write descriptive language and capture the reader’s attention.
• Building space landers: In this week-long project, campers designed and built shock-absorbing landers to protect aliens coming to Earth! As part of this fun STEM challenge, students became engineers, learning how to construct landers that were stable and strong.
• Creating constellations: Students had fun in the sun while creating constellations! First, they learned about how constellations came about in ancient times. Then, they built constellations using rocks, pebbles, and sidewalk chalk.
• Learning about moon landings: Our history lesson this week focused on moon landings. Campers got a sneak peak into the perspective of an astronaut landing on the moon by teaming up to rank essential items for an emergency landing. They made hard decisions about items like stellar maps, signal flares, food concentrate, and more.
• Collecting data about planets: Classrooms were transformed into solar systems during this fun STEM challenge! Students collected data about planets by doing a scavenger hunt. Then, they pinpointed key points, like which planet is the biggest. This activity taught students how to find, collect, and apply scientific data.  
• Celebrating the end of a fun, enriching summer with friends: On Thursday, students had a wonderful time at their end-of-summer party. They spent time at different stations bowling, watching their classmates perform a play, and drawing planets and aliens. We also had special guests from the Arlington County Fair who provided smoothies and ride tickets! At the end, students said tearful goodbyes to their teachers and classmates.

Field Trip Fun

When our students heard that they couldn’t go on field trips this summer because our funding had been cut, they were dismayed. They asked every day if they’d be able to go explore DC or visit the water park for the traditional end of camp celebration. While we still weren’t able to take students on as many field trips as previous years, our generous supporters made sure we could provide some fun, enriching opportunities.

Our middle school students got a special treat when they went to a D.C. United soccer game! Our students are passionate about soccer, and they are constantly debating the best teams and players with each other. Getting to see a professional soccer game with their friends was a dream come true for them – they met the mascot, cheered on their team, and one of our students even got the whole crowd to do his chant! 

Finally, camp wrapped up with a trip to a local pool, where students raced each other down the slides and splashed their friends to cool down. A fun end to an incredible summer!

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