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News

Campers taste the real world

HRM camp makes a name for UH while giving high school students 
a university experience 

by Lori Martinez
THE DAILY COUGAR

The Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management is conducting its second annual summer camp for high school and college students beginning June 20.

Students from all over the United States will get an opportunity to take in the sights and sounds of one of the nation's leading hotel management colleges.

"The biggest focus is to be able to, in four to five days, give the students a little taste of what our students experience on a daily basis," Danny Arocha, director of enrollment for the college, said. 

More than 25 high school seniors from as far as New Jersey will be joining Houston students at UH for a week of college life and to get a taste of the city of Houston. To make the experience more authentic, the students will get a chance to sleep in UH dorms, Arocha said.

Originally, only 25 spots were allotted for this summer camp but because more students qualified, the number was extended to more than 29.

"It is a competitive camp and you have to apply and you have to be accepted in to the camp," Arocha said. 

"So we actually have 29 campers coming in starting the 20th of this month. We literally have campers coming in from California, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; New Jersey; Los Angeles; South Carolina; and Michigan."

Students will get acquainted with the Hilton College for the first two days of their trip and will be taken on tours around Houston, Arocha said.

Arocha's goal for this camp is to make a name for the Hilton College.

"Our competition is definitely way outside of the state of Texas," Arocha said, "So one of the other things we needed to do was to start identifying ourselves and who are we and what are our strengths."

Other universities around the nation -- Ivy League schools -- are always competing to recruit students, but those universities have already established themselves as prominent by name alone Arocha said.

"Our strength is the University of Houston and Houston, Texas," Arocha said. "We're the fourth largest city in the United States. We have diversity. We have access and we're connected to the industry and have big alumni support."

The Hilton College began this summer camp last year but was changed around to accommodate the students this year.

"Last year we had two camps set up; one camp was for students in the Houston area and then the other camp was set up for students who lived outside a 150-mile radius," Arocha said. 

"It was good in the sense that you had two camps and you had the Houston kids here and then you had the other kids from out of the city and out of state. But also that wasn't a good thing because the Houston kids didn't get a chance to interact with the kids from New Jersey and Los Angeles and Miami."

This year the college had one camp, but in turn would open it up for more students, Arocha said.

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