What summer slowdown?
Classes, camps and community programs keep campus busy
Nicole Del Castillo / University Communications
As part of a COSMOS course on biodiversity and the ecosystems of coastal California, high school senior Samantha Wong collects clams at the Newport Aquatic Center under the supervision of instructors Peter Fuhrer (left) and Peter Bryant.
It’s always amusing to hear people
say, “It’s summer. Things must be pretty quiet at UC Irvine.”
Not exactly. Between the summer academic
session and the community programs and camps, there’s always something going on
here.
The campus accommodates more than
12,000 students enrolled in summer classes covering everything from African
American studies to writing. The extra class time helps students complete their
educations more quickly. Indeed, the rate of students graduating in four years
has risen substantially – from 51.4 percent for the freshman class entering UCI
in fall 2001 to 67.6 percent for those entering in fall 2007.
UCI also hosts a number of camps
and instructional programs serving the community each summer. These are the
kinds of summer learning and extracurricular activities that School of
Education Dean Deborah Vandell says are crucial to establishing a foundation of
excellence in California education.
“When you talk to successful
people, you invariably find that they spent their summers and other
out-of-school time with interests that were extremely important to them – band,
sports, yearbook, church, music,” she says. “These are activities that they
worked hard at and focused on, where they found their friends, their identity
and their discipline. These UCI programs help provide such opportunities to the
community.”
Some examples:
- For the 14th year in a row, UCI hosted high
school science students – about 150 this year – as part of COSMOS. The program’s mission is to motivate the
most creative minds of the new generation of prospective scientists, engineers and mathematicians who will become leaders for
California, the nation and the world. Course clusters were offered on
robots and rockets; astronomy and astrophysics; tissue and tumor biology and
mathematical/computer modeling; biodiversity and the ecosystems of coastal
California; mobile digital media; biomedical research; and molecular chemistry.
- The Mesa Court housing complex was teeming with
cheerleaders this summer. Nearly 600 spirited high school students attended
instructional sessions.
- The Anteater Recreation Center enrolled more
than 100 young people a week in swimming lessons and cooking, rock climbing,
fencing and other summer camps.
- The Claire Trevor School of the Arts and the Beall
Center for Art + Technology sponsored Mathobotix, a camp that involves
young children and teenagers in team problem solving, creative thinking and,
ultimately, building some really cool robots.
With all this, UCI is a center of learning year-round. No quiet season here.
— Cathy Lawhon, University Communications
