August 26, 2019

By Wicker Perlis

For the third consecutive year, first-year students in the Trulaske College of Business gathered together on Traditions Plaza, loaded onto school buses and spent 2 days on Lake of the Ozarks at Camp Trulaske.

The goal of Camp Trulaske is to bring business students together and form relationships between them, Program Director Jennifer Barnes said.

“It is an opportunity to network for business students and […] meet someone that you might not have met or known previously,” Barnes said. “I think of the first day when you are sitting in Bush Auditorium not knowing anyone, and then after coming to camp you will probably know five or six students in there.”

Students have a variety of activities that they can participate in over the weekend. There are sports such as basketball and tennis, water activities such as tubing, kayaking and paddleboarding as well as a waterslide and a low ropes course.

All first year students in the College of Business are strongly encouraged to attend camp, Co-Director Kenan Elzoobi said.

“The goal is for every single incoming business student to attend camp, which includes freshmen and transfer students,” Elzoobi said. “That’s the end goal. Right now, we have 34% of this new incoming class, and it’s been growing quickly every year.”

Barnes is encouraged by the increase and optimistic that the camp will eventually host most, if not all, new business students.

“We have 342 students going this year, and that number has gone up by 150 every year,” Barnes said.

It is especially important that female business students feel included and are encouraged to attend Camp Trulaske, senior and first-time counselor Maddie Weiner said.

“You will see that there are more guys here than girls,” Weiner said. “The first year of camp there were 150 guys and 10 girls, so this year it’s better. I hope that camp shows them that girls can have leadership roles in the business school and do cool stuff because we have two of our directors that are girls.”

At this year’s camp, over a third of the participants were female, Elzoobi said. Organizers hope that proportion will continue to grow as the overall numbers increase.

Freshman and first-time camper Elizay Perez Bravo explained that he was looking forward to spending time outdoors and learning more about the College of Business.

“I’m just excited to explore the nature of the area and to talk to some counselors who know more about the school of business here than we do,” Bravo said.

Tate Howell, another freshman and first-time camper, said he was eager to make connections that would help make the campus feel smaller.

“This weekend I’m hoping to just meet some people and make some friends,” Howell said. “You can fall back on those people later.”

To Elzoobi, that is what camp should be all about.

“The whole goal of camp is to make friends, help students feel comfortable and to help them integrate into the business school,” Elzoobi said.

_Edited by Laura Evans | levans@themaneater.com_