About

The Infrastructure Technology Institute, as part of it's dedication to educational outreach, has hosted a week-long high school summer camp since 2002. While originally started as a day camp, the last few runs have become fully immersive residential sessions. The camp is primarily targeted at third-year high school students, though it is open to all high school levels.

Campers spend 5 days and nights on the Northwestern University campus with lecture in the morning, field excursions in the afternoon, and residing in the dorms at night. Students learn how the world around them works in the areas of public utilities, roads, bridges, sewer systems, and airports. Field trips have included Chicago Midway International Airport, the Illinois Railway Museum, a Chicago Transit Authority train tour, a Lake Michigan Locks boat tour, a Chicago River tour, a wetlands excursion, and an afternoon of urban exploring in downtown Evanston.

Students break into teams and are assigned a project on the first day of camp that they will work on throughtout the week with the help of instructors, counselors, and each other. At the end of the week, the groups will present their final projects to the staff and their families at a closing banquet.

In addition to interacting with university professors and staff, students will have the opportunity to experience college and being immersed in campus life while attending the camp. Students are supervised 24 hours a day by counselors who live in the dorms with them during the week and also accompany them on field excursions.

Admission to the camp is based on an application and a short essay. The costs of housing, meals, and field trip transportation will be borne by the program. Costs for transportation to and from campus and incidentals will be the responsibility of the students.