Summer Camps and Scholarships offered by Miami Hamilton

June 16, 2006

Miami University Hamilton has been awarded $711,600 to provide free history and civics summer camps that include $500 college scholarships for 40 area high school students, starting in 2007.

The Congressional Academy grant from the U.S. Department of Education will fund “Journey to Freedom” summer camps for three years.  Campers will live for two weeks at Camp Campbell Gard, a 600-acre Greater Miami Valley YMCA adventure camp on the Great Miami River near Hamilton, 20 miles from Cincinnati.  They will take part in educational and outdoor activities and will receive instruction in American history and government at the Miami University Hamilton campus.

Campers also will travel to former plantations in Kentucky, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, and the Abraham Lincoln museum in Springfield, Illinois.  They will use digital cameras to record and share their experience on the internet by creating podcasts and blogs. The two week camp, field trips, and camera are free to all participants, who also will receive a $500 scholarship to the college of their choice.

"This is a terrific opportunity for students to learn about our nation's search for freedom and civil rights while having a great summer camp experience," said Dr. Martin Johnson, Miami University Hamilton history professor and director of the program. “The camp is designed primarily to help high-need juniors and seniors in Butler and Hamilton counties go on to college with a greater chance of success, and ultimately to become more productive and informed citizens.”

American history to be covered at the camp will include the rise of the abolitionist movement and the origins of the Underground Railroad; the causes of the Civil War; the emancipation proclamation, and the role of African Americans in the Civil War and the challenges they faced immediately after the war.

The civics content will include how the existence of slavery shaped the original Constitution; the definition of rights and civil liberties embodied in that document, and the new definition of citizenship through voting rights, equal protection, and other provisions of post-Civil War Constitutional amendments.

Miami Hamilton will solicit applications for the camp in the fall of 2006. The Hamilton Community Foundation will administer the scholarship program, Johnson said. 

To be placed on the application mailing list, call LaDonna Hoskins at Miami University Hamilton, 785-3277, or email hoskinls@muohio.edu.