Young Leaders SimuNation™ 
Day Camps

What's Different?

What is the SimuNation™ Day Camp and why is it called "Origins"?

In Origins, students simulate colonists landing on an alien planet that they plan to inhabit.  Each student "lands" in a spot with specific resources, geography, and tools, and then students must work together to survive, share materials, and build a society that includes a government, economy, community and more.  Far more tangible, students occupy a giant map, have actual resource tokens, and construct actual models of  buildings and other items they plan to use.  This program is very concrete and hands-on.  It is also designed to be shorter, whereas YLP is an intensive, week-long experience, Origins may be a single day up to four or five days, depending on need and function.

What to Expect

• ​Great Staff:  the staff that we have running summer run Origins, too.
• Learning Model:  deep, thoughtful, engaging, hands-on approach 
• Great Guest Speakers:  From the current (or former!) Governors, Mayors, Senators, Representatives, Supreme Court Justices, Judges, TV Personalties and others, YL finds the folks!
• Uniforms:  All staff and students wear identificatory uniform shirts, which help level the playing field also between different economic classes of people. 
• The SimuNation™ Students are "living" in the simulated realty they create and experience the consequences of their every action played out in a fun, yet educational way
• Focus on Citizenship:  students learn all elements of US Citizenship, including the three branches of government, election law, judicial procedures, and much more.
• Focus on Leadership  Students are immersed in theory, classes and coursework founded on The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,  Getting Things Done (GTD), and much more
• Focus on Adulting  Students must act for themselves, define themselves, and take care of themselves while at the same time learning to work together with other youth, both independently and as a team.
• ​We Learn by Doing™. Kids are building, doing, exploring, talking, drawing, drafting, writing, speaking, lobbying, campaigning, singing, dancing, filming, constructing, walking, eating, and defining their simulated "reality"
• We Build Citizens™ A focus on  StatesCraft, constitutionality, law, government, and order.  Students who graduate YL have an in-depth, accurate, keen sense of how government works and know how to make a difference in it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is provided?
Students at either program are provided uniforms, backpacks, pins, buttons, and other fun stuff as part of the program.  Students are always fed and cared for.
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What is the cost?
All day camps have very low registration fees ($5) with scholarships available which includes shirts, lunches, and all activities.
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How is the food?
YLOrigins tends to be catered or Door Dashed to our location due to the fact that we can run it at various and different locals.  YLCamp is always at a venue with managed food service (Cafeteria) and students eat in the cafeteria.
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Can I go to both?
​Yes!  You can go to any and all programs you can physically arrive at!  Just register and tell us you're coming!
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Is this Political or are Real-world Politics involved?
​No!  Our politics are make-believe, simulation topics, like whether or not it should be required to moo like a cow after drinking chocolate milk in the cafeteria or the cost of taxes for walking down the sidewalk, or whether it should be legal for the governor to dissolve the senate and form an empire.
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We do handle some real-world political topics, such as during our Curia​ event, which is a moderated debate in which participants go up on stage and defend (or present) a generic point presented on a slideshow against each other.  Nevertheless, the staff's opinions on the matter is not presented, and Curia is a very limited (1 hour) amount of the overall time at YLCamp.  We do not usually do Curia at YLOrigins due to time constraints/. 

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