Texas Pioneer Foundation grant supports Caminos Camp program

Date of Release: 04/04/2006

SAN MARCOS—The Caminos Pre-College Summer Leadership Camp at Texas State University-San Marcos has been honored with a grant from the Texas Pioneer Foundation.

The grant, totaling $110,591, funds the 2006 summer program, which targets at-risk students. This is the first year the Texas Pioneer Foundation has supported the Caminos Camp.

Operated by the College of Applied Arts, the six-week Caminos camp is a program that serves at-risk middle school students entering the 9th grade, offering them the opportunity to earn high school academic credits in English, algebra and technology. Students are enrolled in daily two-hour block courses. Students are taught leadership skills and tutored by college students and participate in weekly field trips. Students are selected by their counselors and teachers at Miller and Goodnight Junior High Schools in San Marcos. Caminos is a program design to increase the participation of at-risk students in a college-bound curriculum.

In addition, the students participate in community service projects and field trips to corporations and museums in Central Texas. More than 56 percent of the first group of students initially enrolled in the program three years ago are now classified as juniors taking academic courses. This partnership between the Pioneer Foundation, San Marcos Consolidated School District and Texas State University College of Applied Arts is in its third year.