A New Kind of Summer Camp

July 15, 2025

Last week, Bradley held its first Arts & Technology Camp for 9th through 12th graders. Bringing together disparate “major” and “minor” courses from across science, technology, engineering, arts, and math, the camp is a microcosm of the Bradley college experience.

Campers are encouraged to build up a breadth of skills through hands-on experience, exploring courses like Video Game Development, Experimentation in Biology, Cybersecurity, and many more. However, the combinations of courses attendees have chosen are more divergent than one might imagine.

“We’ve got students who are coming here taking engineering as a major and slam poetry as a minor,” Camp Director and Assistant Professor for Advertising & Public Relations Christopher Marsh emphasized. 

The camp, a brainchild of Ethan Ham, Dean of the Slane College of Communication and Fine Arts, was designed to reintroduce and reimagine the Summer Forensics Institute (SFI) that was a staple of Bradley’s campus in the summers before the COVID-19 pandemic. Marsh experienced the impact of that camp firsthand.

“When Ethan approached me with this idea, I recalled back in 1986 when I attended SFI,” Marsh recounted. “That set the course for my life. ‘This is it. I’ve met my people. I’m coming to Bradley.” And so I came here, was on the speech team, and had a great life as a result. So when Ethan offered me this opportunity, I couldn’t say no”

The hope is that the experience for campers is a similarly life changing one. So far, the joy in the campers’ eyes (and in their texts home to their parents) has been more than enough to justify everyone’s efforts.

“When I look out on the high schoolers who have come here, I see the most beautiful mosaic of diversity and talent and temperament—they are so unique. Every one of them is a wildflower,” Marsh shared.

Each camper benefits not only from the coursework, but from the ability to live on campus, sleep in the dorms, eat at the cafeteria, and perhaps most importantly, work with Bradley’s industry-proven faculty. One camper, Shayla, spoke to the rewarding nature of this connection.

“I really liked exploring campus, and I thought all the teachers were really nice and supportive,” she said. “If you had any questions, they were more than happy to explain things.”

“Chad Lowell, interim chairperson for the Department of Theatre Arts, was showing his students the rotating stage at the Hartmann Center. After only two afternoons, Chad overheard students saying, ‘This is it. This is where we’re coming to school.’ It’s that personal touch that makes the camp different, and it’s what makes Bradley different,” Marsh said. 

That signature personal touch even extends to Bradley University President James Shadid, who stopped by registration to say hi to the campers, only to end up volunteering to lead some curious parents on an impromptu tour of the Business and Engineering Convergence Center.

“That’s why I love Bradley,” Marsh beamed. “If someone says, ‘Hey, I’d like to do something,’ we just go, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”

–Jenevieve Rowley-Davis