Engineering Hosts Second Annual Tiger Camp


From left, Nicole Lankist from Cottondale, Fla.; Sara Beth Deas and Shelby Bock from Prattville, Ala.; and Hillary Saunders from Chipley, Fla. enjoy building model cars during the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's annual TIGERs Camp, a summer resident camp at Auburn University designed to introduce seventh and eighth graders to engineering.

Auburn University hosted its second annual TIGERs Camp in July, welcoming 27 seventh and eighth grade students to the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

Teams and Individuals Guided by Engineering Resources (TIGERs) is a weeklong residential camp aimed at sparking students' interests in engineering and giving them a jumpstart on a career in the field.

"This has been a learning experience for everyone involved," says Shirley Harris, director of the college's minority engineering program and camp coordinator. "The students have been very excited and observant all week, and even our camp counselor, an engineering student, has experienced a renewed interest in seeing the different departments."

Program activities for the camp include workshops, tours and lectures guided by practicing engineers and engineering students, and extracurricular activities, including a scavenger hunt, karaoke night and swimming in Auburn's Olympic-size pool.

This is the second visit to TIGERs Camp for 13-year-old Drew Lansdell, an eighth grader from Oak Mountain Middle School in Birmingham. He said the camp helped him realize what kind of engineering was most interesting to him.


Andrew Haselden from Birmingham works on his model car during the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's 2005 TIGERs Camp, an annual summer resident camp at Auburn University designed to introduce seventh and eighth graders to engineering.

"I learned that gears play a big role in speed and control," says Lansdell. "I discovered that I really enjoy mechanical engineering."

Campers participated in numerous activities organized by each of Auburn's nine engineering departments, from recycling paper and creating slime to programming computers and building model cars.

"My favorite projects were making paper and programming the computer, but the cars and slime were also fun. All of the projects were exciting," says Hannah Pitts, a seventh grader from Rockwell Elementary School in Spanish Fort, Ala.

TIGERs Camp has exposed students to many types of engineering that they may not have considered.

"My dad is a civil engineer," adds 12-year-old Pitts. "I have always been interested in his job, but TIGERs Camp has shown me many different types of engineering that I had not thought of before. Now I am really interested in chemical and software engineering."

TIGERs Camp is not just about classes and lectures.


Hannah Pitts from Spanish Fort, Ala. prepares her model car — "Ladybug #6" — for racing during the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering's 2005 TIGERs Camp, an annual summer resident camp at Auburn University designed to introduce seventh and eighth graders to engineering.

"The best part was experiencing college life firsthand," says Pitts. "We got to stay in the dorms, walk to class and bring all of our supplies with us to our classes. I will definitely come to TIGERs Camp next year."

 Media Contact: Cheryl Cobb, cobbche@auburn.edu, 334.844.2220

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