When you ask a group of Galesburg fifth and sixth graders what they did last summer, you expect answers involving swimming pools, video games, and maybe a family road trip. What you don’t necessarily expect is a conversation about German vocabulary, robotics circuitry, bread dough from scratch, crossbody bag sewing, and Taylor Swift-themed classes taught by their own math teacher. Yet that’s exactly what a roundtable of students at Lombard offered—joyfully, confidently, and with the enthusiasm that only comes from discovering something new.

These students—Bryleigh Davis (sixth grade), Liam Donaldson (sixth grade), Abby Kilgore (sixth grade), and Olin Worby (fifth grade)—represent the spirit behind Galesburg CUSD 205’s growing network of summer enrichment opportunities. Through scholarships provided by the district, hundreds of students have been able to attend Knox College 4 Kids, Carl Sandburg College’s Kids on Campus, and other hands-on programs designed to open doors that, for many families, might otherwise remain closed.

For Abby, who describes herself proudly as a theater kid, these programs felt made for her. She spent part of her Knox College 4 Kids experience in the Swift-themed class taught by her math teacher, Mrs. Cain, and another in show choir, performing everything from A Million Dreams to songs from Hercules. She also enrolled in a plant-focused class involving greenhouse visits—a course she didn’t expect to love but now describes with the kind of detail only real exposure can provide. Abby’s summer made room for her creativity, but it also surprised her. “I really liked bread making too,” she said. “I might take that class again.”

Liam, whose interests bounce between Minecraft, books like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, and a budding desire to crochet an “octopi army,” chose classes that fed his curiosity in new directions. He learned about plants, about science, about the world in small but meaningful ways. For him, discovery was the point. “Some of it I didn’t know anything about,” he said, “but you do it, and then you want to know more.”

Bryleigh, whose world revolves around basketball (“Everything involves basketball,” she said with a grin), found herself genuinely surprised by how much she enjoyed the sewing-focused class she took at Knox. She made a colorful crossbody bag—purple, pink, and blue—and learned basic stitching techniques she’d never tried before. “I didn’t know how to do any of that,” she said. “It was really cool.”

And then there’s Olin, who has already taken multiple years of enrichment classes. His list of favorites includes German, where he learned phrases like “Ich bin zehn Jahre alt,” and a robotics and circuitry course at Carl Sandburg where he and a friend experimented with batteries, LEDs, and electrical resistance. He also learned stick welding, explored edible science, and even took a class involving foxtails and frisbees, a course that combined physical activity with fun, physics-rich play.

One by one, each student described the same phenomenon: I didn’t know I’d like this. I didn’t know I could do that. I didn’t know this existed.

That is precisely the outcome the district hoped for.

When Galesburg shifted to a more balanced calendar, district leaders—among them Director of Curriculum and Evaluation Jenny Bredemeier and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources and Student Supports Mindi Ritchie—worked closely with Knox and Carl Sandberg to expand access. The barrier, historically, was cost. Knox College 4 Kids carries a $200 registration fee, and other camps across the region carry similar or higher prices. Many families simply couldn’t make it work.

So, the district stepped in.

Through a significant investment in scholarships—open to all students, first-come, first-served—Galesburg removed the cost obstacle entirely. In summer 2024, 228 Galesburg students attended Knox College 4 Kids at no cost to their families. In 2025, the district funded 60 students to attend Kids on Campus at Carl Sandburg College. In all, students could access three full weeks of enrichment opportunities across two college campuses—experiences that were hands-on, interest-driven, and personally meaningful.

“These programs are experiential,” Ritchie told the students. “You get to choose things you care about—or things you might not know you care about yet.”

Judging by the smiles around the table, that mission is working.

As the students looked toward next summer, they were already planning: VR crocheting, baking, robotics, bread making, more language classes, and whatever else sparks their interest when the course lists come out. None of them know exactly what they’ll pursue in life yet—but each now has a broader sense of what’s possible.

In the end, that is what these programs give Galesburg children:
memories, confidence, curiosity, and the freedom to imagine themselves in a wider world.