Since 2008, students have ventured abroad for Frog Camps, and some will now have the opportunity to attend the freshman camp in Sevilla, Spain and Washington, D.C., beginning this summer.

Frog Camp Director John-Mark Day said Sevilla is one of TCU’s most popular study abroad destinations.

“Spain is going to be our partnership with the John V. Roach Honors College, so it will be our camp for Honors students,” he said. “D.C. is going to be a leadership-focused camp, so we will talk about what students can do coming into TCU to start making a positive impact on the community.”

Day said the upcoming summer London Olympics prompted the decision to move the Frog Camp location from London to Sevilla.

“When we created Rome, we decided to go there for two years then go somewhere else, and we have been there the past two years,” he said. “So it was time to explore someplace different.”

Vanessa Norris, director of Frog Camp Spain, has been a past facilitator for Casa Nueva and Challenge. She said the camp was an excellent growing experience and that it was the most fun thing she participated in at TCU so far.

Norris highly recommended applying to be a facilitator.

“My favorite part about Frog Camp is what you learn about yourself when you’re there,” she said. “You figure out what makes you tick, what type of people you click with, and you get to experience a different way of meeting people.”

The camps fill up quickly, both for campers and facilitators, he said.

Twelve student directors oversee every aspect of camp, part of which is selecting the staff, or Frog Camp facilitators, for the individual camps, Day said.

For D.C., Spain and Frog Camp Alpine, which is in Colorado, students must have previous experience as a facilitator to be considered, Day said. For Casa Nueva, Quest, Summit and Challenge, half of the staffs are new facilitators and half are returning facilitators.

“We look for someone who is going to be a good role model, someone who first-year students would be able to look up to,” Day said. “We want someone who is going to make people feel welcomed and feel comfortable.”

Beyond that, he said the staff looked for a wide range of personality types and interests.

“My goal at Frog Camp is that regardless of the camp that someone goes to, every single camper at Frog Camp looks at one of the facilitators and says, ‘I feel like I could be like that person; that person makes me feel welcomed,’” Day said.

Frog Camp facilitator applications are due Jan. 23 for returning facilitators and Jan. 25 for new facilitators. Applications are available at https://orgsync.com/28972/forms/show/40753.