Lucy Jones wasn’t sure what she wanted to do this summer, so she decided to ask the internet.
“Honestly, I typed what I wanted to do this summer into ChatGPT, and this (camp) was one of the first few things that came up,” said Jones, a rising junior from Kinston, N.C.
Charlotte Rieske, a rising junior from Dallas, took a similar path to the Longhorn Nursing Camp at the School of Nursing.
“I looked it up on TikTok, because I research everything on TikTok, and I saw a lot of people were really liking it,” Rieske said.
The camp, now in its fourth year, hosts between 58 and 60 students per session. Campers range in age from 15 to 17. Not only does the camp give them a hands-on opportunity to learn the duties and skills of a nurse, but it can also give campers an insight as to whether nursing is the right future.
“It’s a lot more hands-on than I thought it was going to be,” Rieske said. “It feels like you really are a nurse.”
“Nursing schools are very competitive,” said Loree LaChance, who has taught classes at the camp for all four years. “Most of the kids who come in have a really clear vision of where they want to be. I think some of the others think, ‘Oh, maybe I want to,’ but don’t have that real clear vision.”
The camp starts out with non-invasive procedures at the beginning of the session and then moves into invasive procedures by the end of the week, such as IVs.
“You can tell by the end of the week some campers are like, ‘No, this is not for me,’ which I actually think is good,” LaChance said. “Nursing schools are very, very competitive. It’s a shame to get in only to decide that you want to leave after a semester. It gives them just enough of a detailed glimpse to be able to make a better-informed decision.”
For the students who do decide to stick with nursing, the camp provides a great jump to their future studies. Abigail Huggins and Julia Reyes, two rising seniors in the school of nursing, are first-year camp counselors who said the campers’ studies are similar to their own.
“I enjoy inspiring the next generation,” Huggins said. “For me, it’s interesting to see the kind of stuff they do. They are getting the real experience, doing simulations and doing the same things we do in our nursing classes. It’s something beneficial that I would have liked to have done in high school because it would have helped me decide where to go. It’s always nice to have an inside view of it.”
Reyes, who also mentors freshmen at the School of Nursing, jumped at the chance to be a camp counselor.
“It’s so nice to see these kids be excited to learn about nursing,” she said. “These campers are really young but they are really focused on their training. They’re really intrigued about nursing. I see my younger self in them when I was in high school.”
As counselors, Reyes and Huggins get the added benefit of having their own lessons reinforced.
“One thousand percent,” Huggins said. “Even when we’re learning about IVs, that’s a skill that we recently learned in our classes. It’s a really nice refresher. I learn by teaching, so it’s nice to be able to help the campers to reinforce the skills we’ve already learned.”
Because of the close age difference between the campers and the counselors, campers can get real insight into the college experience they’ll soon undertake.
“I enjoy it because they ask a lot more deep questions, like ‘How do you balance your personal life?’” Huggins said. “It’s nice to be able to chat with them as someone who could be a potential future peer.”
“It’s also very nostalgic,” Reyes added. "Since they’re the ages of 15 to 17, and I’m now 21, it’s fun to learn the slang and lingo of what they do. I see my younger self in them. I was so excited to go to college and be a nurse. One day, you may work with them in the future, so to get to know them, that’s a beautiful thing.”
Learn more about the 2026 Longhorn Nursing Immersion Summer Camp.
Summer Camp in Action
