Rookie Bridge Camp Celebrates 20-Year Mark

By NSU Staff Writer Dustin Woods

A staple program for incoming freshmen at Northeastern State University passed a milestone this year.

The start of fall semester marked the 20th anniversary of Rookie Bridge Camp, a student-organized extended orientation program begun in 1989 that has launched an estimated 5,000 students on their college careers.

I believe the original idea for RBC came from Sam Smith, a former director of Auxiliary Services at NSU, said Dr. Chuck Ziehr, professor and department chair of Geography. Ziehr first volunteered with the camps in 1997 and is now synonymous with RBC.

It wouldn't seem like the start of an academic year without working with RBC, meeting the rookies and associating with the great group of student directors and volunteers, Ziehr said.

Offering to load luggage, carry water and do other chores quickly earned Ziehr his own color group.

I eventually became known as the Gray Gopher, Ziehr said. For a while I was the only one in this color group, but I have more recently been joined by (Associate Professor of Accounting) John Yeutter as a fellow Gray Gopher.

Although aspects of RBC have evolved through the years, Ziehr said the fundamental goals of the camps are unchanged.

The primary purposes are to introduce incoming freshmen to some essential knowledge about campus and academic life while allowing them to become well acquainted with other freshmen, the upperclassmen volunteers and directors, and a handful of staff and faculty, Ziehr said. The bonding-with-friends experience so that they are not alone in the new world of NSU is absolutely the most important tenet of RBC.

Rookie Bridge Camp takes students on a two-day excursion, including an overnight stay at Camp Heart OHills and a float trip down the scenic Illinois River. Approximately 250 students visit the camp each year. The camp holds two sessions to accommodate the number of students, said Todd Newcomb, executive director for the 2009 camps.

RBC is love, Newcomb said, If there were not volunteers and directors that loved this university the program would not be possible.

Newcomb attended camp as a rookie in 2006 and said he remembers every volunteer from his color group.

They truly made my transition into college easier, Newcomb said. They treated me as a peer and friend, and I thank them for that.

RBC is organized by a board of five student directors working with 10 emeritus volunteers and about 65 first- and second-year volunteers.

It takes the entire RBC staff loving what they do to make camp what it is today. Newcomb said. Their level of commitment and dedication is what makes this camp so unique.

After registration on the first day, students spend the morning in the University Center making acquaintances while learning camp rules and what to expect, said Mike Wright, coordinator of Student Activities.

Wright said students experience a variety of activities and traditions associated with the camp, including a trust walk, skongs and a staple of RBC the painted rocks. Also visiting the camp groups are faculty members of the NSU community, including President Don Betz and Dean of Student Affairs Laura Boren.

After lunch, students travel by bus to Camp Heart OHills, where RBC officially begins with group-building activities, games and presentations by NSU departments.

Everyone then has dinner and watches the group skongs, and there is an open social event before they call it a night, Wright said.

The next morning, students have breakfast and attend more presentations and activities before boarding buses northbound for the highlight of the camp, a 12-mile float down the Illinois River.

After the float, everyone returns to the UC for dinner and closing circles, and camp closes as students move into the oncoming academic year, Wright said.

Freshmen who attend Rookie Bridge Camp start with an advantage in their college endeavors, Newcomb said.

I do not know what my first months of college would have been like if I did not attend RBC. The very first day I stepped onto campus I knew people, and not just other freshmen like myself, but upperclassmen also. When I did not know where something was or how to do something, I had upperclassmen to assist and teach me, Newcomb said. Rookie Bridge Camp is an amazing program. I would encourage people to keep going and to keep volunteering.

8/28/2009

Published: 2009-08-28 00:00:00