I posted previously about National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF) and its extremely expensive summer camps. In that post, I detailed what the camps included and that, from my perspective as a college professor, the camps did not seem worth the money involved. Of course, I cannot call these camps “scams” because you are getting something for what you pay. Will that something improve your child’s odds of getting into college? As a college professor, I’m very skeptical of that and my conversations with the Admissions Office at my university strongly suggest that is not the case. But, hey, you’re money. Do as you want.
I bring this up again because my son just got two invitations to NYLF camps on the exact same day, but the invitations were, let’s go with “misleading.” (I explain why they were misleading at the bottom of this post.)
The first camp is explicitly an NYLF camp, but it claims to be associated with George Mason University (GMU) and includes a welcome letter by the Dean of Admissions of GMU, Alan Byrd. I checked, and Alan Byrd is actually the Dean of Admissions at GMU. To what extent Alan Byrd is aware of the association, I cannot say. Perhaps he fully supports what NYLF is doing. And perhaps NYLF is giving substantial kickbacks to GMU to link their name with their very expensive summer camps ($4,195 for one week, or $839/day; that doesn’t include room and board). I don’t have any insider information about this. But the links provided in the materials all go to envisionexperience.com.
What do you get for this price? You can use CAD software (OnShape), which is free, and 3D printers, to design and print model rockets. You can use GIS software (also free if you use QGIS). You can play with an Arduino (~$30). You can also fly a model helicopter using code (maybe $30). And you get to test an AI system (ChatGPT is free). For $4,000, you could buy 2 top of the line 3D printers and enough filament to print a few hundred model rockets and still have enough left over to buy a few Arduinos and a very nice model helicopter.
Also, I can say that if my university were to align itself with NYLF and offer “college credit for attending the program” (direct quote from Alan Byrd’s letter), as the President of the Faculty Senate at my university I would refuse to approve this and would do everything I can as a faculty member not to allow course credit to be offered for participation in a one-week summer camp. So you’re aware, you get 1 credit hour in “Special Topics in Leadership” from GMU and it costs $100. At my university, that would be garbage credits, assuming we allowed it to transfer in.
The second invitation came from Rice Elite Tech Camp. This one is clearly aligning itself with Rice University and drawing on the reputation of that institution to try to sell its very expensive one-week summer camp (just $3,795 for the week, or $759/day). Some of the camps are on Rice University’s campus (others are at Emory and UCLA). This invitation didn’t include an offer for college credit or a letter from the Admissions Director, so, perhaps Rice is a bit more skeptical. However, someone at Rice did supposedly sign the letter – Kaz Karwowski, who is an employee at Rice University. Nowhere in the materials sent for the Rice Elite Tech Camp is there a mention of NYLF or envisionexperience. In fact, the URL provided (EliteCamp.Rice.edu) immediately redirects here: https://www.rcelconnect.org/elitecamp/ I’m genuinely intrigued how NYLF was able to set up that redirect on the rice.edu domain. Someone probably got a nice little financial kickback for setting that up. The one suggestion that this is linked to NYLF is that there is a reference to WorldStrides in the materials. It turns out, NYLF and envisonexperience are owned by WorldStrides, which isn’t rated very highly with the Better Business Bureau where it is located.
What do you get with the Rice Elite Tech Camp? You get to work with R, which is free (I use and teach R). You can learn some Python (also free). You can use Python and MySQL (both free) to explore machine learning and internet of things ideas (free). For that price, you could purchase a top of the line gaming computer with a killer GPU that would allow you to do all of your CAD design and run your 3D printers from the other camp.
Again, if my university was aligned with NYLF, I’d be ashamed and be causing all sorts of problems for my university administration. I’m glad my university is not associated with NYLF, envisionexperience, or WorldStrides.
Finally, why am I claiming that these letters are misleading? Check the return addresses on the envelopes. Both of them are: 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 700, Vienna, VA 22182, which is, you guessed it, the headquarters for envisionexperience and NYLF. If NYLF is proud of their programs, why are they not making it clear that they are behind Rice Elite Tech Camp when they are the ones running it?
As a bonus: I spent around $400 on a 3D printer for my son (and me) for Christmas and have since spent another couple hundred dollars on filament. This summer, he’ll be learning how to use FreeCAD (which is free) to create a number of 3D models, which he can print right in our house. By spending just a few hours at the beginning of the summer, I will be setting up a curriculum for my son and then checking with him daily to see how he is doing. Since I talk to my son daily anyway, taking 5 minutes to check in on his progress seems pretty benign. For about $800 and a few hours of my time, my son will be able to learn everything he could learn at both of these camps and get to keep the 3D printer!
