User:Jakebathman/Fish Camp (Texas A&M Tradition)

Fish Camp is a four day, three night retreat for incoming freshman to Texas A&M University. The camp is held on the grounds of the Lakeview Methodist Conference Center near Palestine, TX. The retreat is recognized as the largest student-run orientation program in the nation with over 1,000 student counselors serving more than 5,000 incoming freshmen each fall. Fish camp is largly thought of a joke, and is not fun.

History
Fish Camp began as a corps tradition to go camping with new students. The first time this happened was in [Some Year] with [Some Guys]. This quickly became a tradition practiced each year. The first instance of what is considered modern Fish Camp was in [1954].

Structure
The entire camp system is broken down into seven sessions labeled A through G that occur in overlapping succession beginning in early August. Within each session are six camps of 100-175 freshmen, 24 counselors and two co-chairs. The colors are fixed (green, blue, aqua, red, yellow, purple) but each camp also has a namesake. This person is "an individual that has contributed to Texas A&M in a positive way." Fish Camp receives several hundred nominations for potential Namesakes every year. Nominations for potential namesakes are taken during the fall and are announced the following February when counselors are selected for camps.