Any analysis of the National Youth Sports Program (NYSP) usually produces two conclusions: (1) The participants, youths from low-income families, are valued for who they can become as much as for who they are, and (2) the adults who administer the programs have just as much fun as the kids.

Take Purdue University's Tom Templin, who administered the school's first NYSP camp this summer and can't wait for the next one.

"Purdue wants to make an impact in the community, the state and the nation, and this is a small way to help in that engagement effort," Templin said. "We took the campers to the World Basketball Championship in Indianapolis. Going into the RCA Dome for some of them was maybe like going to another planet. It was an experience they'd never had before."

Or the University of Toledo's Ruthie Kucharewski, who is used to having people pay attention to her when she walks into a room.

"But when I walk into the NYSP math/science sessions, the kids don't have a clue that I'm there," she said. "I come in when they're on the field playing soccer or in the pool swimming, and they all stop and look at me, but when it comes to math and science, no way."

Or Bill Harms, project administrator at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, who enjoys watching the kids learn as much as the kids enjoy learning.

"The hands-on opportunities are unbelievable," he said. "The teachers we get here and the projects they plan generate a lot of excitement for these kids."

The NYSP, which began in 1969, receives testimonials like those annually, which is why about 200 NCAA member schools each year are eager to hold camps at their campuses. The benefits are two-fold: The institutions give back to their communities and at the same time fortify future advocates for higher education.

The program was first developed by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare; the President's Council on Physical Education and Sports; and the NCAA. The NYSP was designed as a summertime alternative for economically disadvantaged kids, who participate in the 25-day camp at no cost. The NCAA used to administer the program, but proposed federal regulations that would challenge the independence of the NYSP from the NCAA caused an internal examination of the relationship.

Now, while federal dollars support the program, NCAA member schools provide the facilities, sweat equity and people power. And for most of those people, it's a labor of love.

"Our school has engagement as one of its missions, which is linked to outreach to the community and service to others outside the university -- to make an impact through partnership," said Purdue's Templin, a professor and head of the department of kinesiology. "That's exactly what this program did. We reached out to 200 kids from low-income families and provided a special educational experience for them."

The fact that Templin refers to the experience as educational is important. NYSP's success is anchored in the way it uses sports as the gateway to learning. To be sure, participants are enticed to master skills such as the bounce pass in basketball, the backstroke in swimming or the grip on a three-wood in golf. But kids also are exposed to math and science, and they learn how to prepare for a standardized test. Then there are the intangibles, such as leadership, sportsmanship, character and respect. It's a lot for 25 days, but the 10- to 16-year-olds have shown they can absorb it.

"The curriculum itself is beneficial to the children in that they learn strategies for daily living," Templin said. "And, importantly, enveloping all that is a focus on positive self-esteem and personal social responsibility. Kids better understand how they're responsible for their futures and their actions."

The power of math and science

While it might be easy to attract youths with basketballs, softballs and footballs, it may be harder to command their attention with fractions, percentages and long division.

Yet Toledo's Kucharewski, an associate professor and NYSP project administrator who focuses on the math/science component, said it's easy if the right people are delivering the content.

"We subcontract with personnel from the Center for Science and Industry, who come with all the bells and whistles," she said. "It's almost like a magic show. Everything is hands-on, interactive, colorful and visual."

She also said the impact is hard to miss.

"It happens from the day they arrive," the 10-year NYSP administrator said. "It's the power of math and science. When they're involved with that stuff, I could walk in and announce something and they wouldn't even give me a second look. I've even said to them that it kind of makes me feel bad that they don't pay attention to me."

Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Harms said NYSP participants in the math/science component are exposed to a world they probably don't otherwise see at school. Harms even brought in a physics instructor, who used a bed of nails to show that his discipline wasn't as painfully difficult as it sounds.

"He laid down on it and brought in an assistant to do the same," Harms said. "The kids were fascinated."

Other "experiments" Harms' kids have conducted include an "egg drop," which involves parachuting eggs from heights onto various insulated landing areas to see which avoid scrambling. There's even a cockroach race as a learning tool.

Unconventional, perhaps, but effective.

"If you hire the right instructors who can deliver the message so the kids can get it, the program works wonders," Harms said.

Senior sensations

Another component of NYSP that has worked wonders since its inception in 1996 is the senior program.

The program is designed specifically for the 13-16 age group and aims to enhance participants' academic and social preparedness. The curriculum emphasizes reading, writing and computer technology, in addition to a course on standardized test-taking. One of the goals is to prepare the senior NYSP kids for the college experience.

"Those kids have different needs," said Kucharewski. She said before the senior program was developed, the teenagers complained that they were too old to be doing what the younger kids were doing.

"But at the same time, we believed they were too young to be considered adults," Kucharewski said. "They are the 'tweeners,' the kids for whom it's not 'cool' to be in NYSP. So NYSP rose to the occasion of looking at the programming for the older children."

Kucharewski said the curriculum is successful because it's much more age-appropriate. "For example," she said, "last summer, we brought the Red Cross in for a life-saving class, a skill you can take with you and it might help you get a job. In the general NYSP guidelines, it's difficult to fit something like that in."

Students also are taught how to write résumés, apply for jobs and do service work in the community.

"We had them this year at a shelter where they painted and sorted clothes. We let them officiate games and be captain of some of the younger teams. We give them much more responsibility," Kucharewski said. "If you raise the bar, they will meet those standards."

Also included in the senior program is a leadership initiative, which is designed to enhance participants' self-esteem; a parent orientation; and a community-service project. Also, a collegiate student-athlete involvement initiative brings in current college student-athletes to share their experiences, mentor NYSP participants and provide athletics skill instruction.

All for one

Taken together -- the math and science components, the senior program, the focus on sportsmanship, character and respect -- NYSP features a dynamic curriculum that changes with the needs of the generations of kids that pass through the program. It's an all-for-one approach that ensures each participant is cared for.

And, as University of Indianapolis assistant women's basketball coach Megan Schmidt said, the hours of program coordination are worth every "impact moment."

Schmidt, who coordinated her school's first NYSP camp last summer, received a phone call two weeks into the camp from a mother who said it was the best activity in which her daughter had ever been involved. Before the camp started, the youth never wanted to go to bed at night and never wanted to get up in the morning. The mother would struggle with her until 1 or 2 in the morning to get her to go to sleep.

"But during the camp," Schmidt said, "the girl was too exhausted to stay up, and then she was waking her mom up in the morning with her alarm because she was so excited to go to NYSP. She's had a better attitude since and she's sleeping at night.

"The program benefits the kids in a lot more ways than they realize -- in diet, structure and physical activity. They have a great time playing the sports and doing the activities, but the parents are the ones who see the changes for the better in their children. That makes all the work worthwhile when you see the impact it has on the kids."

Those are the types of rewards program administrators invariably refer to when they talk about hosting NYSP. They also realize that it is in the school's best interests, since NYSP participants hopefully will become college participants.

"It's one way to give back to the community and it also has a potential payback in that some day these campers may be students," said Purdue's Templin. "We hope this camp will light the fire in some of these kids to pursue higher education, particularly at Purdue."

Toledo's Kucharewski has been an NYSP project administrator for five years, and before that she served on Toledo's NYSP advisory board for five more.

"Why is NYSP so great? It's a constructive use of the children's leisure, and it's educational," she said. "Some of these kids have nothing but NYSP in their lives. If we can give them something, perhaps they'll give back to the community later on.

"It enhances the quality of their lives."