Summer camps fill MC campus, community in June and July
Special to The Clinton Courier
Young people from throughout the Southeast will travel to Clinton this summer to participate in a variety of camps at Mississippi College. This group from Bookhaven attended MFuge last year.
Before long, the peaceful tranquility of summertime at a small, private university will erupt into a tumult of shouts, laughter and music, when Mississippi College welcomes about 5,000 guests from middle and high schools across the Southeast for art, cheer, athletics and Christian leadership camps.
Ken Gilliam, MC director of continuing education, is in charge of preparing the Clinton campus for the visitors each year. He says he is already looking forward to seeing the campers leave – but not for the reasons one might expect.
“When everyone is packing up to leave and hugging each other goodbye, it’s rewarding for me to hear their stories of what took place during the camp and that they’ve had a great week,” Gilliam said. “It makes the preparations we do to get ready for the next set of campers that much easier. Whether it’s the first week or the final week of camp, we have to make sure that the experience we provide is special for everyone.”
From working with Campus Operations to ensure the residence halls are prepared to accept overnight guests to checking the readiness of Baptist Healthplex facilities for hosting “track time” activities like swimming, volleyball and racquetball to meeting with admissions staff to develop strategies for recruiting visitors to Mississippi College who are rising junior and senior high school students, Gilliam and his team are dedicated to ensuring a quality camp experience for every guest.
Summer camps assist in the fulfillment of the university’s vision of providing excellent academic programs to the community while demonstrating a commitment to the cause of Christ. Last year, summer camps at MC reported 68 salvations, 77 rededications, and 16 calls to ministry.
The camps also serve as a recruitment opportunity for Mississippi College, exposing thousands of youngsters to MC’s Christian culture.
“When we get these kids on campus, if they have a good time and enjoy our facilities, we have a good opportunity to get them to come to school here when they graduate,” Gilliam said. “That’s advertising you just can’t buy.”
MC’s summer camps draw guests from about 250 churches across seventeen states, maximize the university’s income potential during a time when students are not prevalent on campus, and provide additional revenue and support for campus programs and services.
“We recruit campers from churches from Texas to Florida to South Carolina – our target audience is pretty much a day’s drive from Clinton,” Gilliam said. “The students and church leaders get to see what MC is all about. Summer camps allow us to keep the residence halls going and other facilities in use, like campus dining.”
MC will host the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership International and welcome tenth-grade students from across the state who demonstrate outstanding leadership qualities to help strengthen their skills to become influencers of tomorrow.
Also on tap are athletics camps with the Lady Choctaws, including soccer and basketball, the Universal Cheerleaders Association Camp, men’s junior high and high school basketball camps, men’s soccer camp and a volleyball camp. MC Athletics coaches and assistants will use the camps to help athletes from elementary school through high school develop their championship form.
The largest-attended camp during the summer, Fuge, a combination of Mission Fuge and Centrifuge, is divided into three one-week sessions throughout the month of June. Sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention, it takes students out of their regular routines and places them into an environment focused on changing lives through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Mississippi College was the first university in the country to host the combined camp.
MFuge participants jump into ministry programs in the Jackson metropolitan area and serve people in need, doing yard work, painting, and other tasks. They will return to MC’s campus each day to attend worship with Centrifuge participants.
Centrifuge campers are divided into groups for recreation and Bible study based on the students’ age and education. The experience combines lively worship services with live Christian music, quiet time for Bible study, fellowship with peers in the Caf, sports activities at the Baptist Healthplex, and short mission trips to share Christ’s love with local children.
The Mississippi College Department of Art will also be in the camp arena, with camps in the Gore Arts Complex art studios.
Artistically inclined students can explore a range of mediums and discover which may hold the most interest to them. During the Young Artists Camp, art education majors will introduce the students to a variety of artistic styles each day, from ceramics and sculpture to print-making and painting. The camp costs $150 per student, and all materials will be provided.
The High School Summer Art Camp will showcase options available in the studio for MC’s art majors, art minors and members of the Clinton community. Offerings will include interior design, painting, ceramics and graphic design. The camp costs $175 per student, and all materials will be provided.
For more information about the art camps, visit https://art.mc.edu/about/summer-camps.
The final large camp of the season will be Super Summer, which attracts more than 1,000 youngsters, youth pastors, church leaders and other staff members to MC. The Southern Baptist Convention sponsors the camp, which promotes qualitative spiritual growth and helps develop student leaders for Mississippi churches.
Super Summer students are divided into “schools” based on the number of years they have attended and their age. Super Summer challenges them to share their faith with others.
For more information about summer camps at Mississippi College, email Gilliam at gilliam@mc.edu
