This story originally appeared in the fall 2013 Harker Quarterly.

Summertime fun kicked into high gear at Harker this year, as enrollment for camps and other seasonal programming skyrocketed across all three campuses, resulting in a record-breaking number of participants.

Shortly after school let out, Harker opened its doors to the public, becoming a one-stop-summer-program-shop by extending its huge variety of offerings to K-12 students both locally and from around the globe.

According to Harker’s summer programs office, attendance at all summer happenings totaled 2,740 participants. On the Harker summer menu were: a camp for young kids, an institute for middle and high school-aged students, a program for foreigners to learn English, a large and varied sports camp, and a swim school that even adults could attend.

“We were thrilled and delighted at the incredible turnout for Harker summer this year!” enthused Kelly Espinosa, longtime director of summer programs. She noted that Harker has been providing outstanding summer programming for more than half a century.

In addition to the larger number in overall enrollment, there were exciting new happenings in both the English Language Institute (ELI) and Summer Institute (SI). At the lower school ELI saw a huge jump in enrollment specific to elementary school students. Meanwhile, at the upper school, SI successfully added specialty classes to its afternoon activity program.

“Harker summer had everything a camp consumer could want,” said Espinosa, adding that she was also pleased to see how many non-Harker students chose to spend their summer at the school.