Oklahoma State Welcomes Ozone Students

by Ricky Shade, Fayetteville Ozone Director

Ozone was built to maintain relationships between Camp War Eagle and its campers once summers came to an end. Holding club meetings each week to keep in touch with students and continue living life in the camp atmosphere. But as both campers and Camp War Eagle grow older, Ozone has become a tool to prepare campers for life after camp.

This February, fellow Ozone director Erin Wiltse and I took a van of eleven high school students to Oklahoma State University, three hours and six bathroom breaks away.

OSU has the second largest counselor population at War Eagle behind the University of Arkansas. As we rolled into Stillwater, we were greeted by familiar, friendly faces of alumni counselors.

For most of our students, this was the first major university they’d seen, so we made the most of it. We had a chance to tour the basketball team’s locker room in Gallagher Iba arena and walk the stands of Boone Pickens Stadium. We had a first-hand look at dorm life. And we ate lunch in the nation’s largest student union.

More importantly, our Ozone students, some of whom hadn’t given college much thought, were able to meet with academic advisers from Business Administration, Veterinary Science, Education and Psychology degree programs. A few of us even got to attend an anatomy class with Taylor Craft, one of the many past counselors who helped make the trip a huge success. The students could see exactly what to expect in the classroom from a real life professor. We later went to Hideaway Pizza, a campus favorite. We got to experience a lot of campus favorites: Aspen Coffee, “The Don” from Mom’s Diner and Eskimo Joe’s. The counselors even took the kids to the campus ministry Overflow where they all had a blast!

One of the best parts of the trip was the chance to spend a weekend with our students. Host homes not only put us up for a night but also held Q&A’s on university life. And relationships were continued. Ozone is for Christ-centered relationships, building and reinforcing friendships between students and staff. At the same time, Ozone creates and expands on community, integrating camp culture and love into a high school society. Driving home from Stillwater in February, I was reminded that I love my job for this very reason: I’m helping to facilitate personal growth in current students, future adults and future staff of Camp War Eagle. This purposeful trip proved to me that we’re maturing students into well rounded, young adults who will be able to positively contribute to their community in the years to come.