On September 25, 2026, the 5th annual Senior College Boot Camp served 280 students from the Aurora leadership community and the broader VALEES and Waubonsee Community College regions. The event provides more intensive support for drafting college essays for admissions and scholarship applications. Students from participating schools can ask a panel of college admissions representatives questions, select workshops for various levels of essay-development support directly from those representatives, and attend a college fair.
High school educators intentionally invite students identified as needing additional support to complete college admissions and scholarship applications. 280 students are registered to attend from Aurora Christian Schools, Batavia High School, East Aurora High School, Geneva High School, Kaneland High School, Leland High School, Newark High School, West Aurora High School, and Yorkville High School.
After the pandemic, Batavia High School College and Career Counselor Paige Buttels proposed this regional partnership event. Counselors at West Aurora and Yorkville High School quickly stepped up to help plan, and Waubonsee provided event support staff and space.
Colleges attending this year’s event included:
- Augustana College
- Aurora University
- Ball State University
- Bradley University
- Cal Poly
- Colorado State University
- DePauw University
- Dominican University
- Eastern Illinois University
- Elmhurst University
- Illinois College
- Indiana University Bloomington
- Iowa State
- John Carroll University
- Lawrence Technological University
- Marist University
- Marquette University
- Michigan State University
- Michigan Technological University
- Missouri University of Science & Tech
- Monmouth College
- North Central College
- Northern Illinois University
- Northern Michigan University
- Northwestern University
- Ohio University
- Ripon College
- Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
- Southern Illinois University Carbondale
- St. Norbert College
- Texas A&M University
- The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)
- The University of Arizona
- University of Arkansas
- University of Chicago
- University of Illinois Chicago
- University of Illinois Springfield
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- University of Kansas
- University of Maine
- University of Memphis
- University of Minnesota Twin Cities
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- University of Oregon
- University of South Carolina
- Valparaiso University
- Waubonsee Community College