This year’s DesignYOU! Code Camp received a “record number of applications” and hosted 205 campers in its first summer following HDCS’s transition to the University of Houston Sugar Land Campus, according to Assistant Professor and Camp Director Blake Mudd.
“Our mission remains the same,” he added. “It’s to serve the community and to offer this free opportunity to [middle grade] students, both here in Sugar Land and in our surrounding communities like Katy and Inner Houston as well. I consider us lucky that people come out of their way to come to campus and share their camper with us for eight hours a day. It’s an honor, and we’re so lucky to get to serve them.”
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. This year, the curriculum also included activities related to artificial intelligence — an emerging technology with potential to revolutionize branding and marketing opportunities.
“Most AI platforms are age-restricted, so in our activity that investigated what AI really is and how, for example, ChatGPT works, our counselors ran everything themselves and gave campers the opportunity to suggest certain questions and then get to see the output,” said Mudd. Campers also got to participate in a counselor-led group activity that used ChatGPT “for inspiration to develop a marketing campaign.”
Regarding other technologies explored in the DesignYOU! Code Camp, he added, “Sometimes we’ll get a student who is so advanced at Python programming that they can teach our counselors something, but we will also have students who don’t know where the shift key is on a computer. It’s just a fascinating mix, and we have to figure out how we offer a camp experience that meets all of those needs simultaneously.”
Although DesignYOU! is focused on computers and coding, its campers are not spending all day sitting in front of individual screens. While approximately half of the day is spent at computer workstations, the other half always involves something interactive: field trips, including visiting labs on campus, or concrete, hands-on activity that gets creativity flowing.
“I think what surprises me the most is the breadth and depth of the impact that we had, both in terms of campers that we served but also in what we were able to accomplish with each individual camper,” Mudd said. “It’s not just about learning something new or advancing their Python skills — we’re taking them out of their shell, giving them opportunities to be social and improve their soft skills.
“There’s a lot of research around this generation’s struggle to socialize and connect with others, especially in post-COVID education research, so getting to see campers come out of their shells, explore their interests and ask us questions about what it’s like here at the University of Houston was such a beautiful thing.”
“The Sugar Land events team was absolutely amazing, everything was super seamless, and despite us having the largest number of campers we’ve ever had and being in an entirely new location, this was the smoothest DesignYOU! that we’ve ever had, and our campers were safe, which is our number one mission. And we have big plans to keep growing! In 2026 we served almost twice as many campers as in 2025, and we want to keep growing. We have no intention of slowing down.”
Visit this link for more information on HDCS’s DesignYOU! Code Camp.