Photos by Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

"I know it may be odd for some of you all, being freshmen, not having been here," said Tech senior Joey Muffler at a campfire gathering of all the students Monday night.

The basic idea of the camp is to lessen the learning curve to allow freshmen to have some friendly faces on campus when they start classes.

Staff and students at Hokie Camp dance the night away during a social at the end of the first night.

Monroe Haynes of the Skelton 4-H Center watches the feet of students as they try to support one another during an exercise at Hokie Camp.

Counselor Kendall Brooks waits to be led down a trail blindfolded during Hokie Camp.

Counselors and upcoming freshmen prepare to catch Elizabeth Hickman of Richmond during a trust fall at Hokie Camp. The students participated in several team- and trust-building exercises designed to prepare them for college life and instill them with a sense of community.

SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE -- Metallica was blasting from loudspeakers in the parking lot, but the counselors made sure they could be heard over the music.

"You! Line up at the end of the bus," screamed Lindsey McCrickard, as she tugged on shirt sleeves and pointed to direct scores of incoming freshmen stumbling off buses. It was 10:27 a.m. Aug. 11, the Monday two weeks before the start of classes.

And the first Hokie Camp had officially begun.

Minutes later, as the freshmen were being separated into small groups and their bags left on the grass, the music had changed to the Supremes. But the counselors were still yelling.

"Are you guys excited?" McCrickard roared.

"Yeah," a chorus of somewhat disoriented students responded.

"Let me hear it!"

"Yeah!"

"I'm so pumped!"

The W.E. Skelton 4-H Educational Conference Center at Smith Mountain Lake hosted 50 Tech upperclassmen and 163 incoming freshmen Aug. 11 and 12 for a high-energy maroon-and-orange bonding experience. Students learned about Tech traditions, clubs they could join and studying strategies. They played dodgeball, climbed walls and cleaned trails. And they chanted more than a few renditions of "Old Hokie," the popular cheer after which the Tech mascot is named.

Zenobia Hikes, Tech's vice president of student affairs, has been talking about creating an off-campus freshman-orientation camp since she arrived at the school in 2005.

"I wanted us to have another opportunity to shape students and talk about the very special campus that we are," she said. "This is a very special place."

The camp cost $50,000 to start. Student fees and $17,000 in startup funds from student affairs supported it this year, but the plan is for it to run solely on student fees in the future, Hikes said. Each student pays $150 to attend.

About 250 students initially signed up for Hokie Camp this year, but nearly 100 of them didn't show up Aug. 11 when their buses left Blacksburg for Smith Mountain Lake. The no shows added to the chaotic scene as counselors and staff scrambled to reorganize the small groups, designated by different-colored bandannas.

"Yesterday morning was something else," said Rick Sparks on the second morning of camp. As orientation director and assistant dean of students, Sparks organized the camp.

In planning the camp, staff and students researched other camps for incoming freshmen. The University of Georgia and the University of Arkansas have large camps, but Texas A&M's "Fish Camp" is the model, Hikes said. Staff visited the school a year and a half ago to learn more about Fish Camp and began planning a "Hokiefied" version of it in September 2007, Sparks said.

About 5,600 Texas A&M freshmen attend their camp, which began more than 50 years ago as a way to introduce freshmen cadets, called "fish," to the school. There are seven sections to accommodate all of the Texas campers this year -- about 70 percent of the freshman class.

Sparks said he sees Hokie Camp expanding into multiple sections and attracting 1,000 to 1,500 students next year. Eventually he hopes to see Hokie Camp enroll 80 percent of the roughly 5,000-student freshman class.

Students will fill out evaluations and their progress will be studied throughout their college career to determine what effects Hokie Camp had on them.

The basic idea of the camp is to lessen the learning curve to allow freshmen to have some friendly faces on campus when they start classes. That could help them assimilate to campus life more quickly.

"I think that's one of the biggest things that new students deal with," Sparks said. "Just trying to figure out where they fit in, trying to figure out some kind of connection to that campus. These students are coming in already with a leg up on everybody else because they have some kind of connection to an upperclassman and to the campus itself and the traditions and the history."

Sparks said there are plans to organize reunions between the counselors and freshmen during the year.

"Please call us, please use Facebook," Tech senior Alexandra Jajonie announced as her small group was navigating its way through the 4-H low ropes course. "We really want to be a resource for you."

Many of the freshmen say they plan to take them up on that. On the bus ride home, students passed cellphones around and jotted down contact information on a notebook to create a list for everyone.

Many counselors at the camp had leadership positions in student government and other organizations. The outgoing nature of the counselors appeared to rub off on students quickly -- which is to say before they had chanted "Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hi" for the fifth time.

"There's so much, like, energy and enthusiasm," said Katie Tubridy of Charlottesville.

An incoming freshman with several close friends who are still in high school, she said the small-group atmosphere made it easier to come out of her shell. A group activity on the low ropes course really helped with getting to know people, she said.

"I can be a shy person, so it's hard," she said. "When you have your comfort zone of friends you've grown up with your whole life, it's hard to go and have to start all over again."

The traditions the students learned about ranged from the silly to the serious. They learned how to use their hands to form "the fighting gobbler" and some learned how to sing the banned-but-popular "Stick It In" football cheer. But they also learned about Tech's motto, "Ut Prosim" and the origins of the War Memorial, built as a tribute to Hokie veterans who died in combat.

"We're not asking 20,000 students to hang out with each other," said senior Matthew Zackon. "But if everyone knows from where the university's come, that's a huge start."

The upperclassmen also discussed the April 16, 2007, campus shootings, a historical event that they lived through but which most of the freshmen only saw on television.

"I know it may be odd for some of you all, being freshmen, not having been here," said Tech senior Joey Muffler at a campfire gathering of all the students Monday night. "Listen to me -- and your counselors and everyone else will tell you the exact same thing -- just because you were not here on that day does not mean that you are any less somehow a part of that tragedy. You may not have been there, but you're a Hokie and that's part of who you are."