Cleveland, TN—The Lee University campus is hosting over 1,000 students this week, with thousands more scheduled by the end of the summer.
The influx of pre-teens and high school students is part of the university’s highly successful summer camp program which has attracted up to 10,000 students each summer for the last several years.
Gone are the days of a sleepy, non-active college campus between the months of May and August. Leaders of Lee’s summer programs host students from many walks of life, and from many denominational groups. The camps vary in emphasis, from academic to spiritual to athletic and artistic, and they last anywhere from a few days to two weeks.
This week Lee is hosting the 27th annual Summer Honors Semester. The two-week program is for high-school seniors and rising freshmen. Students earn six hours of college credit while experiencing plenty of out-of-class activities like whitewater rafting, an Atlanta Braves game, a formal dinner, group devotions, campus tours, advanced class selection, “Greek Olympics” and more. Summer Honors concludes this Friday.
Also on campus this week is an organization called Centri-Kid, part of the Nashville based LifeWay organization. This week they brought about 750 middle-school campers.
Another group, Great Escape, calls itself, “the oldest continually running middle-school conference in America today.” They return to Lee with one of their smaller camps with 425 campers.
Other camps in session this week are Lee-sponsored emphases in art, theatre, softball, basketball and baseball. All are taught and organized by Lee professors and staff.
“Colleges and universities have learned that our campuses need not be lazy and dormant during the summertime,” stated Lee President Dr. Paul Conn. “Our campus is a busy, dynamic summertime destination.”
Conn also stated that in addition to the summer camp events, Lee University’s summer session has grown with over 1,200 students enrolled in three, four-week sessions.
While students not enrolled at Lee are coming to the campus for camps, several hundred Lee students are using their summer months away to travel to destinations around the globe for ministry and to fulfill a requirement of every Lee student to experience a Global Perspective tour. Students groups, such as the Lee Singers, have already come and gone to such destinations as Indonesia; the symphonic Band traveled to China; and Evangelistic Singers will be ministering in the British Virgin Islands. Other groups have traveled to Europe and Cambodia.
The final event being hosted by Lee this summer will be Church of God Teen Talent, being held the last week of July. More than 1,000 students are scheduled to travel to the campus where they live, eat, compete and participate in extracurricular activities.