Summer Programs

Our Summer Road Trips are designed to provide Middle and High School students with unique experiences of exploration, discovery and creation while building a strong community with other students and caring adults that will carry over into their academic, personal, professional and spiritual lives.

These trips can be historical (civil rights tours), recreational (camping, rafting, ropes courses, horseback riding, tubing, culinary arts), educational (college tours) or some combination of these elements. Trips are normally between 1-2 weeks in length.

The SKILLZ Summer School is an innovative, five-week, credit recovery program for current 6th-8th grade students struggling academically with math comprehension. SKILLZ takes place in an environment of love, support, understanding and high expectations allowing students to learn new life skills and math tricks that helps increase the students’ confidence, motivation and social skills.

SKILLZ is a collaboration of Day One, STARS, College Access Plan, PUSD and other community stakeholders. 70% of all SKILLZ students stated that they put more effort into their work at SKILLZ than at their school. 82% of SKILLZ students reported that they had a greater understanding of the subject matter as a result of their instructors. And 70% of students stated that for the first time they connected with an adult that they could talk to about the situations they faced in life!

The mission of Arts Camp is to help young artists in grades K-12, discover and unleash their creative voices in everything from fashion to filmmaking, songwriting to storytelling, and drawing to design.

When their ideas and imaginations are nurtured, it’s good for the whole community! The one-week camp is hosted by Montrose Church Bresee Campus in partnership with Stars and Because You Matter.

In 2021, STARS collaboratively convened, READY 21, a three-week summer enrichment program designed for Latinx, Black and Indigenous students in grades 1 – 5 who have had difficulty accessing the online learning environment during the COVID pandemic. The focus was on a positive learning experience that fosters collaboration, curiosity, creativity, and engagement with socio-emotional supports, while promoting readiness for in-person.

Stars will continue to provide this experience each summer collaboratively working with Day One, Young & Healthy, Reading Partners, AAPC Math Power Hour, Caltech, PUSD, Pasadena Education Foundation, Boys & Girls Club of Pasadena,  My TRIBE Rise, and other community volunteers, organizations and businesses.

One of the great successes of our summer programs is providing internships for local high school students and/or college students to assist us with building relationships with the students in our programs and leveraging that trust into engaging the learning. Younger students find it easier to build trust when they see their older peers serving as leaders, especially when those peers are either currently in or alumni in our programs.

Applications and compensation (where applicable) are facilitated through the Americorps VISTA Summer Associates program, the City of Pasadena’s Summer Rose program or through the Pasadena Unified School District with training provided by Stars and program partners.