Back to News 
This article originally appeared in the Johnson City Press on July 15, 2015, here.
By Tony Casey
The phrase “Be A Buff” makes for a great hashtag for Milligan College on its social media accounts. It should be no surprise that the Christian liberal arts college just outside of Johnson City also practices what it reaches.
Through a series of summer camps — in academics and extracurricular areas including photography, theater and basketball — students, staff and representatives from Milligan showed off to potential students exactly what’s offered on campus.
“ ‘Be a Buff Summer Camps’ offer teens a wonderful opportunity to learn from experienced Milligan faculty, coaches and ministers in the areas of art, sports and leadership this summer,” said Phyllis Fox, Milligan’s director of summer camps and church relations. “Students can improve their skills and gifts while experiencing what it’s like to live on a college campus with counselors who are current Milligan students, respected by their peers and faculty.
Taking place between July 12-17, both locals and out-ofstate high school students ages of 14 to 18 went to Milligan to get the full experience, worshipping in the chapel, staying in the dorms, exploring the campus and eating at McCormick Dining Center.
Carrie Beth Swanay, a professor of communications and chair of the Area of Performing, Visual and Communicative Arts on campus, said these summer camps work as a great recruiting tool. While the students will get acquainted with Milligan’s atmosphere and the surrounding area, the students will also learn more about a program for which they have a passion. “This is an intense week for them,” Swanay said.
In the digital media camp, 14 students from Kentucky, North Carolina, Illinois, and Tennessee, by the end of the week’s work, will have helped make a video, produce a personal logo and poster and learned about these forms of communication.
Art Brown, creative services coordinator and adjunct instructor of communications, was teaching a graphic design class for the camp, and was giving the students, all seated in front of the school’s computers, a chance to brainstorm about a project they were working on.
Mandy Lorch, a 16-year-old home-schooled student from Johnson City, was at the camp for the second year in a row, learning as much as film as she possibly could, saying she’s completely bitten by the bug and is going to be be in hot pursuit of a career in directing or screenwriting. The summer before, for their video project, she and her group worked on a local llama farm and did voice-overs for their furry actors.
“I love Milligan College and couldn’t wait to come back and do this,” she said. Milligan, she said, is on her short list of school’s she’d attend for college and that summer camps like the one she attends do wonders to give potential students a look at the campus.
Head men’s basketball coach Bill Robinson was doing the same thing, except he was working up a sweat while scrimmaging with more than a half-dozeb athletes. Teaming up with a graduate assistant, Robinson was teaching fundamentals, but also giving the cagers a chance to get a feel for the Milligan basketball program.
While he expects a few of these members of the “elite” camp to don a Buffs jersey in the coming years, he thinks even more will attend the college simply for their academic programs. Academics, Robinson believes, is one of the biggest draws for Milligan and he makes no bones about it, that he’s looking for a certain student.
If they’re sent a basketball mix tape, he and his assistant coaches will listen more to the music than what they’re seeing, saying a lack of profane music is a good sign. Rap music is OK with Robinson, if it’s Christian rap.
The Christian element at Milligan is a significant reason why many students will look there in first place and these summer camps include plenty of time for that.
“In addition to refining their skills and abilities, students will have time for worship each day with the arts and sports camps,” Fox said. “Main session speakers will focus on the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ Champions of Character core values of integrity, respect, responsibility, sportsmanship and servant leadership — key values at Milligan, as well.”
For more information about Milligan’s camps, go to their website at www.milligan.edu/ camps. Follow Tony Casey on Twitter @TonyCaseyJCP . Like him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tonycaseyjournalist.