Central Texas College is gearing up for their first ever GeekFest, a weekend-long event to celebrate all things geek. "Geek" things at the event will include gaming, fantasy, anime, technology and science fiction.

GeekFest will be held at the Mayborn Planetarium and Space Theater on the CTC campus Aug. 27-29. The event will kick off Friday at 6 p.m. with a Havenswatch demonstration, a Magic tournament and some World of Witchcraft sessions.

A Modern Warfare tournament on the Xbox 360 will begin at 7 p.m. and a costume party will also be held. Also on Friday, the film festival opens with "Star Trek" at 7 p.m. and "Rocky Horror Picture Show" at 10:30 p.m.

The film festival continues Saturday with "Video Games Live" at 10 a.m. Other movies scheduled throughout the day include "Teenagers From Outer Space," "Last Man on Earth," "Things to Come," "Nerdcore Rising" and "Serenity." Tickets for the film festival can be purchased early Aug. 20-22 at the Planetarium box office. Tickets are $5 per day or $7 for both days.

Workshops on Saturday will feature award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Elizabeth Moon. She has written such novels as "The Speed of Dark," "The Deed of Paksenarrion" and "The Oath of Fealty." Her workshops will be from 11 a.m.-12 p.m., 12 p.m.-1 p.m. and conclude with a book signing from 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Other workshops scheduled for Saturday include "Learning in 3D" at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.; "We Do Robotics" at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.; "Live Action Role Play and the High Fantasy Society" at 12 p.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.; "Lego NXT" at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., "Upgrade Your Machine for Online Gaming" at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. "Advanced Chess Strategies" at 12 and 1 p.m., "Screenwriting" at 4 p.m.; "Basics of Graphic Novels" at 5 p.m.

Tournaments and play scheduled for Saturday include PS3 and Xbox free play, a Halo3 tournament on the Xbox 360, Warhammer tournament and demonstrations, HeroClix demonstrations, Starcraft, World of Witchcraft, a Streetfight tournament on the Xbox 360, a Modern Warfare 2 tournament, a Madden tournament on Xbox 360, Magic demonstrations and open play, and Yu-gi-oh open play and demonstrations.

A costume contest will also be held on Saturday and participants are encouraged to dress up as their favorite sci-fi, fantasy or gaming character.

Sunday sessions are for Cub Scouts and will feature belt loop/academic programs focusing on astronomy, video games and computers. There will also be a parent session to help parents speak "geek" with an overview of current gaming trends.

A silent auction, door prizes, food and more will also be a part of GeekFest. Proceeds from the event will benefit the CTC student ambassador program which was created in March 2009 to assist the college with community outreach, recruitment and retention.

For more information, visit GeekFest online at www.starsatnight.org/geekfest.

Children attending the AVID camp at Central Texas College launched their homemade rockets into the sky last Friday to usher in the last day of the camp.A group of youngsters launched several homemade rockets at Central Texas College last Friday to kick off the final day of the three-week AVID camp and to celebrate their graduation from the summer program.

AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, and it is a college-preparatory elective for students in grades four-12 to help them acquire the skills they will need to succeed in their upcoming school years.

"AVID helps support students in the most challenging curriculum for that student," said Pamela Carter Kirschner, AVID district director for the Killeen Independent School District.

"We work on courses for the students that directly relate to ones they will be taking."

The program began locally three years ago with a grant from CTC to help KISD, and is currently being used as a pilot test for the other districts. The camp is being funded by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

AVID is a state-approved elective system that helps to prepare students for four-year college eligibility.

"We take students who are capable of doing more than they are currently doing," Kirschner said. "All of the students are recommended into the program by their teachers and schools. This year we had 62 kids attend the three-week camp."

The program is geared toward children who may have never imagined themselves in a college environment before. Kirschner said many of the children attending the camp would be the first generation in their families to go to college.

Students launched their homemade rockets into the sky last Friday while attending AVID Camp which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination at CTC."These are the kinds of students we are looking at and want to help," Kirschner said.

"This camp allows students to be exposed to a college campus. Just the other day I heard a student going into eighth grade tell her friend, 'I really see myself in college now,' and that is what we want."

The three-week camp counts as a college elective for the students who choose to take it, and they learn new skills and how to use them each day.

The children were divided into different teams by age during the camp, and the groups were tasked with various challenges each day. For example, teams were given math challenges each day, which had them solving problems and reporting their answers to win points for their team.

"Having an elective course like this where they've got a nurturing, caring teacher supporting them is something very important for them to have," Kirschner said.

"These kids have got skills and are using them to be better prepared," Kirschner said. "They have made a choice to be more academically ready."