BRYTE Summer Camp’s mission is to foster community, confidence, and joy among refugee youth through inquiry-based learning and leadership development. Here are TEN FUN FACTS about BRYTE Summer Camp:

(1) HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: BRYTE Summer Camp was founded in 2011. Back then, camp was thirty kids and a few college students meeting for half-days in the basement of St. Michael’s Church on Oxford Street, reading photocopied books, and going to the park to play. We were small, scrappy, and full of joy.

(2) AMAZING STUDENTS: Our campers come from all over the world and speak over 15 different languages including Swahili, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, Karen, Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, Burmese, Nepali, Hindi, French, Sango, and Kunama. Meet some of them here and here!

(3) AMAZING STAFF: The majority of our staff are BRYTE alumni--high school- or college-aged refugee youth, representing the identities, lived experiences, and language skills of our youth. Our staff are almost all people of color and first or second generation immigrants. Meet some of them here!

(4) A PRETTY COOL CAMP MASCOT: Our camp mascot is the Spirit Bear. He is awarded each day to the camper that most embodies the five parts of the BRYTE Camp Spirit: Excitement to learn, respect, team spirit, growth, and above all, FUN!

(5) YEAR-ROUND LOVE: During the academic year, we are a tutoring program. We pair school-aged refugee youth with college and graduate students for one-on-one, in-home tutoring and mentoring. Each semester we manage 130-150 tutor-tutee pairs. Our tutoring program is celebrating its 10th birthday this year. Read more about tutoring here!

(6) EMPOWERING (& SILLY) CAMP TRADITIONS: We start every morning with All Camp Circle and a skit in keeping with the weekly theme. These circles are filled with students sharing themselves with the whole community--whether through dance, poetry, drawings, or stories. All Camp Circle is one of many moments throughout the day when students can share where they come from with pride and joy.

(7) BRYTE BY THE NUMBERS: This coming summer we will serve 60 students, ages 6-18. Most campers have at least one sibling at camp.

(8) ACADEMICS & ENRICHMENT: In the mornings our students engage in hands-on learning focused on English language acquisition through arts, performance, and science projects. In these classes our instructor to student ratio is about 3 to 1, giving each student the opportunity to speak and gain confidence. In the afternoons, depending on the day, we go swimming, play soccer, dance, or go on field trips.

(9) BRYTE IN THE NEWS: Over the years many, many people have written kind things about BRYTE and BRYTE Summer Camp. You can read about us here, here, and here. We also have some big fans among professionals in the field of education and refugee resettlement; you can read some of their testimonials here.

(10) YOU CAN HELP: Every year we rely on generous donors to make camp happen. We thank you tremendously for your support over the past decade. We could not do this without you. Every dollar goes directly to purchasing supplies and paying our staff.

Refugee Development Center Inc

Fundraising Campaigns

BRYTE Summer Camp 2017