- Academics
- Summer Camp
- Upper School
Photo by George Pfefferkorn '26
It’s a June Tuesday morning and 36 bright, junior high-aged boys from 12 states have gathered in McCallie’s Black Box Theater for an exercise in social networking with a room full of adults.
“Hi, my name is …” each boy says, holding out his right arm for a handshake. “What’s yours? Where are you from … What do you do?”
It goes on like this for more than an hour, the students rotating from one adult to another after six or seven minutes, each stop ending with the adult grading the student from 1 to 10 on his effort.
“Nice to meet you,” most say before moving to the next adult, often exiting with a closing handshake. “Thank you for talking to me.”
Welcome to Leadership Camp, a two-week, all-expenses-paid experience for young men thought to be strong candidates for the Michaels-Dickson Scholarship program. Enrollment in the camp is not a requirement to be considered for MDS, but it does provide both the school and the students a chance to see what McCallie is all about and how they might fit in. The prospective students apply for admission to the camp, which included boys from as far away as California, Minnesota, and Texas this summer. Traditionally, about a third of these boys each year become McCallie students, most enrolling as ninth-grade boarding students.
Photo by George Pfefferkorn '26
“Leadership Camp allows us to introduce McCallie to some high-achieving boys across the country who might not otherwise know about McCallie,” said Hank Bramblet, the school’s Director of Admission and its Michaels-Dickson Scholarship Program Director. “It allows us to get some really talented students on campus in the summer and give them a taste of what McCallie is all about.”
McCallie is all about camps, period, in the summer. The campus hosts six boarding camp opportunities, including Leadership Camp, Sports Camp, Father-Son Weekend, Lacrosse, Soccer, and Entrepreneur Camp. This summer saw a total of 807 boys enjoy those camps.
But the school also has 14 Day Camp options, which brought a total of 1,563 campers to campus in June and July, including some as young as five years old. School may be out, but there are more than twice as many boys total (and a few girls) on campus during the summer than during the school year.
In past years, the Leadership campers have lived in Founder’s dormitory. That changed this year with a move to Belk. According to recent graduate, former Leadership camper, and Michaels-Dickson Scholarship recipient William McDowell '26, that move had at least one advantage.
“With access to Belk, we had the opportunity to use the Blackstone Grill on the Belk patio one night and cook smash burgers for the campers,” recalled McDowell. “It was a great bonding experience for everybody.”
Almost no one knows the ins and outs of both the Leadership camp and MDS more than McDowell. His grandfather, Ed Michaels '60, co-founded the Michaels-Dickson program with Alan Dickson '49 as a way to bring young men of exceptional character and academic achievement to McCallie.
McDowell, a native of Atlanta, not only received an MDS, but also won the Winning Shake competition at Leadership Camp as a camper, an award that was given to the boy at the end of camp who had performed best in a series of competitions. That award no longer exists as the camp has focused less on individual success and more on teamwork.
But to show that award was no fluke, McDowell won the first-ever 1905 Award this past year for his leadership skills during his time at McCallie.
“I’d gone to Sports Camp at McCallie for four or five summers and I loved it, but when I went to CLC camp (what Leadership Camp was called at that time), it meant so much more to me,” said McDowell, who’ll be attending Georgia Tech this fall. “That’s really when I first learned about Honor, Truth, and Duty, but also service. I’m so eternally grateful for that experience and for the Michaels-Dickson Scholarship. My time at McCallie has been a life-changing experience.”
History shows that those Leadership campers who wind up as McCallie students often change the school for the better.
“It’s amazing how many of these kids go on to win some of our highest leadership awards before they graduate,” said history teacher Keith Chapin, who has worked with the Leadership camp program for eight years. “They’re elected to TEPS, Keo-Kio, and the Senate. They win academic honors. They’re high achievers, and they make the school better.”
They also, increasingly, have many more options than McCallie when it comes time to decide where they’ll go to high school. Many, if not all, of this year’s thirty-six campers were being pursued by multiple elite private schools, some of which are offering full scholarships, regardless of need.
“It’s very competitive,” said Chapin. “We have kids at camp who’ll be offered a full scholarship to Phillips Exeter. The competition for some of these kids is fierce, but we feel like we’re getting some really good kids every year.”
McCallie’s determination to land its fair share of these students includes numerous projects and exercises designed to evaluate the campers’ potential to excel at McCallie. But there is plenty of fun time. Most Leadership camps include whitewater rafting excursions, a trip to an Atlanta Braves game, mountain hiking, a trip to Lookout Mountain, and daily dives into McCallie Lake.
Photo by George Pfefferkorn '26
As one camper noted more than a week into his stay, “There’s been something fun to do every day. I love it here. I hope my parents let me come here.”
This is what Bramblet, Chapin, and others hope to hear. As Bramblet noted, “Mr. Michaels’ vision was to find the best boys in the country and get them to McCallie. We feel like we’re doing that.”
If a well-grilled smash burger helps that mission along, all the better.
Photo by George Pfefferkorn '26
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