MORGANTOWN – Neil Armstrong had them locked in his orbit on that mellow July day in 1968 in the deep woods of West Virginia.
The softspoken NASA astronaut told a group of bright high school students from across the nation just what he would be doing next year at this time, provided all systems were go.
Sure enough, they were – and students again gathered in July 1969 at the National Youth Science Camp and looked heavenward to launch every cheer and whoop they could muster – because Mr. Armstrong had just set foot on the moon.
It was another day at the office for the camp gathered in the Monongahela National Forest that celebrates science and all the adventure that discipline entails.
Registration is now on for the 2026 edition of the camp, which runs from July 11 through Aug. 1 in the wooded expanse.
Two students, or “delegates,” as they are known in camp parlance, from each state and the District of Columbia, will attend.
Don’t think it’s all stuck on STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – either.
While of course, there will plenty of intellectual immersions into those disciplines, delegates will also have plenty of chances for nature hikes and sojourns down bicycle trails.
Rafting and kayaking, too.
You can thank West Virginia University math professor Chuck Cochran, and his buddy, Joe Hutchinson, who worked in parks and recreation at the school in Morgantown for that.
The camp came about in 1963, a year at home that was blasting off like one of those Saturn rockets with a space capsule from Cape Canaveral.
West Virginia was turning 100 that year, and it was celebrating all of its endeavors, including intellectual ones.
Originally, the science camp was proposed for the WVU campus in Morgantown, as Jill Cochran, Chuck’s daughter, told delegates six years ago.
Everyone would convene in lecture halls for sessions lasting (shudder!) from six to eight hours a day, she recounted ruefully.
“Lucky for all of you, my dad and Hutch said, ‘No, no, no – we need to do this in the great outdoors.’”
Besides Armstrong, other luminaries in the realm who have spoken at the camp include Gen. Chuck Yeager, the aw-shucks test pilot from Lincoln County who was the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound; and Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project.
Applications for this year’s camp are being accepted through March 15 online at www.nyscamp.org.
Meanwhile, more that 50% of camp alumni over the years have gone to earn a doctorate, and 85% of past delegates report they are now working in a STEM field.