College of Engineering hosts youth camp
In the final weeks of June, the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) hosted a youth camp for children within the community of Kingsville.
Dating back to at least the summer of 2007 with the first session of the Youth Engineers of South Texas (YESTexas) beginning with Dr. Jennifer Ren in environmental engineering, the College of Engineering has been hosting these summer camps as a way to include the youth in the community and get them excited to show off their creative skills and build a relationship with the community.
“The format of the camp changes based on available financial support and leadership strategies,” Department Chair of Civil and Architectural Engineering Dr. Breanna Bailey said.
Bailey became involved with this program through a grant given to the civil engineering program that was aimed at starting a summer camp.
“I became involved with summer camps through this grant, in fact in the first session of YESTexas, we had two campers whose mom was a chaperone for the civil engineering camp back when she was a student,” Bailey said.
After a brief hiatus in offering the Youth Engineers of South Texas (YESTexas) camp from 2018-2022, it was brought back in the summer of 2023.
“We were pursuing other strategies before we ultimately decided to bring it back, and we had several campers return this year,” Bailey concluded.
With the summer camp now having returned, the College of Engineering is expecting the number of campers attending to rise.
“The turnout this year was impressive with nearly 30 students registered for each of the sessions we hosted in June 2024 which indicates a strong interest and participation,” Assistant Director for Student Recruitment and Outreach Jesus Reina said. “My goal for 2025 is to increase the number of student participation to up to 50 students per session and I plan to propose two sessions to Dr. Heidi A. Taboada, Dean of College of Engineering, one being a STEM focused week and the other a STEAM focused week.”
Currently, there is a handful of activities for students who attend the youth camp.
“We have coordinated a variety of engaging activities with different departments in our college which include: concrete mixing, shading, surveying, and tower building with the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering; learning about river pollution, watershed, and groundwater flow with the Department of Environmental Engineering; 3D printing, virtual reality, and robotics with the Department of Industrial Management and Technology; creating elephant toothpaste and fabric waterproofing with the Wayne H. King Department of Chemical and Natural Gas Engineering; learning about laser engraving and materials testing with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; and working with Python and Raspberry PI with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,” Department administrator Chriselda Reyes said.
As time goes on, the College of Engineering, using YESTexas, looks to continue to help shape the minds of future engineers.
“In addition, we are developing a new webpage where students and parents or guardians can learn more about future YESTexas Summer Camps which will be accessible through the communications section on the engineering website,” Reina said.
For those interested in keeping up to date with the College of Engineering and to learn more about YESTexas, be sure to check out the Instagram page @tamuk.engineer
