Column: How the San Diego Foundation and San Diego Unified are giving students a joyful summer

After more than a year of living their educational lives through a screen, students in the San Diego Unified School District have the opportunity to spend part of their summer in the classroom. Also on stage, behind the camera or in the garden.

It is all part of Level Up SD, a Summer of Learning and Joy — a free summer-enrichment program that is available to all San Diego Unified students. The program offers in-person classroom instruction in the morning, followed by a smorgasbord of afternoon activities hosted by more than 65 San Diego nonprofit organizations.

There are theater classes from the La Jolla Playhouse and and art classes from A Reason to Survive (ARTS). There are dance classes from City Ballet, barista training from the San Diego Coffee Training Institute and wildlife day camps from the Living Coast Discovery Center. Students can connect with the ocean at the Ocean Discovery Institute or learn the art of documentary filmmaking with the Media Arts Center San Diego’s Teen Producers Project.

This is not your usual summer school because this has not been your usual year. Thanks to a massive infusion of state and federal COVID relief funds, San Diego Unified is able to offer this program to all San Diego Unified students. And thanks to grants from the San Diego Foundation, which is partnering with the school district, the nonprofit organizations can take the enrichment beyond the classroom.

In addition to helping students get their brains back into gear, Level Up SD wants to reboot their hearts, souls and creative spirits.

They’re not calling it the Summer of Learning and Joy for nothing.

“Getting students back into a routine that is going to provide them with joy, fun, smiles and laughter is so, so needed,” said Pamela Gray Payton, vice president of community impact and chief impact and partnerships officer for the San Diego Foundation.

“Some of these programs might have cost $500, but through Level Up SD, parents have access to programs that they aren’t ordinarily able to offer to their children. We want students to walk away at the end of the summer with some unforgettable memories.”

For some Level Up SD students, that unforgettable memory might be rooted in the nourishing soil of the Bayside Community Center’s therapeutic gardening program, which is being held at the Montgomery Middle STEAM Magnet school.

With sensory-rich projects that include harvesting lavender, making tea out of lemon verbena and turning fresh tomatoes and basil into a snack, the program is all about getting kids back to a happy place they might have forgotten about over these many housebound months. The place with the fresh air and healing vibes.

“We know that education and health experts have all agreed that after the past year of lockdown, children really benefit from activities that focus on outdoor play, exercise, the arts and collaborative activities. This is an opportunity for them to have some outside enrichment in a program where we can help them deal with some of their stress and anxiety,” said Amy Zink, who is co-leading the program with fellow horticultural therapist Emalyn Leppard.

“We will also have an area where kids can just be. They can make art. They can plant seeds. They can get their hands in the soil, see how a passion fruit grows or have a peach off the peach tree. I just want them to be able to feel safe and happy and relaxed when they come here.”

And students aren’t the only ones who are getting a much-needed boost from Level Up SD.

Like many of the other nonprofits who received grants to support the new summer programs, the Divisionary Theatre in University Heights has not done any in-person programming since March of 2020. Now in its sixth year, the theater’s Teen-Versionary program will offer Level Up SD participants the chance to be part of an LGBTQ+ ensemble performing new LGBTQ+ material.

After one week of online rehearsals and one week of in-person rehearsals, the Teen-Versionary ensemble will perform monologues from trans playwright Josh Gershick’s “Dear ONE: Love and Longing in Mid-Century Queer America.” The location for the July 17 production has not been announced yet, but wherever it is, the production will be alive with the sound of community, possibility and youthful exhilaration.

The joy levels will be up. Way, way up.

“I have seen amazing things over the years when it comes to what this program can do for children in this community,” said Skyler Sullivan, Diversionary’s director of arts education and outreach. “For some of these kids, having someone like them who they can reach out to is a huge lifeline. We become a family when we put on a show. And on top of that, you have the beautiful experience of doing it with likeminded teens.

“It’s going to be a lovefest. It is just going to exude joy.”

For information on the Level Up SD summer program, go to levelupsandiego.org