II. Summer Camp Locations and Teachers at the St-Laurent Campus, South Shore Campus, and Downtown Campus

　　The idea of establishing Elite College's Summer Camp at the St-Laurent Campus, South Shore Campus, and Downtown Campus can be traced back to 2007, or even earlier.

　　Summer Camp – St-Laurent Campus

　　Elite College's Summer Camp was established at CEGEP St-Laurent (CSL) in 2009. CSL is a college possessing a long history and sublime gothic architecture, and offers complete state-of-the-art facilities. Every classroom is bright and spacious and equipped with multimedia teaching equipment. A revamp of the electric circuitry in the E Building by the college allows all classrooms for the Summer Camp to be equipped with air conditioners. There is a lot of space for activities inside CSL and a variety of recreational facilities nearby. Moreover, CSL is also close to the metro and the highway. With these many advantages, the St-Laurent Campus is appreciated by everyone immediately. After several years of working together, both sides now enjoy a better cooperative relationship. Meanwhile, Elite College is gradually growing more familiar with the internal environment of the CEGEP, such that we've learned how to better manage its resources.

　　Elite College's Summer Camp as well as its weekend classes need to achieve an adequate class size, neither too big, nor too small. We have a total of 12 grades ranging from preschool to high school. With one classroom for each grade, plus at least 3 levels of welcome classes, we require at least 15 classrooms, or there will be classes with mixed grades. However, our Summer Camp has once opened 9 classes at one campus just for the Preparation for Secondary Admission Exams program for Grade 5 students. Indeed, some grades have many students, which requires us to divide them into separate classes to avoid having too many students in one class – for example Preschool, Grade 4, Grade 6 and Secondary 1. Thus, in recent years, the Summer Camp at the St-Laurent Campus has made use of at least 20 classrooms.

　　With the constant improvement of our quality of education and of the conditions for the children, more and more students come to the St-Laurent Campus for our Summer Camp. Recently, some students late for registration have even been declined admission. For centralized management and to ensure safety and discipline for all students, students at the Summer Camp in the St-Laurent Campus are gathered in the E Building. Although we have plenty of teachers and textbooks, the classrooms are limited. Therefore, we had to limit enrollment to protect the safety of the students and ensure the quality of their education. We always stress that happy and healthy students are at the core of our development.

　　Summer Camp – South Shore Campus

　　A few years ago, we used a yellow school bus to transport the students from the South Shore to the St-Laurent Summer Camp Campus. Some older students chose to come here by public transit. Since there was busy traffic and even jams on the way, they were very tired when they arrived, especially on hot summer days. In addition, their parents also needed to pay extra school bus fees. Therefore, we had been thinking about selecting a place and setting up a new Summer Camp Campus on the South Shore for the benefit of the students and parents.

　　Site selection for the Summer Camp was a headache for us for a long time. For most schools, summer is the best time to renovate and to clean up. However, unlike most summer camps that are mainly for fun, Elite College's Summer Camp insists on being learning-oriented and has many educational activities, so it needs to use school buildings and classrooms. General commercial locations don't have a school environment, sufficient and adequate educational facilities and space for activities, specially designed for students. Some places, from a safety perspective, are not suitable for classes and activities.

　　In 2011, we found a large high school, the Mgr-A.-M.-Parent Secondary School, which is located in the center of the South Shore and can accommodate about 2,200 students. The transportation is convenient there and it is close to Brossard. There is a shuttle bus from the Longueil metro station to the school gate. Since it is a secondary school, it boasts spacious classrooms, central air conditioning, six indoor gyms and a huge outdoor playground. Moreover, it is also near a children's park as well as a larger park which has swimming pools, football pitches and other facilities which are necessary for our Summer Camp. Since the Campus is at a certain distance from the bustling streets, it provides a quiet place in a noisy neighborhood as well as a self-contained location. Therefore, it is relatively easy to protect the students' safety, and difficult to be disturbed by the outside world. We immediately signed a long-term cooperation contract with the school's owner and set up a branch there – the South Shore Campus of Elite College. At this campus, we've established weekend classes and our Summer Camp.

　　Summer Camp – Downtown Campus

　　We did not hold our Summer Camp at the Downtown Campus during the first to the eighth week of 2013. In order to meet the needs of parents who lived nearby, parents could send their children to the Downtown Campus and our staff would accompany them by metro to the St-Laurent Campus. During the Summer Camp, a daycare service is available, so that parents do not have to suffer the delay from commuting.

　　From August 18 to 22, which was the ninth week, both CEGEP St-Laurent and Mgr-A.-M.-Parent Secondary School needed to clear up their classrooms to prepare for the new semester, so we moved the Summer Camp to the Downtown Campus. Since space was limited, we only admitted a small number of students, such as students in the Preparation for Secondary Admission Exams program, in the welcome class and some primary school students whose parents needed to go to work. All classrooms there are equipped with air conditioners. There are recreational facilities and areas only a few minutes away, including an indoor swimming pool, a library, a children's playground and natural parks.

　　Teachers and Management Staff

　　The camp location is just a location. Having the right place is just the first step in a long march of a thousand miles. To establish an exceptional Summer Camp, we still had a lot of things to do. A competent management team is essential, a team of specialized and experienced teachers is indispensable, and a team of committed, patient and attentive security personnel is necessary. In addition, we also needed a team of activities counselors who can lead the students with their enthusiasm and a team of diligent and hard-working support staff. More importantly, there was a need for creating a teaching philosophy of "enjoy what the students enjoy and worry about what the students worry about" throughout the entire Summer Camp.

　　The principal of the Elite College has always been in student government, from kindergarten to his doctorate degree, and has done management in a scientific research institute with more than 600 staff members for two years. He also has 10 years of experience in teaching and research in China and has operated Elite College for ten years. He has nurtured many excellent students and outstanding children of his own.

　　Elite College has been operating in Montreal for nearly ten years. There are dozens of skilled teachers teaching the weekend classes. Unlike the weekend classes, the Summer Camp doesn't need as many teachers, so we select some exceptional teachers from the weekend classes and arrange for them to teach in the Summer Camp. These teachers don't need publicity, as every one of them is excellent. They are carefully selected from numerous applicants by Principal Zhao, whose rigor and vision is certainly worth our trust.

　　The South Shore Campus has already had its group of excellent teachers since 2007. We have basically localized teachers to the South Shore Campus since we've started using the large school campus in 2012. This way, we can reduce inconsistencies caused by changing teachers. Some excellent teachers from weekend classes have been selected to teach in the Summer Camp, so that we can ensure a team of competent and trustworthy educators.

　　Teachers who teach are indeed very important, but they are not the key factor. Teaching philosophy and management are the most important factors. Some good teachers are so poor at management that they cannot give full rein to their strengths. For example, without strict discipline in managing the students, some teachers waste a lot of time with classroom discipline. In a school with a good atmosphere conducive to learning, all teachers can really dedicate themselves to teaching. Without a good teaching philosophy, or systematic educational methods, it is difficult to run a school well.

　　Over the years, Elite College has been committed to the discovery and growth of our staff and has built a competent and capable management team. Quite a few former Summer Camp staff members return to participate in this year's Summer Camp, including security personnel, logistics personnel, personnel in charge of the secondary admission exams groups and personnel in charge of activities. Their experience is a guarantee for the successful operation of our Summer Camp. They are very familiar with the St-Laurent Campus, South Shore Campus and Downtown Campus. We believe that this team will be able to organize a successful Summer Camp once again.

　　For Elite College, while it has helped students develop academically, it has also been encouraging and assisting the multi-faceted growth of its pupils. Therefore, Elite also offers students a suitable platform to gain further experience. In recent years, we've been asking university students who have attended our classes and have volunteered here to join the Summer Camp team. The result has been positive. They generally can speak three languages: Chinese, English and French, so there are no obstacles in communicating with students and teachers. In addition, they have a deep knowledge of Elite College and understand our teaching philosophy and methods. As teaching assistants or animators, they successfully complete their assigned tasks.

　　For the current Summer Camp, we will strengthen our efforts in this regard and employ more staff members with such a background. We have started to focus on providing extra training and experience to potential personnel during weekend classes, Winter Camp and Spring Break Camp, so that they are fully ready to undertake important responsibilities during the Summer Camp.

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