Teen Camps in West Michigan

Arts

• Knollcrest Music Camp is hosted at Calvin College in the summertime. A senior week is scheduled annually for children who are entering grades 9 through 12. Campers participate in music classes and take part in a performance that is held for parents and guests at the end of the camp session. Googenius University is another art-based summer camp for teens that focuses on drawing cartoons. Campers can enroll for different sessions such as Manga, comics or graphic novel cartoons. The camps take place at Hope College.

Cooking Camps

• Kendall College hosts a variety of overnight culinary camps for teens ages 13 to 18. The camps focus on specific culinary topics such as decorating cakes, advanced baking and basic culinary skills. As an added benefit, any child who attends the camps is awarded a $1,000 scholarship towards tuition at Kendall College. Meijer Gardens also hosts summer cooking camps for teenagers up to age 14. The day camps feature topics such as Italian cooking and a chef̵7;s cooking camp. The camps range from one to five days.

National Organizations

• The YMCA hosts a variety of camps and youth programs. The YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids hosts teen camps at Camp Manitou-Lin. The overnight camps are designed for children ages 12 to 16 and include activities such as hiking, canoeing and cookouts. Summer leadership camps are also held at the camp for teens ages 15 to 18. At Camp Kroc -- a day camp affiliated with the Salvation Army -- teenagers ages 13 to 17 can take part in camp activities as a teen leader. The program is designed to cultivate leadership qualities by assisting with the supervision of children.

Sports

• Cornerstone University hosts basketball and volleyball summer camps for teens. Day camps and overnight camps are offered for both sports. Children who are entering grades 7 to 10 can participate in the basketball camps while children who are entering grades 5 to 12 can participate in the volleyball camps. Aquinas College hosts teen summer camps for a variety of sports: basketball, lacrosse, soccer and volleyball. Specific camps geared towards kids in high school are scheduled throughout the summer.