Growing Early Minds (GEM)

The GEM Program is located on the beautiful UW Madison campus. Our students eat lunch at Gordon Commons, located on the SE side of campus (770 W Dayton St.) and classroom locations are within walking distance to Gordon Commons. Badger Precollege works closely with UW Central Campus Reservations and individual building managers to secure space. This process takes time, as there are many other campus departments and programs scheduling space during the same blocks of time each summer. Individual classroom locations are not confirmed until late May at the earliest.

Yes! Lunch for your student is provided as a part of the cost of tuition. Gordon Avenue Market is an undergraduate residence dining facility serving cafeteria style options that offers many food choices each day. Badger Precollege staff will be supervising your child and assisting them in making healthy food choices. If your child has any dietary restrictions or allergies we need to be aware of, please be sure to include this information in your CampDocs online health profile. If a student has severe food allergies or a very restricted diet, they are welcome to bring their own lunch. (Tuition is not prorated in cases where a student brings their own lunch.) A good resource that includes daily menus may be found here.

GEM students often move between buildings on campus as part of their course and occasionally as a large group. This affords students the opportunity to explore just some of what the UW Madison campus has to offer. Please keep in mind that most field trips are walking field trips around campus.. Venues are chosen based on their proximity to the SE side of campus to accommodate students walking, as well as being mindful of the very hot temperatures which often occur during PACE. Students are supervised by a combination of Group Leaders, Instructors, and Badger Precollege Staff.

Requests for late drop off and early pick up should be directed to the program manager/program coordinators. Advance notice is greatly appreciated.

While we try our best to accommodate requests, it is not always possible to accommodate specific times. The volume of requests we received increased tremendously over the past year, making this process more challenging. Our staffing numbers are based on a 1:10 staff to student ratio which we must maintain at all times.

Requests to pick up in the middle of the lunch/field trip block cannot be accommodated, as all staff are need to supervise lunch, we may be in transit during those times or already at a field trip location, and our schedule varies greatly from day to day. Similarly, if a student is picked up early it may be challenging to accommodate a request to drop the student back off later in the afternoon, for the same reasons stated above.

As a general rule, if your student has another commitment in the afternoon, we request that you pick up your student up at 11:30, following the morning instructional block.