About Camp Catanese
Camp Catanese began as a 1-week STEM and college-access program on the Arizona State University campus where students could live on campus and visualize themselves in college, and has grown into a year-round program to promote advanced math preparation, high-school graduation, college acceptance, and enrollment and persistence among first-generation college students! To date, 100% of our campers have graduated high school on-time, 98% have been admitted to college, and today nearly 70% of our alumni campers are enrolled in college! Camp Catanese has helped build a college-going community for more than 1,500 low-income and first-generation students in Phoenix!
History
Camp Catanese was founded in 2016 by Jason Catanese, a middle school math teacher, coach, and Teach for America alumnus in Phoenix, Arizona. Like many educators, Jason witnesses not only the challenges his students and their families face – poverty, transience, lack of resources – but also their resilience and unbridled potential! Fueled by his passion for summer camp and love for his students, Jason and a group of colleagues set out to create a fun, educational enrichment program to ensure that his students, and other low-income students, are on track to attend and succeed in college and beyond!
Camp Catanese Miami
To make Camp Catanese Miami possible, we will launch a week-long
Pilot Camp in partnership with community champions and a local university partner. One hundred 8th - 12th grade students will stay overnight in dorms, be grouped in “cabins” with mentors from across the country, explore different careers and majors, learn what it takes to apply for and enroll in college, and have fun with their peers! Ultimately, they will leave camp with a heightened belief that they can and will pursue higher education and have new skills to ensure they are on a pathway to success in college!
Watch our 2023 Camp Trailer Below!
View our FY23 Annual Report
Camp Catanese and the staff changed my life. I never thought I would graduate high school and now I'm enrolled in college! My mom and I are forever grateful to Mr. Cat and the amazing staff for all the opportunities they gave me and my friends!
-Kimberly G.
The Camp Catanese Foundation is an Arizona nonprofit corporation and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.