Experiences hosting high school summer camps to promote university outreach

With budget cuts and increasing tuition, public universities are placing increasing importance on community outreach. Such activities allow the university to play a more important role in, and give something back to their community. Universities are therefore raising expectations of faculty participation in outreach activities and in some cases directing outreach programs. At Northern Kentucky University, through local funding, faculty members in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science have offered two summer camps for bright high school students. This paper presents the outreach efforts, results, and lessons learned over the two-year period.