DesignYOU!, a Texas Workforce Commission-sponsored academic day camp for Houston-area students entering grades six through eight, is designed to provide hands-on computer coding and programming experience through innovative learning and problem-solving activities while fostering an interest in coding and its connection to the fashion and retailing industries.
They just had their biggest year yet, serving more than 150 students from Third Ward to the Woodlands over the course of three weeks.
Funded by a TWC grant, DesignYOU! is offered to participating students completely free of charge and is run through the Retailing and Consumer Sciences (RCS) program at the Cullen College of Engineering. Led by RCS faculty and student counselors, campers learn not only coding skills, but principles of design, digital creation, and the many ways that computing technology and merchandizing intersect in today's world.
The greatest benefit, however, may not be the analytical skills these campers develop.
“Our goal is to get them really excited not just about the possibility of pursuing STEM as a career, but hopefully to experience college one day,” said full-time RCS lecturer and Camp Director Blake Mudd. “We want to give them that positive experience so that when they’re 17 and they’re thinking about college, they think back on how much they enjoyed this experience.
“For some of them, they’re learning Python for the first time, or they’re learning about branding and graphic design. Our mission is to increase interest in STEM, and I think we do that really well, but what I also hope that we inspire them to do is to pursue whatever it is that they truly want to do.”
Mudd believes in the mission of the University of Houston beyond academics and education.
“We don’t just serve our current students; we serve the community. We don’t have gates. We don’t have rows of hedges that keep people from coming to our university campus. We welcome you. One of my favorite things about this camp is telling our students and their families that they are welcome. They are part of this University of Houston family, and we want to serve them by getting their camper inspired to pursue a career, but we also serve them by telling them that this university can be their home.
“Whether they’re looking at colleges for their future or looking for a team to root for during basketball season, we want to be their university. We want to be their connection. We’re not just the University of Houston. We are Houston’s University.”