For many kids, summer camps give them the opportunity to explore new ideas and interests. That’s what the National Technical Institute for the Deaf is doing for deaf and hard of hearing students.

A LEGO creation is the star of 17-year-old Amari’s movie. It’s his latest project for the arts class of NTID’s Explore Your Future camp.

Explore Your Future is a six-day program for deaf and hard of hearing students from all over, allowing them to explore possible careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Amari came from North Carolina to take part.

“Actually my mom made me come,” Amari said. “I’m just kidding. The reason I wanted to come is [that] I don’t know what I want to do, so I wanted to take the week to do some self-analysis.”

During the classes, Amari works with other students building and creating the movie. It’s something he says he doesn’t get a lot of back home.

“I like being with my peers,” Amari said. “There aren’t many in North Carolina. So being able to meet and see so many people.”

Program directors say that interaction between students is almost as important as the classes themselves.

“Potentially they’ll be future classmates, roommates, friends and hopefully lifelong friends,” said Joshua Mora, the program director for Explore Your Future. "Really having everyone here gives that sense of community”.

Having a community on campus helped Jade, a senior from Philadelphia, come out of her shell.

“I’m pretty quiet walking around but someone came up to me, asked what my name is,” Jade said. “I’ve met a lot of people and now I’m feeling comfortable chatting with them.”

She’s taking the internet of technology class and creating code to program a motherboard. 

Jade became interested in coding in middle school. Now she’s looking at pursuing a career in it, possibly at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Across campus, as Amari wraps up his short film, he’s already feeling more confident about his future.

“I’ve learned things about myself already, things I like, don’t like,” he said. “Now that I’ve been able to do that I can think more about my future.”