Promoting science and encouraging diversity in the profiles recruited are two of the missions CentraleSupélec has set itself. How do we do it? By making it easier for girls and scholarship students to enroll in pre-preparatory courses and scientific studies in general.
From Sunday, July 4 to Saturday, July 10, 2021, CentraleSupélec organized for the first time a Summer Camp on its premises, welcoming 45 high school students (23 girls and 22 boys) from all over France.
Gender diversity was one of the main objectives of the Summer Camp: to encourage girls in particular to study science. Priority was also given to scholarship students.
By creating its own summer camp, the School aims to provide students with all the tools they need to build their project and discover the world of science and higher education. Its educational project revolves around three key words: orientation, discovery of science and campus life experience.
Total immersion was the will of the School by allowing to live this experience as real students of the School by living on the campus during this week of discovery and following more than 30 hours of workshops.
Different themes were discussed:
- Focus on scientific specialties, with particular attention to mathematics (methodology, objectives): which specialties for which path, which studies and which jobs?
- Individualized workshops on orientation, to remove self-censorship and provide visibility on the ParcourSup mechanism.
- Science awareness-visits to laboratories and La Fabrique, the school’s FabLab, interactive discovery of code and climate issues (Fresque du Climat), as well as testimonials from former students, meetings with teacher-researchers…
A busy program while keeping a summery and fun environment: games, outdoor activities, sports, etc.
We can conclude today that this first edition of the CentraleSupélec Summer Camp is a success. 80% of the participants indicated that the trip met their expectations and the remaining 20% responded that the trip was better than their expectations. All participants will recommend this camp to others.
Based on this first conclusive experience, the School will repeat the experience next summer. The current discussion concerns the few possible improvements to be made to the organization of this camp and why increase the number of participants or organize other camps during the summer or the school vacations in order to “reach” as many people as possible.
Another important area of development is the financial part. How to keep a balanced budget? To allow as many students as possible to participate in this trip by finding alternative financing. Appeal to corporate sponsors, individual donors, etc.
Now let’s hear from the participants of the first CentraleSupélec Summer Camp:
Thank you to the entire organizing team, including Olivier de Lapparent, for all the work done over many months to make the Summer Camp possible at CentraleSupélec.
