FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2005
Contact: Tony Rhodes
(662) 329-7119

Array of summer camps available through MUW and Columbus Arts Council

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- Mississippi University for Women’s Office of Continuing Education has teamed up with the Columbus Arts Council to ensure community youth enjoy an assortment of camps this summer.
    
“We did it this way to help the community, ” said Patricia Brock, director of continuing education and distance learning. 
   
Attendees will be grouped into three categories by age--10 to 13, 7 to 9 and 5 and 6. Camps are presented at an age appropriate level with activities to match. Regardless of age, an eligible child may be enrolled in one of many camps such as cheerleading, music and drama or Spanish.
   
Scrapbooking, Glamour, Glitz & Fun and Ocean Odyssey are three options for 10 to 13-year-olds. Seven to 9-year-olds can tackle What’s The Scoop?, Astronomy for Kids or May I Take Your Order. A trio of special camps for the youngest attendees ages 5 and 6 includes Penguins & Polar Bears, Wildflower Power and Kinder Krunchies. Each camp is designed to educate, entertain and inform.
   
The camps are three hours per day for one week. Each week has two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Working parents, provisions exist for early drop off or later pickup.  Discounts also are available. For more information about these camps, contact the Columbus Arts Council at (662) 328-2787 or visit www.columbus-arts.com or www.muw.edu/cont_ed.
   
Two residential camps are available for youth over 13.  Aero-Tech and Business Week are opportunities for teenagers to do something really different with part of their summer.

Seventh through 12th graders are eligible for Aero-Tech at MUW July 11-15. This camp has both residential and day-camp slots available. The majority of the daytime activities take place at Columbus Air Force Base.
   
Attendees enter tactical facilities while operations are in progress. Detailed explanations of what is happening and how it impacts the mission of the base sets this camp among the most unique in the state.  Discussions with an Air Force pilot on the science of flight, with aircraft maintenance personnel and others end with question and answer periods to ensure the attendees leave understanding what they have heard and observed. The experience ends when each attendee is given the opportunity to don the flight clothes and gear required for a flight simulator session.

Eighth through 12th graders are eligible for Business Week on MUW’s campus June 5-10.  The only program of its kind in Mississippi, according to Brock, Business Week is designed
to promote an understanding and appreciation of America's free enterprise system.

Participants establish a Free Enterprise Village during their six-day stay on campus. They discuss private enterprise, governmental regulations, competition, ethics, small business development, the economy, current issues facing American business and careers in business. Comments from former attendees indicated Business Week provided personal growth and development as well as self-confidence in their current professions.
 
For information about these camps, contact the Office of Continuing Education at (662) 329-7137, email continue@muw.edu or visit www.muw.edu/cont_ed/Summer/CECamps.htm.