Chicago Summer Jam
Students serve inner-city youth
- posted: 02 Oct. 2007
- scrollcampus@byui.edu
Photo Courtesy of Chicago Summer Jam
Synthia Smoot, a junior studying communication, plays with one of the youth involved in the Chicago Youth Summer Jam. Over 40 BYU-I students traveled to Chicago this summer to work with inner-city youth ages nine to 16.
More than 40 BYU-I students plus 50 children from inner-city Chicago, equals another year of the Chicago Youth Summer Jam, also known as the Inner City Urban Studies Program.
The Chicago Youth Summer Jam is sponsored by the Inner-City Charitable Foundation and BYU-Idaho. The teens who participate are selected by their bishops and stake presidents and are all blacks and hispanics ages nine-15 from all over the city of Chicago.
This year, the boys’ camp was held in Victor, Idaho and the girls’ camp was held in Hyde Park in Chicago. The kids and students from BYU-I played and had educational experiences teaching one another.
“I wanted the boys to leave with a stronger testimony of the gospel and a realization that there is so much more to life that is in their reach. They all have so much potential,” said Grover Wray, chair of the Sociology and Social Work Department.
The BYU-I students involved were also told they would be affected for the better.
“The students left the camp with a better self-awareness of who they are and how they can help people change,” Wray said.
“The best thing that I learned was that there are people that grow up differently than we do, and I wanted to know why I grew up so blessed, why I was so lucky,” said one of the counselors, Sarah Jeppson, a junior studying communication.
A counselor from the boys’ camp expressed a similar idea.
“It makes you reflect on your life and how blessed you are and wonder how strong you would be if you were them,” said Brian Bradshaw, a senior studying social work. 
