Featuring a track and field camp led by two former Olympians, summer 2003 at Bates College kicks off with a variety of special programs and institutes. Most Bates students have departed until September, but the summer campus remains alive with activity in classrooms and on the playing fields and stages.

Olympic gold medal high jump winner Dick Fosbury, who revolutionized the high jump with the "Fosbury Flop," returns June 22-27 to coach the high jump for his 12th summer. The "Flop" (in which the athlete goes over the bar with back arched and toward the ground, following with legs and landing on shoulders) gained instant fame with Fosbury's upset victory at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City. Also returning to coach distance runners is Francie Laurie Smith. She made five U.S. Olympic teams in events ranging from the 1,500 to the 10,000 meters and set 35 American records during her impressive running career.

"Dick and Francie were record-breaking athletes," says track camp director Peter Slovenski, "but they have also become outstanding coaches.  This is a wonderful opportunity for Maine track and field athletes to learn from two of the best Olympians who ever competed for the United States."

In all, 20 programs attract approximately 1,200 participants – from teachers to dancers to children and teenagers – who engage in learning, creativity, exploration and competition.

In the sports arena, along with the track and field camp, young athletes can enroll in swim, basketball, lacrosse, soccer and all-sports day and residential programs throughout the summer.

Academic programs for secondary school students on campus include a forensics institute, a creative-writing workshop and the Edmund S. Muskie Scholars Program in History, Politics and Government.

Undergraduate research, which goes on all through the summer at Bates, comes under the spotlight in August as 50 national leaders in chemistry research gather at Bates for a summit on the topic.

Meanwhile, the Bates Dance Festival, northern New England's premiere contemporary dance producing and training program, sets the stage for summer arts programs at Bates, offering varied workshops for emerging and professional dancers, as well as The Young Dancers Workshop. ARTSMART Camp and the New England Suzuki Institute round out the arts fare.

Finally, teachers from a variety of disciplines fill Bates classrooms to attend institutes and workshops in K-8 science and in Advanced Placement physics, calculus and English. The Holocaust Human Rights Center of Maine holds its 13th annual summer seminar at Bates, offering teachers an intensive interdisciplinary study of the Holocaust and its implications for the 21st century.

For more about summer programs at Bates, see http://www.bates.edu/summer-programs.xml.