On an early July morning, 60 TZone campers and 15 counselors rise and shine, eat breakfast at the Malott Commons, and join supermodel Tyra Banks on Bowling Green Lawn for “Morning Circle”—an enthusiastic round of camp cheers and chants. A few minutes later, the group repeats a mantra of “Go Girl! Do your thing!” as campers take turns darting around the circle performing improvisational dance steps. Laughter and cheers echo across the lawn.
Welcome to TZone, the sixth annual residential camp hosted by Banks and The TZone Foundation. Held previously in southern California camp sites, TZone’s one-week session came to the Scripps campus for the first time this summer. The camp offers a safe environment for the 13- and 14-year-olds to discuss concerns that they may have about entering adolescence.
The camp aims to help participants build self-esteem, visualize personal goals, develop leadership skills, build friendships with other young women, and become motivated to excel academically. Campers bond with their peers while attending dance and art classes, performing in talent shows, testing their physical fitness on a series of rope obstacle courses, and participating in nightly staff-led discussion groups.
One sunny afternoon in the Rose Garden, four counselors and about 25 campers gather under the shady colonnade for a session on photo journalism. The counselors coax the girls to take “me time” to reflect on last night’s topic of friendship. “What does friendship mean? What qualities do you look for in a friend?” ask the counselors as the girls spread out along the wall to write down their theories in pocket-sized journals. Afterwards the girls regroup to take Polaroid photos with their friends and favorite counselors.
Before bounding off to the next activity, two campers and a junior counselor exclaim, “This place is cool.” And since TZone recruits high school students, being on campus helped them realize the importance of doing well in school because, “you know you have to get good grades to go here.”
We had a chance to catch up with Tyra Banks and ask her about TZone objectives and the connection with women’s education. “It all wraps around to education,” Tyra said. “When girls develop a high self-esteem, they are able to attain high achievements.”