OURCHIVES Summer Camp inspiring students through calculus, Black history and critical thinking

For eight weeks, students in southwest Atlanta are stepping into a creative and imaginative learning space that defies traditional education. The OURCHIVES Summer Camp, located on the campus of Imhotep Academy, was founded by Melek Dexter, Dr. Assata Moore and Dr. Tanya Washington.

OURCHIVES, now in its inaugural year, has enrolled 75 students between the ages of 5 and 14. Camp leaders are not only teaching academic subjects like calculus, history and critical thinking, but are doing so through a lens that centers confidence, imagination and African epistemology — a framework rooted in Indigenous African ways of seeing and understanding the world.

Recently, host Rose Scott and the “Closer Look” team visited the summer camp for a classroom visit, finding second-graders solving complex math problems. During the visit, Scott talked with students and their parents about their experiences at the camp. She also spoke with camp co-founders Dexter and Moore, who talked more about the goals of the camp and explained why they feel it’s important to teach kids confidence at a young age.