by Riley Fletcher
The 2023 National Youth Science Camp (NYSC) recently hosted Northumberland resident Layla Leo as one of only two Virginia attendees.
The camp is held annually at Camp Pocahontas in Bartow, W.Va., from late June to mid-July. According to its website, the camp is “designed to honor and challenge some of the nation’s rising leaders and provide them with opportunities to engage with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) professionals and participate in exciting outdoor activities.”
The 2023 NYSC was the camp’s 60th anniversary, as well as the 50th anniversary for another Northern Neck resident, camp alum and former NASA engineer Brad Perry.
Perry was a 1973 attendee of the camp, the summer after his senior year of high school. A native of North Carolina, he received national and international recognition for his real-time partial simulation of the Apollo 15 mission. Nine months later, while still in high school, Perry performed a full real-time simulation of the Apollo 16 mission.
The NYSC, run by the National Youth Science Academy of West Virginia, halted its annual tradition in 2020, in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2023 was the first year the camp has been held since then….
