Friday, January 30, 1998
Unicamp strives to get their name out
RECRUITING: Counselors seek to raise visibility, increase
involvement
By Rachel Munoz
Daily Bruin Staff
In a large university like UCLA, not everyone is going to know
your name, but Unicamp would like to change that. For this very
reason, Unicamp has dedicated an entire week to one thing: getting
their name out.
Today concludes five days filled with carnivals, tents, and
tables set up throughout campus, allowing UCLA students to inform
themselves of Unicamp.
As UCLA’s official charity organization, Unicamp has operated
for 64 years. Their program offers an annual summer camp, put on by
UCLA students who serve as counselors for socio-economically
challenged children.
"The point of this week is to get our name out on campus," said
Brian "Treeboy" Short, a head Unicamp counselor. "And to increase
involvement with other campus groups."
Support from other campus groups is going to be vital to Unicamp
now that the Mardi Gras event, Unicamp’s main fund-raiser at one
time, no longer exists.
"We don’t get that much support right now from other UCLA
groups," said Kristina "Skittles" Caberto, a Unicamp counselor. "If
we have name recognition then we should have an increase in funding
capabilities."
In the process of awareness for their organization, Unicamp aims
at becoming involved with other UCLA student groups.
Lately Unicamp members have been dropping off applications for
students involved with the African Student Union and the Latin
American Student Alliance in order to recruit more counselors from
Latino and African American backgrounds.
Caberto explains that most of the children who attend Unicamp’s
summer programs are Latino or African American, while most of the
Unicamp counselors are Asian or Caucasian. She admits that this is
a good experience for both the UCLA students and the children, but
it would be nice for kids to have role models of their same
ethnicity.
"We want them to look up and see someone of their color in
college," she said.
Unicamp is also looking into working with other charities.
Caberto feels that if Unicamp lets other charities know about their
services, then in turn those charities can pass along the
information to the children they encounter.
Program Director Luis "Buster" Rojas enforces the idea that
Unicamp would like to form a dialogue with other UCLA groups.
"We gain insight (into other groups) if people know about us,"
Rojas said. "That is our main focus. We need to have people come
out and support Unicamp."
Even with such a long history, Unicamp must continually raise
campus support for the organization to keep people involved and to
recruit counselors.
"Every year we have to start over," said John "Sasquatch"
Martinez, the camp director. "(Having a Unicamp Week) is the only
way to get the word out."
Martinez compared the system to a pyramid that is always
growing. "The leaders are now in place," he said. Next will come
recruitment and during the spring, fund-raising will occur.
Rojas further believes that if Unicamp encourages other
organizations on campus to get excited then people will stay
excited about Unicamp throughout the year.
This could eliminate the "starting over" period Martinez
describes.
"Overall we want to show a lot of excitement and enthusiasm,"
Short said. "And meet a lot of people."
GENEVIEVE LIANG/Daily Bruin
Peter Duong and Christina Schneider recruit students for Unicamp
in front of Perloff Hall.