Camp ARCH, the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s summer camp that familiarizes high school-age students with careers in fields taught at the college, included students on scholarship from South Texas.
College of Architecture interim dean and Center for Housing and Urban Development director Jorge Vanegas agreed to teach students at Camp ARCH during its July 13-19 run if his instructor fee was used to provide scholarships for three students from South Texas colonias. Outgoing college dean Tom Regan also sponsored a colonia resident.
Three of the four students, Sergio Benitez, Procopio Herrera, and John Mejorado, wanted to learn about creating video games, so they enrolled in the camp’s visualization track.
“I like to play games, so I might as well work in the industry,” said Herrera.
The three were among a group of fellow campers who learned about designing games from graduate students in the college’s visualization program.
Benitez said campers became familiar with software that provided a version of game design using programming similar to C Sharp, a simple programming language.
“What you’re supposed to do is start learning from that, and work your way up,” said Benitez.
The fourth student from Laredo, Frank Lara, was in the architecture group taught by Vanegas.
“We got to design our own theme park, so we decided to build a hotel partly underwater with a ride that’s a free fall, straight into the water, where you see sharks and stuff, and then come back up.”
“Improbable, but cool,” said Benitez of Lara’s group’s design during a lunch discussion.
All four students are enrolled in an engineering magnet school within Cigarroa High School in Laredo. They learned about Camp ARCH through their school counselor.
However it was not the first encounter the four have had with Texas A&M. The college’s Center for Housing and Urban Development, in tandem with the Texas Engineering Experiment Station, has been teaching high school students in Laredo how to build and install electricity-generating wind turbines since 2006.
“One of the turbines that was in a field was vandalized,” said Mejorado. “We’re going to work on it, which gives us a chance to do it again and get some more experience.”
The campers said they enjoyed meeting new people from all over Texas and learning the principals of game and architectural design.
They also participated in an Aggie yell practice, enjoyed a Country and Western dance exhibition performance by the Aggie Wranglers, played laser tag, took up archery, and more.
“I think we can all agree it’s been a pretty good experience,” said Benitez. “This is a pretty good opportunity for all of us to get more insight on our futures.”
