The Journey Through Hallowed Ground

See what Loudoun County Public Schools have to say about Extreme  Camp

About Extreme  Journey Camp

The Extreme Journey Through Hallowed Ground Summer Camp, the cornerstone of JTHG Partnership’s educational programs, is open to rising 6th through 8th grade students. In this remarkable program, students spend two weeks uncovering “the mysteries of history, through espionage.”  

Developed to achieve the highest level of student engagement, the program positions the campers as “members of the JTHG Intelligence Agency.”  As they arrive the first day, they are handed a “Top Secret” briefing packet, which holds their Secret Agent Briefing binder. Their mission is to uncover the lessons of leadership, but first they need to decipher the hieroglyphics for their unique identity.

Using primary source documents, they assume the identities of citizens who lived within what is now The Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area, face the same set of facts and have to decide, “what would I have done?” 

Extreme  "Top Secret" Mission Activities

Among the activities, campers canoe seven miles of the Potomac River and scale Balls Bluff as a Union Soldier; at Montpelier they reconstitute the Constitutional Convention with a James Madison interpreter and then assume the identity of an African American child living at the Gilmore Cabin; in Gettysburg they bike 14 miles as they retrace the battle; and after biking 17 miles along the C&O Canal, they become a member of John Brown’s Raiders in Harpers Ferry.  Armed with digital video cameras they are charged with producing their own vodcast, or mini-documentary on “what leadership means to me.” 

Extreme  Documentary Filmmaking

After each site visit, students spend a full day in the “studio” where instructors work with them to teach the skills of documentary filmmaking: how to use primary source documents; how to write a script; “capturing the story,” getting the right shot, reflecting on what they have learned, working with sound effects and music and then putting it all together with the movie making computer programs available for their use. In groups of two or three, they immediately apply the newly acquired knowledge to create their own documentaries. With their ideas developed, they record the audio component, incorporate their pictures and video, splice, record sound effects, create, twist, blend, edit and eventually celebrate their final production.  These documentaries are incorporated into the JTHG website and on YouTube where they are available for national and international viewers to enjoy.

2013 Camp Information 

WE ARE SORRY but our EXTREME  Camp is now at capacity for paid registrations, and we cannot accept additional students. However, Loudoun County Camp, Session 2, has scholarships available thanks to the generosity of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation . Contact us immediately if you are interested in receiving a scholarship at (540) 454-2361 or email blaine@jthg.org.

We also have opened a waiting list for all camps. We will contact you immediately, should we have a spot become available. We thank you for your interests and we look forward to welcoming your child, this or next summer, to the wonders of their own National Heritage Area.

Loudoun County: FULL

• July 8 through July 19 (Monday-Friday) at Harper Park Middle School, 701 Potomac Station Drive Leesburg, VA 20176 
  Download the Session 1 Camp Schedule HERE

• Session 2:  July 15 through July 26 (Monday-Friday) at Smart's Mill Middle School, 850 North King Street Leesburg, VA 20176
  Download the  Session 2 Camp Schedule HERE

Albemarle County: FULL

• Date: June 17-28, 2013
• Download the Camp Schedule HERE

You may also contact blaine@jthg.org  or call the office at (540) 882-4929 for more information.