Looking for Criminal Law Summer Programs on the East Coast for 13–14-Year-Olds: What I Found Searching For My Son
The crumbs of Javi’s after-school peanut butter sandwich were still stuck to the kitchen table last December when he pushed his tablet toward me and said he didn’t want to do robotics camp again this summer. The 13-year-old had just binged a three-part Netflix documentary on juvenile justice with his cousin over Thanksgiving break, and had spent the past month badgering our neighborhood public defender (who lives two houses down) with questions about bail hearings after dinner walks. “I want to do something about criminal law this summer,” he said. I closed the tab I had open for the local robotics camp and felt that familiar twist of parent panic: where do you even find something like that for a 13-year-old?
I grew up on the East Coast, so I knew we had no shortage of university programs and youth camps, but every initial search pulled up the same thing: pre-college law programs for 16- to 18-year-olds gearing up for law school applications, or weekend mock trial clinics for elementary school kids that would have been boring for a kid who can already debate stop-and-frisk policy with his uncle. I spent three straight nights opening tabs until my laptop overheated, my head spinning from generic “career exploration” fluff that didn’t fit. I’d almost resigned myself to suggesting that he just do a regular sports camp and satisfy his interest with library books when I realized I was making a stupid mistake: I was taking the website age ranges at face value.
I picked up the phone and called the coordinator for the youth law program at Georgetown University, just outside DC, an hour and a half from our house in northern Virginia. The website said it was for high school students, but when I asked if they took 13- and 14-year-olds, she laughed and said most people don’t ask. “We say high school, but we mean rising 9th through 12th,” she said. “Half the kids in our one-week criminal law track are 14. They just get excited about this stuff earlier than we used to.” That’s when the search got easier. I started calling every program that even mentioned criminal law for teens, instead of just scrolling past the ones that said “high school” on the homepage.
Over the next two months, I narrowed down three solid options that work for 13–14-year-olds on the East Coast, all of which I’d recommend to other parents. First, the Georgetown Law Discovery Program, which I ended up picking for Javi. It’s one week, you can do commuter or residential, and it’s open to rising 8th through 10th graders. The criminal law track includes a trip to watch a real felony trial in DC Superior Court, a talk with a public defender and a prosecutor, and a mock trial of a real (age-appropriate) juvenile offense, not some over-the-top murder case made for TV. It’s also half the price of most month-long pre-college programs, and the commuter option cuts the cost even more. Javi stayed with my sister in DC, so we saved on room and board entirely. Second is the UVA Youth Law Program, a one-week residential program in Charlottesville that accepts 13- to 17-year-olds, with a separate small group for younger teens that adjusts the content to be less intense. They take a trip to the state capitol to talk to legislators about criminal justice policy, which is great for kids who care about the systemic side of things. Third, if you’re in the Boston area and don’t want to do overnight, Northeastern’s Youth in Law commuter program is two weeks of half-day sessions for 12- to 15-year-olds, with a week-long module focused on criminal law that includes a visit to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
What surprised me most through this process wasn’t finding the programs—it was realizing that this interest of Javi’s wasn’t just a silly true crime phase. 13- and 14-year-olds are just starting to move beyond asking “is this fair” for their own friend group, and start asking “is this fair” for the whole system. When your kid says they want to learn about criminal law, it’s rarely because they’re obsessed with the gory parts of true crime, at least in my experience. It’s because they’re trying to work out how rules work, who gets punished and why, and that’s a really normal, healthy developmental step for that age. I was worried at first that the program would expose him to heavy stuff he wasn’t ready for, but the good programs screen that: Javi’s program had a social worker on hand for discussions, and they never showed graphic photos or went into details of violent crimes. The hardest conversation he had was with a formerly incarcerated person who talked about getting a job after prison, and he came out of that talking about how he wanted to volunteer at our local re-entry program after school.
A few practical things I picked up that will save you time if you’re searching too. First, always call if the age range isn’t clear. Most programs don’t advertise that they take 13–14-year-olds because they don’t want to be flooded with 10-year-old applicants, but they’ll almost always make room for mature middle schoolers who are actually interested. Second, skip any program that markets itself as a “true crime experience.” Almost all of those are pop-culture fluff that don’t actually teach anything about how the law works. Third, always ask about scholarships. I got 25% off Javi’s tuition just by sending an email asking if they had need-based aid, and most university-affiliated programs have small pots of money they don’t advertise. Fourth, don’t feel pressured to sign up for a month-long residential program. One week is more than enough for a 13-year-old to explore the interest without getting homesick.
Javi got back from his program three months ago, and he still talks about the mock trial his team won. He’s 14 now, and he’s already asking about a more advanced program next summer. I still don’t know if this will turn into a career, or if he’ll lose interest next year when he gets obsessed with something else like vintage motorcycles or competitive Minecraft. But for right now, it’s working. We didn’t get some big life-changing summer experience that set him up for a legal career. We just got a week of him coming home every day excited to tell me what he learned, which is all I ever wanted out of a summer program anyway.
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