Lighthouse Summer Camps 2024
Hard Skills & Soft Skills
Sunday, July 7 - Sunday, July 14
(Preferred application date: Monday, May 29)
During this camp you will get a lot of hard skills practice in areas you need to master so you can live and work independently: Orientation & Mobility skills such as cane travel, bus travel, route planning and using navigation apps; Daily Living Skills such as using knives, using the stove top and oven, and staying organized in different area of your life; and tech skills such as using more of your smartphone’s capabilities or becoming more proficient doing tasks on a laptop. Exactly what you practice during the week will be targeted to your own goals and interests.
You will also get daily sessions on soft skills, which are abilities that can also help you be successful in life and work. Many employers say soft skills can get you hired over other people and also help you succeed and stand out in a job. What are these soft skills? We will focus on the top six soft skills identified by employers, which are:
Communication
Enthusiasm & Attitude
Teamwork
Networking
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
Professionalism
You will learn about these soft skills, do exercises that will help you improve them, and also integrate these skills into the camp week so you get practice using them day to day. Also, prior to camp we will find out from you a career area that interests you and you will get the chance to talk about soft skills with an employee or a supervisor from a job or company in your field of interest. Depending on your job or company of interest, your O&M travel could even take you to that business.
By the end of the camp, you will have more capability and more confidence in both your hard and soft skills. You will also be part of a bigger community of friends and business associates (which, by the way, is part of the soft skill of networking!).
O&M, TDL & TKD: Oh, My!
Sunday, July 28th – Sunday, August 5th
(Preferred application date: Monday, June 3rd)
You know O&M is Orientation & Mobility, and that TDL means Techniques of Daily Living. And, then there is TKD: Tae Kwon Do, the Korean marital art.
This camp will feature daily Taekwondo classes, and at the end of the camp an optional mini-promotion test. If Taekwondo really isn’t your jam, we will have an alternative activity available, though we hope you give it a shot; we’re pretty good at helping make sure you’ll find it both fun and fulfilling. We will give you a uniform to wear with a belt to tie. You will learn self-defense techniques and also learn about personal safety that can serve you in your independent living. Classes will be taught by a certified fifth-degree black belt master instructor.
The camp will also integrate the five tenets of Taekwondo into our week, so you can learn about and practice life principles that can help you be the best person, the best student, and the best employee possible. Those tenets can also relate to life and workplace soft skills that will help with school and employment.
Of course, there will be plenty of O&M (Orientation & Mobility) and Daily Living Skills practice during the time that you will not be practicing Taekwondo. Cane travel, bus travel, route planning, using navigation apps; slicing vegetables, using a stove top and oven, measuring and pouring, organizing your clothes, your schedule and other areas of life. If you need practice in any or all of these areas and others, then this is the camp for you. Come earn your next belts in O&M, TDL and Taekwondo!