Eastern’s inaugural English Studies Summer Camp for high school students began Monday and will commence in a showcase Friday morning displaying the work of the participants.

“We have 38 students in attendance, which is approximately what we had hoped for this inaugural camp,” said camp director Melissa Ames.

23 high schools from across the state are being represented at the camp, with many students coming from local schools within Coles County.

The camp focuses on skills and topics across English studies. She said that covers literary and media studies, creative writing and professional writing.

“In the past we ran a Creative Writing Day Camp.  As a non-residence camp, it only served the local area and was limited to simply one area of English Studies,” Ames said. “This is the first residence camp that our department has hosted and we were thrilled to be the most affordable English Studies Camp in the state.”

The campers will attend different course sessions throughout the week such as Shakespeare in Play, Exploring Poetry and Prose, The Art of the Personal Essay, Gender and Sexuality in Film, Book Publishing, Writing in the Web 2.0 Era, Dystopian Worlds and Writing About Media and Popular Culture.

Students will be mentored by Eastern faculty along with guest instructors.

Ames said the instructors help develop critical thinking and writing skills that students can use in their future educational study and careers.

“The camp counselors/mentors help them to develop interpersonal and cohort-building skills,” she said.

The Showcase Reception will feature live performances, creative readings, poster presentations and digital work displays

“We hope that this camp will help students develop not just composition skills, critical thinking skills across the board in terms of reading comprehension, visual analysis, cultural critique, and so on,” Ames said.

The showcase open to the public begins at 10 a.m. Friday in the Tarble Arts Center Atrium.

Jehad Abbed can be reached at 581-2812 or Jaabbed@eiu.edu