College for Kids and Arts Alive, two children’s summer camps located on Northern Essex Community College’s Haverhill campus, return this summer with an array of fun, educational offerings.

College for Kids, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., offers a junior division for 9 to 11 year-olds, and a senior division for 12 to 14 year-olds. Campers select a morning, mid-day, and afternoon class, spanning a wide variety of more than 30 interests focusing on sports, computers, and art classes.

Classes offered include painting with sound, fact or fiction, physical science, jewelry making, singers and songwriters, mass media, pin hole camera, archaeology, horticulture, script to screen, computers, digital photo, spa science, T-shirt design, mythology, and screen printing.

All camps will run in four, one-week sessions. The sessions will run July 5 through July 8, July 11 through July 15, July 18 through July 22, and July 25 through July 29. The cost is $60 per activity per session time slot with a $35 registration fee that is waived if registration is received prior to April 15. Choices are given on a first come first serve basis.

The Arts Alive program designed for 6 to 8 year-olds, will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. These campers receive three classes a day on a rotating basis in the areas of theater, art, music, science, hands-on mathematics, poetry, dance, creative writing, and storytelling. Each session has a theme. Themes and dates include July 5-8, Dance, Sing, Paint Act. Create; July 11-15, Archaeology Exploration; July 18 to 22, Young Architects, July 25-29, Space Race.

First choice is given on a first come first serve basis to all campers. Early registration is recommended.

The first session is $150 the three other sessions are each $180 with a non-refundable $35 registration fee that is waived for the first session if the registration is received prior to April 15. Payments can be made with a check or credit card.

Before and after care is available for all campers for a nominal fee. All campers must bring a brown bag lunch.

Emergency consent forms will be mailed out as soon as the registration is received. No child will be admitted without this signed form. For additional information on College for Kids or Arts Alive, contact program coordinator Deirdre Budzyna at 978-556-3456 or dbudzyna@necc.mass.edu or visit the website at www.necc.mass.edu/collegeforkids

Sonia Nazario

Pulitzer Prize-Winning author and journalist Sonia Nazario will make two separate appearances in the Merrimack Valley on Friday, April 8, when she will discuss the modern-day odyssey of child migrants who travel to the United States alone in search of their immigrant moms. Nazario, who has spent 20 years reporting and writing about social issues, most recently for the Los Angeles Times, will also touch on the immigration crisis in her presentations.

Both presentations are free and open to the public. The first will be held at 8:45 a.m. at Lawrence High School’s Performing Arts Center, 70-71 North Parish Road, Lawrence. The second presentation will begin at noon. in the Technology Center on Northern Essex Community College’s Haverhill Campus, 100 Elliott St., Haverhill.

Nazario will take the audience inside the world of millions of immigrant women who come to the U.S. as single mothers, leaving their children behind. She will discuss the modern-day odyssey many child migrants—some as young as 7, all of them traveling alone—make years later riding on top of freight trains through Mexico in their quest to reunify with the mothers in the United States.

Nazario’s award winning book, “Enrique’s Journey”, is the true story of the odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother.

When Enrique is five years old, his mother, Lourdes, too poor to feed her children, leaves Honduras to work in the United States. The move allows her to send money back home to Enrique so he can eat better and go to school past the third grade.

After 11 years apart, Enrique despairs of ever seeing his mother again and decides to go find her. He sets off alone on a journey in which he faces bandits and corrupt cops and tries to evade Mexican police and immigration authorities.

Nazario’s stories as a reporter have tackled some of this country’s most intractable problems: hunger, drug addiction, and immigration.

Named among the most influential Latinos by Hispanic Business magazine and dubbed a “trendsetter” by Hispanic magazine, Nazario has won numerous national journalism and book awards.

Nazario, who grew up in Kansas and in Argentina, has written extensively from Latin America and about Latinos in the United States. She is a graduate of Williams College and has a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She began her career at The Wall Street Journal, where she reported from four bureaus: New York, Atlanta, Miami, and Los Angeles. In 1993, she joined the Los Angeles Times.

The White Fund Enrichment Program at Northern Essex Community College in collaboration with the Hispanic Cultural Enrichment Program, which is funded by the NECC Fund and the Lawrence Cultural Council, brings Nazario first to Lawrence High School’s Performing Arts Center, 70-71 North Parish Road in Lawrence at 8:45 a.m. The views expressed in the White Fund Enlightenment Series Presentations are the views of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Northern Essex Community College.

Later that day, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Nazario will appear at Northern Essex Community College’s Haverhill campus in the Technology Center. This appearance is funded by NECC’s Office of Faculty & Staff Development’s Diversity Committee and Student Activities.

For more information, please contact 978 738-7403 or mleavitt@necc.mass.edu.

Northern Essex Community College’s Life Long Learning Program will have Sally Matson in a presentation entitled “Susan B. Anthony-The Invincible” on Thursday, March 31, at 2 p.m. on the Haverhill Campus in the Technology Center, Room 103. Admission is $2.

Sally Matson, of Andover, MA, is a local actress, director, writer, and educator. Matson put together this program to emphasize the perseverance of the courageous 19^th century activist, Susan B. Anthony, and has appeared in thirteen states. Presented in full costume of Susan B. Anthony, Matson will follow her dramatic presentation with a discussion, giving the audience the opportunity to ask questions. This is a great opportunity to learn more about Susan B. Anthony.

Life Long Learning is a program of lectures, study groups, and trips for adults. All programs are open to the public.

For more information or to receive a free calendar of upcoming Life Long Learning events, contact Charlene Boucher, Life Long Learning coordinator, at 978-556-3825, or cboucher@necc.mass.edu.