In just under two weeks, registration for the Academy of Excellence will be closed, but organizers say there are still plenty of openings for the event at Ohio University Southern.

The summer program, which begins June 27 and runs through Aug. 8, is open to rising first through eighth graders and takes place at OUS and the Proctorville Center.

Director of student services and coordinator for the camp, Robert Pleasant said the Academy of Excellence is an opportunity to for children to experience the campus of OUS and meet college students, faculty and community leaders while having fun in an educational way.

“Its just a way to continue to put in the minds of these young people the importance of education but do it in a fun way so they’ll remember it,” he said.

“It is an opportunity they are not going to get in elementary or middle school and possibly not in high school,” said Lisa Cantrell, coordinator for the camp.

Classes offered include “The ABCs of the Animal Kingdom,” where children will learn about mammals, insects and ocean creatures, “Gross! Dissection and Crime Lab,” where students can learn about crime labs use body functions and dissection to solve mysteries, and “Clothing Design – Project Runway,” where students will work with fabrics and a mock photo shoot and runway show.

Other areas of interest include tennis, various music classes, dancing, horseback riding, visual art, video production, math and science and annual favorite, “CSI: Crime Science Investigation.”

“This is not school,” Cantrell said. “This is an opportunity for (students) to actually get a college experience, to be able to do the same things an actual sophomore or junior in college would be doing. They are going to use our actual college chemistry labs, our biology labs, our computer labs and our own stage. We want them to see education is more than just book learning.”

The Academy of Excellence will utilize more than 20 college instructors, area schoolteachers and professions, college students and lab technicians to teach the classes. One of OUS’s student ambassadors, Yana Riggs, is teaching an “Art Around the World” course.

Riggs’ class will take students to all seven continents using regional art and music. She said some of the projects would include sand paper art, Independence Day flag painting, rock painting, origami, potato prints, mosaics, clay modeling and aboriginal art.

“I’m happy to share all that great information with the children and I hope that they will join us,” Riggs said. “There are many other things they can do here. Maybe jump out of their daily routine and jump into a different world, be it animal kingdom or mathemagic or CSI, just pretend to be someone else. Art is everywhere so the children may already be artists and they may not know.”

Registration for the Academy of Excellence ends June 27. The cost is $110 per child and $75 for each additional child in the same family. There are also scholarship opportunities for families in need. To register online visit www.southern.ohiou.edu/ae or call Cantrell at 533-4543.