TomTod Ideas

Camp What If, offered by TomTod Ideas, provides a variety of summer enrichment opportunities, including community day camps and summer school partnerships. Throughout all Camp What If programming, TomTod creates experimental laboratories that engage students in design thinking approaches to issues surrounding the common good, develop core soft skills, and connect students and adults in collaborative environments that enhance learning opportunities. Camp What If opportunities engage students in exploring specific challenges through creative problem-solving, critical thinking, idea development, and collaborative pitching, all while creating one of the most memorable experiences of their summer. Experiences include immersive field trips, participatory learning sessions, and integrated, responsive brainstorming sessions. In 2022, TomTod offered 14 multi-day summer camps, collaborating with 71 different partners, engaging a total of 237 campers.

What If You Could: Throughout the year, TomTod Ideas runs experiential mentorship adventures designed to empower middle school students to launch ideas for the good of their community. What If You Could walks with middle schoolers through developing and prototyping their ideas, starting with idea creation and evaluation, continuing to team building, idea development, and implementation. Along the way, students meet with community leaders, hone presentation skills, and learn the core competencies of innovation and action. In 2022, there were 42 students involved in 6 active projects.

Classes and Clubs:During the school year, TomTod Ideas facilitates a variety of school-based classes and clubs, including What If 101, What If Explorers, and Creator Clubs. These creative, weekly partnerships walk students through a design thinking journey (Ponder, Explore, Define, Ideate, Create, Pilot) using real-world topics. Throughout all programming, students have the opportunity to develop soft skills and social-emotional competencies vital to student success, both in school and in preparation for crossover to the quickly transforming job market. Core competencies covered include critical thinking skills and creative problem-solving approaches via team-based, collaborative environments, a variety of communication practices including interviewing and presentation skills, as well as self-confidence development, and idea creation and project management. All of these are centered around a topic aimed at the common good, creating empathy and resulting in civic engagement and leadership development. In 2022, TomTod facilitated 91 cohorts at nine middle schools in seven school districts, supporting 1,823 students.

TomTod's love of community doesn't stop in the classroom or at camp. We take the opportunity to collaborate beyond our own programming because we want to help our community thrive. Through two core programs, Stark Tank and Council of What If, we empowered 90 middle schoolers, along with hundreds of other community members impacted by collaborative partner programming.