Elon University offers free summer school prep for Alamance County students

Elon University is bringing back a free summer academic program at Newlin Elementary School in Burlington, giving Alamance County families a full-day option for rising kindergarten through fifth-grade students. The two-week Summer Launch Program will include instruction from Alamance-Burlington School System teachers, along with free breakfast and lunch for every student.

The program will run from 7:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 27, 28, 29 and 30, then continue August 3, 4, 5 and 6. Enrollment is capped at 120 students, and the program is open only to rising K-5 students from Eastlawn, Andrews, Newlin, Haw River, South Graham and North Graham elementary schools.

That makes Summer Launch less of a general summer camp than a targeted school-readiness effort for children already connected to Elon’s It Takes a Village project and surrounding elementary schools. The broader Village Project serves K-5 students in Title I Alamance-Burlington schools through hands-on programming, personalized tutoring in reading and math during the school year, and support from The Oak Foundation, ABSS educators and volunteers.

The summer work has become a familiar part of that network. ABSS recognized the It Takes a Village Project at its Evening of Excellence in April 2023, when the district said the program was celebrating its 15th anniversary. Elon later said more than 150 students took part in its 2023 Summer in the Village program, and ABSS reported a two-week summer session that hosted 205 students and 24 teachers at Elon University.

For families juggling work schedules, the hours at Newlin Elementary matter as much as the academics. The daily schedule provides a structured setting across the heart of the workday, while the breakfast and lunch offerings remove two daily costs at once. In a county where ABSS says it is the 15th-largest public school district in North Carolina and serves nearly 23,000 students, that combination of learning, meals and supervision fills a real need.

Elon has also kept building around the project’s family support role. In January 2026, the university said It Takes a Village received a Community Investment Grant from the United Way of Alamance County to expand ESL courses for program families. Together, the school-year tutoring, summer instruction and family programming show a long-running partnership aimed at helping Alamance County students arrive in class ready to learn.