Professional Development Summer Camp
Professional Development Summer Camp transforms traditional professional development into an engaging, gamified experience that encourages university faculty and staff to invest in their growth while building community. Participants complete activities across five key categories: Leadership, Engagement, Innovation, Accessibility, and Wellness. By offering many pathways for development, the program recognizes that excellence takes many forms and that a well-rounded university community benefits from professionals who are growing in multiple directions.
Registration and Participation
From May 18 – August 21, 2026, employees can participate by completing and recording development activities listed on the Summer Camp Dashboard. Teams are encouraged to register as a group and compete together!
- Register for Professional Development Summer Camp (opens May 1).
- Add any development activities that your department or team would like to make available during Summer Camp. (Optional)
- Check the Summer Camp Dashboard for available activities.
- Starting May 18, complete activities listed on the Summer Camp Dashboard.
- Submit a reflection for each activity you complete to let us know what you learned.
- Check your progress and the leaderboards using the Summer Camp Dashboard.
NOTE: Employees who wish to participate in learning development activities that require time away from their regular work should discuss and work with their supervisor first to clear participation and ensure proper coverage for their role or team.
Activity Categories
Each category is designed to enhance different dimensions of your professional capabilities. Learn more about what each category focuses on below.
Leadership
Build your capacity to guide, inspire, and influence others in the university community. Activities in this category focus on developing strategic thinking, decision-making skills, team management, mentorship capabilities, and the ability to navigate organizational change.
Engagement
Deepen your connections within and beyond the university. This category encompasses activities that foster collaboration across departments, strengthen relationships with students and colleagues, promote community partnerships, and enhance your involvement in professional networks or organizations.
Innovation
Explore new approaches, technologies, and methodologies that can transform your work. Innovation activities encourage you to experiment with emerging tools, redesign processes for greater efficiency, adopt creative problem-solving techniques, or pilot new initiatives.
Accessibility
Advance practices that ensure all members of the university community can fully participate and succeed. Activities focus on understanding needs, removing barriers in physical and digital environments, implementing universal design principles, and creating equitable policies and practices.
Wellness
Prioritize your physical, mental, and emotional well-being as essential components of professional success. Activities in this category support healthy work-life balance, stress management, physical fitness, mindfulness practices, and personal resilience.
Earning Badges
Summer Camp’s competitive yet collaborative structure creates natural momentum throughout the summer months. Individuals can pursue personal goals while teams can work together toward shared milestones, fostering both individual achievement and collective success. As participants complete activities, they earn category badges that build toward an overall completion badge that demonstrates comprehensive professional development across all five areas. This badge system provides visible markers of progress that celebrate achievement and motivate continued participation.
- Complete at least three activities in any category to earn a Category Specialist badge.
- Complete at least one activity in all five categories to earn the Professional Development Summer Camp overall badge.
Beyond the badges and friendly competition, this program addresses a critical need: keeping our faculty and staff engaged, inspired, and developing their skills during the summer period when traditional professional development often slows down. By making growth activities accessible, rewarding, and fun, we're investing in our people while building a culture of continuous improvement and innovation across the university.
Frequently Asked Questions
Employees interested in participating in Summer Camp should complete the participant registration form.
All Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and non-student wage employees are encouraged to participate in Summer Camp. Employees who wish to participate in development activities that require time away from their regular work should discuss and work with their supervisor first to clear participation and ensure proper coverage for their role or team.
The activity list on the Summer Camp Dashboard can be filtered by category to see the applicable activities. Some activities will be listed under multiple categories, but can only be counted toward one catergory at a time.
If you find a professional development activity that isn't on the activity list and you think it should be, contact us at vttraining@vt.edu to have it added.
Yes, development activities must be sponsored by a Virginia Tech department, office, or group and listed on the Summer Camp Dashboard to qualify.
Employees will track completed development activities by self-reporting in the Assignment Completion form. Let us know which activity you completed, which category you're counting it toward, and write a brief reflection letting us know what you learned.
Absolutely, teams are encouraged to compete together. Choose your team when completing the participant registration form. If you are the first team member to register, add your team name so other team members can select it as well.
The purpose of Summer Camp is to encourage employees to take advantage of the summer months to focus on their own development, learn new or hone current skills, prepare for career advancement, and encourage employee engagement and retention. You can complete as many or as few development activities as you want. Of course, we encourage you to complete as many as you can!
If a department, office, or group is interested in adding an event to the Summer Games roster, use the development activity submission form to let us know about it.
The amount of time is determined by the event sponsor and varies from event to event.
As a competitor, the events must be completed during the May 18 through Aug. 21, 2026 timeframe. Previous completions do not count towards badges.
The competition is based on one category per completion. If an event is in multiple categories, the submission must be for one category only.
Yes! Events are being added throughout the summer, so check the Summer Camp Dashboard frequently for more options!
Camp Dates:
May 18 - Aug. 21
For any questions or requests for accommodations, please reach out to the Professional Development Community of Practice by email at vttraining@vt.edu.
Please note that you must be signed in using your VT ID/password to register and submit completed assignments.