Lynn students revved up to check out race car, Harley at Camp Bulldog

LYNN – English High School sophomore Gerson Estrada was in his element when he got to rev the 500-horsepower engine of a Mitsubishi Evolution that is just this side of street legal.”I am into cars,” he said with a grin. “I want to know all the parts, I want to work on them and build my own.”View a photo galleryEstrada, 15, along with about 50 other students got a taste of what it would be like to attend Universal Technical Institute when school officials stopped by Camp Bulldog on Wednesday with the Mitsubishi, a Harley Davidson and an official NASCAR race car.Camp Bulldog is a four-week summer program aimed at introducing incoming freshmen and a handful of returning sophomores to high school life. Director Matthew Wilkens said getting students to start thinking about college, technical or trade schools is part of the process.”The lesson for that today is the race car,” he said.Students’ eyes widened and hands covered ears as Dan Poor from UTI fired up the 1,200-horsepower NASCAR engine, which was significantly louder than the Mitsubishi.Incoming freshman Connor Gallant said he liked the camp.”It’s better than staying home and doing nothing,” he said while seated inside the NASCAR vehicle.The program runs Monday through Thursday and starts with breakfast at 8:30 a.m., Wilkens said. It includes activities such as gym, art classes, dance and theater, summer reading on iPads, math tutoring, lunch if they want to stay, along with the college readiness program.Classical High School is also running a similar program, Camp Ram.”The advantage is you get to meet new students, get a tour of the school so you know what it will be like when you come in September, and you get to meet teachers and guidance counselors and develop relationships,” Wilkens explained. “They get exposed to a lot of things.”Another advantage is getting a jump on the summer reading requirement. This year LEHS launched a one-book campaign, which has every student and staffer reading the same book, John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars.” Wilkens said students read every day for a certain period of time so they will at least get a start on the book if not finish it before the program is over.”This is the second year for the program,” he added. “Last year we had 30-35 kids. This year we have 50-60 and I’m expecting more.”The program is free and loosely run, and allows kids to go to the program even after the start date, which was Monday.”If they stay with it they get to go to Canobie Lake (Park) at the end,” Wilkens added. “It’s a good incentive.”The race car was all the incentive Estrada needed.”It’s my dream to go to this school,” he said. “It’s been my dream since I was a small child.”He also said he likes Camp Bulldog because it has allowed him to make new friends and meet more people in the school, even seniors, which helps make the fall less nerve-wracking.Incoming freshman Jillian Boles was uninterested in the race car and admitted her mother made her attend, but she admitted the program wasn’t a bad way to spend a day.”It’s not bad,” agreed Ange Merlin, also an incoming freshman. “If I weren’t here I’d be home sleeping.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].