Youth Overnight

Consider the age and interest of your child. One-week sessions are called “exploration sessions,” giving the villager an introduction to language learning in an immersion setting. Two-week sessions, our most popular program, are for both first time and returning villagers. They are designed to provide a more in-depth immersion experience and new activities are offered every summer. All language speakers, from beginning to advanced (immersion school students and fluent speakers included), are challenged at their appropriate level. Four-week credit sessions can earn the villager high school and are intensive and innovative programs for older students.

The Villages are designed to be fun and accessible to campers who have never studied the language, so there is no minimum amount your child needs to know to learn and have fun! Any language study your child can do before camp is wonderful and can be a leg up on the first day of camp. If this isn’t possible, please know that we have been running language immersion summer camps since 1961, and we’ve developed a lot of techniques to convey meaning even through a language barrier. We will be using props, gestures, signs and other methods to convey meaning. Our health centers, however, operate in English, so we can be sure that campers know exactly what is going on concerning their health and safety.

Typically we are unable to accommodate an age request. The program content is designed to be appropriate for the developmental level specific to the session's age group. For more information, contact our enrollment team at clvregister@cord.edu.

In a word—no! Our counselors are all accomplished in the target language and have been deemed ready to teach it in their interview with the dean. Approximately 1/5th to 1/3rd of our staff are native speakers of the target language, so we can challenge language learners who are quite advanced. Expect your more advanced camper to come home with an expanded vocabulary, more familiarity with idioms and a repertoire of folk songs to sing in the shower (all of this is true for our beginning campers, as well)!

We are an unplugged camp, so we will hold cell phones, gaming devices and other electronics with internet connectivity in the camp office until your villager returns. Four-week villagers will receive their cell phones back at the halfway point of camp when they go into town to do laundry. You can expect them to call between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning, depending on their Village’s weekend schedule.

We think that summer camp is a perfect time for children to rediscover the art of the letter. We recommend sending stamped, addressed envelopes along with stationary and writing supplies, though stamps and stationery will be available in the camp store, as well. Please note, because of our beautiful rural setting, mail takes a few days longer to arrive than it would coming out of a larger metropolitan area. Parents are encouraged to send physical letters as well—mailing a letter a few days before camp starts can ensure that it arrives in the first few days of camp—but there is also an email portal in the registration system that you can use to send messages to your villager.

Learning a language certainly takes time. Villagers come to us at all levels. We strive to meet language learners at their individual developmental and linguistic levels. Our programs offer the opportunity to interact with others using the target language in an encouraging and supportive environment. This kind of real communication is impossible to replicate by using a textbook or computer program. Villagers gain many important language skills. They will leave with an enthusiasm to continue learning about the world. They will have a sense that learning this language is something they CAN do, and they enjoy doing. They will be motivated to go on and to discover more about other languages and cultures. It is our goal to send your child home from one of the most academically and culturally enriching, and personally transforming experiences, of their young life.

Each Language Village has a unique and culturally influenced daily schedule. Your child’s day will be packed with fun activities, learning and excitement! Activities are conducted in the target language and are culturally based. Crafts, playing soccer, dancing, cooking and swimming in the lake are just a few activities that can be found in each Village.

The staff is comprised of adults of all ages. Our staff comes from all over the world. They are native speakers or students and teachers of the language. Some of our staff have been past villagers in the program. Our overall staffing ratio is 1:4 and meets or exceeds national standards for overnight camps. The staffing ratio reflects the total number of staff in a Village who are responsible for engaging with and supervising participants, as teachers, counselors and program leaders. The overall ratio varies from activity to activity during the course of the Village day, from large-group instruction to small-group interaction. Your child will also have the opportunity for many individual conversations to further develop language and culture skills. Concordia Language Villages hires staff members with the safety of your children foremost in our mind. We hire carefully. We train carefully. We supervise carefully. We follow camp industry best practices, and our approach complies with standards of our accrediting agency, American Camp Association, as well as pertinent laws and insurance regulations.

Every Village is a little different. Each cabin has 8-16 beds. We house 2-4 counselors of the same gender in each cabin. In alignment with American Camp Association guidelines, we house by gender, not biological sex, and we ask that all villagers and staff live in a cabin that best fits their gender identity in everyday life.  We offer gender-inclusive housing in some Villages and sessions, in which villagers of any gender can live in a cabin together. Parents/guardians must request this option; it will not be assigned by default. Please see our Summer Youth Handbook for more details. If your villager has a roommate request, we make every effort to honor housing requests. Please have both villagers complete the bunk request form found in the registration system. 

Our culinary staff are experts in kid-friendly culturally appropriate foods – from breakfast to four-course dinners. Your child will have the opportunity to try some foods they’ve never had before. Every Village has the basics, too. We are able to accommodate special dietary needs on a limited basis, with advance notice. When registering for a program you will be asked about any allergies or dietary restrictions.

We can accommodate most medically-verifiable food allergies, vegetarian and vegan diets, gluten-free and dairy-free alternatives. Allergy announcements at all mealtimes and a basic menu overview for diabetic planning are available.

We cannot accommodate allergy to aerosolized allergens, sensory-related or selective eating habits, kosher/halal/gluten-free kitchens, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorders, special or individualized diets (FODMAP, Keto, etc.), provision of specific carbohydrate counts and multiple allergies in Villages where those ingredients are a predominant part of the cuisine and/or no realistic alternatives can be found.

Our sessions include housing (bedding is not included), meals, activities, instruction and instruction materials. Limited dictionaries and basic textbooks are available.

Transportation services incur additional charges. We do not provide notebooks, pens or paper; you are advised to bring your own study materials. Bedding and towels are not included.