Facilitators and Frog Camp Directors make big impacts on first years' lives. For them, it's their own experiences of Frog Camp that prompt them to be leaders and share experiences to better the transition of college to first-year students.

Since 1993 Frog Camps have been a part of TCU’s tradition. Incoming first-years gather for days and create memories they will never forget. Sophomores to seniors mentor first-years as they make their first college memories. 

Over the years, campers and facilitators have created bonds that won’t be broken. Past Frog campers say the impacts of Frog camp will stay with them for years to come.

Hailee Kaisand, Elise LeMire and Abraham Kao were first-year campers when they decided being a facilitator was something they wanted to apply for. 

The facilitators are in charge of planning, organization and finding out what impacts they can make on first years' lives. 

Kaisand, junior, said the Frog Camp family has made an emotional and life-changing impact on her. Kaisand is in charge of planning Challenge Camp, which is one of the three main camps that are offered. 

“Last summer I had a really wonderful co-, his name was Joe Boyce,” said Kaisand. “He really encouraged me to apply for the Frog Camp Director Boards because he said I have the ‘Frog Camp spark’, which is what he called it.”

Sophomore Elise LeMire is director of the Casa Nueva Camp. She said Frog camp was her way of helping her community and having fun in the process. 

“College is hard and moving away is tough but having a welcoming community helps ease that process and I wanted to help,”  said Lemire.

On the first day at Kaisands’ Frog Camp she realized she was meant to be a facilitator and leader. Coming from high school with positions in leadership, Kaisand knew she would apply for the position. 

“Part of it has to be the fact that my mom went here and I feel a really deep-rooted connection to Texas and to Fort Worth and even TCU,” she said. “Another part of it is my own experience of having an impact on somebody and seeing it first hand,” said Kaisand about her involvement in first-year lives. 

But sometimes applying for Frog Camp just seemed like a fun thing to do, to avoid the boredom summer can bring. Abraham Kao, a sophomore, said he might have joined for the wrong reason, but, in the end, it was the best decision he could have made. 

“I initially joined the frog camp staff for all the wrong reasons, well not necessarily all the wrong reasons, but mostly because I was bored. Not like the majority of the staff who joined to have fun or maybe joined to have helped the first-year students.“ said Kao, Casa Director. 

The job of being a frog camp director is time-consuming and stressful for students who have multiple responsibilities. 

So what better way to relieve stress than a dance party?

“My favorite part was the dancing party! This is a time for the students to break out of their shells and have a good time with no judgment” said LeMire. 

Joining the Frog Camp Board gave Kao a new outlook on life and people in general.

“I went into a group full of crazy people. I walked into that room. They were all loud, laughing, dancing, doing whatever it is that I don’t do but really thought out that first two days of training I'm really glad we had it,” Kao said. “It allowed me to feel more comfortable around the staff which eventually let me feel really comfortable around the campers and after that my perspective changed from ‘people suck’ to, ‘people maybe aren’t so bad.’”