UIW GEMS Shine During Record-Setting Summer Camp

Summer-Long Engineering Camp Wraps with High-Energy Banquet and Brighter Future

San Antonio – 148 middle schoolers. 52 high schoolers. Two months of daily camps. Over 6,000 meals prepared and served. And, perhaps, countless dreams inspired.

The University of the Incarnate Word GEMS STEAM and Programming Summer Camp celebrated a record-setting year of attendance at its annual banquet on Friday, August 2 in the UIW McCombs Center Rosenberg Sky Room with keynote speaker CPS Energy President and CEO Paula Gold Williams. GEMS (Girls in Engineering, Math, and Science) is a free two-week engineering camp for girls to introduce them to the field of engineering through robotic projects, competitions, guest speakers and field trips.

“This has been a summer like no other for GEMS,” says program founder and coordinator Dr. Michael Frye, associate professor in UIW’s School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering. “We want to thank our sponsors, our presenters and visitors, our teachers and counselors and all our volunteers who recognized the value of this unique opportunity. We have already been approached by new schools and new school districts for next year and we are excited about the chance to inspire even more young people.”

Now in its fifth year, the program has grown into four two-week camps that focus on everything from computer coding and robotics to the science of food preparation. A record-setting 198 students from three area school districts (SAISD, Judson, and Southside) attended over the course of the 2019 summer. This year, for the first time, the program expanded to include high school students with two, two-week megaGEMS camps and one six-week megaGEMS research camp.