credit: University of Oregon

It’s the middle of summer and while many teenagers are enjoying a break from academics, a group of high school students gather around a table to discuss futuristic food containers.

These kids, who are participating in the University of Oregon's weeklong Design Camp, speak like seasoned product design students, offering useful critiques and ideas.

And they get to do it all from the U of O's White Stag building in downtown Portland with its LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) gold-star facilities.

U of O's School of Architecture and Allied Arts worked with alumni to launch summer design camps to give high school students the opportunity to explore architecture, product design and the digital arts.

Each year the design camp focuses on a different issue. This session was all about food carts. The students worked on prototyping portable food containers, designing vinyl signs and modeling food cart communities using U of O’s state-of-the art facilities. In addition, they toured large Portland firms like Wieden + Kennedy, THA and Ziba to see how professionals work.

credit: University of Oregon

“We want them to see the large picture but be able to tackle the design aspect on a small scale,” explains Kate Wagle, administrative director of School of Architecture and Allied Arts in Portland.

The camp's goal is to allow students to explore careers in the arts that they may not realize exist.

“There are lots of students that love to draw but don’t know there are actual drawing jobs out there,” says Wagle.

It is important to U of O that the camp is accessible to anyone interested. So far they have been able to provide scholarships for every student who qualified and hope to continue expanding the program every year.

Industrial designer Zara Logue, who taught sessions at this year's camp, thoroughly enjoyed working with the students.

“I’ve been impressed by their enthusiasm and work ethic. They eat lunch, talk for 10 minutes and then want to know what’s next,” says Logue, who wishes she had had an opportunity like this as a teenager.

After they finish critiquing their food containers, a group of campers gather at the elevators for a quick break. What do they think of Design Camp?

“It’s the best part of the summer so far.”