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UA and community expertise are the backbone of these annual camps.

By Rebecca Ruiz-McGill,
June 13, 2008

The median age of students on the campus of The University of Arizona drops by about 10 years every summer when its Office of Continuing Education and Academic Outreach opens the doors of Arizona Youth University.

The notion of community, the culture of volunteerism and the pool of experts from the UA and Tucson community come together at the "university's" camps, which are offered to students in grades three through 12. The camp costs vary due to level of instruction and supplies but range between $240 to $499 per camp.

At the helm since the fall of 2002 is Helen Macdonald. She rebuilt and refocused the program, which serves more than 300 children each summer, with the experience of a master’s degree in recreation and park administration form the University of Illinois and work with park districts in Illinois as well as in military recreation.

Arizona Youth University offers a variety of innovative and engaging summer camps and programs taught by enthusiastic instructors who use University resources to explore a wide range of subject areas from science and technology to art and drama.

But the camps deliver more than that.

For instance, the program description for the En Garde! Fencing Camp states that children will learn “the fundamentals of the sport, enhance agility and balance, build strength, and increase hand-eye coordination.” But they'll also learn about respect.

“Fencing is a martial art. Martial arts teach about respect and the value of your opponent and the world around you,” said En Garde! Fencing Camp instructor Yvonne Gallego, who also coached the UA Fencing Club.

By the end of the second day of class the change in the students is visible. Students big and small know to stand up straight, salute one another before engaging in battle and greet and bid farewell to their instructors with a look in the eye and a handshake.

Gallego is petite yet has a solid, forceful build. Her interest in fencing is due to an aunt who would take her to see Westerns or pirate movies. "We were farm people so I knew about cowboys but pirates were something new,” she recalled. The gentlemanly equitable way of fighting stuck with her, as did the notion of power. “A sword is power but real power comes from self-esteem.”

Gallego and other UA-affiliated staff make the camp possible by devoting time from their already busy schedules for the students’ enrolled in the camp. Ronald Diaz, an air medical transport service paramedic with LifeNet, Leo Taylor, a University Medical Center intensive care nurse, and Ray Umashanker, assistant dean of the UA College of Engineering, are examples of the UA and community ties that fill out the camps’ expertise and offerings.

Diaz and two other members of the air medical transport team joined Taylor and the 20 Scrubs Camp students for an activity-filled day focused on the life of a nurse.

Students split into groups of five and sat listening to Diaz from the inside of the helicopter as he explained the life-saving benefits a helicopter provides, especially to rural areas, and the skills needed to make the difference in saving a life. The campers rotated to hear about firefighter opportunities and careers and got to crawl around the inside a Tucson Fire paramedic vehicle while others tried on firefighter gear in front of the crew’s big red fire truck.

Taylor described the weeklong Camp Scrubs as vital to the field. “It’s the camp’s fifth year. It’s no secret that there is a widespread shortage of nurses and its important to let kids know that the field is so diverse and filled with so many options, from administrative to obstetrics,” he said.

Enrollment in Camp Scrubs includes hands-on experiences in the operating room and emergency department, as well as experiences shadowing real-life nurses. Campers also walk away with first-aid skills and become certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Arizona Youth University is self-supporting and works each year to break even with the costs of operating the camps, according to Macdonald. “We are seeing families returning year after year and some even come back to camp after moving out of state,” she said.

“Robotics, Law, CSI, Web Design and really all of the camps offer a great learning experience for the students and a chance for Tucson community as well as UA facility and graduate students to create a weeklong program that may spark a lifetime of devotion,” Macdonald said.