Summer camp is one of the most important times for young people across the nation. With countless options, it can be tough to decide which to attend.
Many choose Auburn as their summer camp destination.
Each summer, thousands of middle and high school students descend onto campus to participate in summer camps. Camps are offered in numerous fields, ranging from architecture and industrial design to cheerleading and fish camps.
These camps usually last for one week, and the campers get a taste of what life is like on Auburn's campus. Campers stay in the Hill residence halls and eat at Terrell Dining Hall.
Approximately 500 students will participate in academic camps this summer.
"Academic camps have doubled in size this year," said Dominique Rabine, Program Developer for the Office of Professional and Continuing Education.
The largest camp Auburn offers is cheerleading. This summer, nearly 3,500 cheerleaders will come to Auburn to work on their tumbling, dancing and cheering skills.
However, Auburn does not actually run the activities at the cheerleading camp. The camp is run by Varsity, the leading name in cheerleading competition.
Varsity hires professional instructors and college cheerleaders from across the country to teach the campers.
However cheer camps are not just for instruction. Cheerleaders compete against other schools in challenges throughout the week.
"These girls train hard," Rabine said. "We have girls with broken noses and twisted knees. I even saw a girl get dropped. There are a lot of athletic moves they're trying."
All moves are taught to the cheerleaders under the supervision of trained professionals. Safety is the top priority for the cheerleaders.
Auburn's success at cheerleading camps is not by accident. Coaches can choose to go to identical Varsity cheerleading camps across the southeast, but they continue to choose Auburn.
"They come to Auburn because they love the area, the University and what it stands for," Rabine said.
These camps offer much more than academic and athletic enrichment.
"(Summer camps) are a big recruiting tool," said James Birdsong, Program Developer in the Office of Professional and Continuing Education. "I have counselors working this summer that were former summer program participants that came here and said 'man this is where I want to be.'"
Allison Childress, incoming freshman in pre-mathematics education, attended Auburn's cheerleading camp during high school.
"Going to cheerleading camp at Auburn definitely had a great influence on me deciding to go there for college," Childress said. "We got to see a lot of the things Auburn had to offer that we wouldn't get to see on a regular campus tour."
Auburn students can play a part in the summer camp experience. The Office of Professional and Continuing Education begins looking for counselors in January.
Twenty counselors are usually hired for the summer.
"Auburn students will get to see parts of the University they may not be familiar with," Birdsong said. "If anybody's interested we love to have those that like kids."
Available jobs will be posted through Career Development Services.
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