UniCamp

It's summertime, and, for thousands of kids across the country, summertime means summer camp. And the camp of choice here at UCLA is UniCamp, the official student charity of UCLA. UniCamp is an independently funded non-profit organization that links UCLA with the surrounding community. Each summer, nearly 1000 children from low-income families come to UniCamp to have a great time with the 350 student volunteers who serve the camp each year.

UniCamp takes place at Camp River Glen, where kids can swim, make arts and crafts, do archery, or fish in the nearby Santa Ana River. If that doesn’t sound like enough fun, they’re making plans to install an Alpine Climbing Tower and ropes course.

But there's more to UniCamp than just having fun (although fun is definitely a key ingredient!). UniCamp is all about paying it forward. The mission of UniCamp is to create "the opportunity for today's kids from underserved communities to eventually contribute to the development of tomorrow's underserved kids." The idea is that children from underserved communities will become UniCamp campers who will be so inspired by our amazing student volunteers that they will want to become student volunteers themselves someday, and hopefully those student volunteers will become community leaders who will make the community and the world a better place for everyone.

If you’re interested in UniCamp, or want to get involved, please visit their website:www.unicamp.org.