I strode into Room 202 of Barbara Flurry Memorial Hall at 6:25 p.m. on Wednesday, July 12, surprising dorms 1G, 2G and 3G. They had hardly seen me at all for the first eight days of Philadelphia Youth Camp 2017—this is my first year since 2005 as neither a camper nor a worker.

Herbert W. Armstrong College registrar Jason Hensley got the campus tour, also known as the “work party,” off to a workmanlike start two minutes before the scheduled time of 6:30 p.m. He introduced himself as not only the college registrar, but also the Imperial Academy registrar, a college business instructor, and a high school Bible teacher.

Mr. Hensley played a five-minute slideshow displaying Armstrong College students in Edmond and England living the abundant life: relaxing at Robbers Cave State Park, dancing at formal events, delivering speeches at Spokesman Club, and generally having a great time.

“As you can see, AC is a lot of fun—never any work,” Mr. Hensley joked before giving the purpose for the college. “AC is about preparing for the future, preparing for eternity.”

Mr. Hensley told the several dozen young girls filling the classroom that 54 Armstrong College students are serving as counselors and sports instructors at this year’s pyc, nearly half of the overall total of workers. But, Mr. Hensley said, student contributions to God’s Work extend far beyond pyc to almost every department.

In an average academic year, Mr. Hensley explained, a college student works 1,240 hours: 20 per week while school is in session, and 40 per week during breaks. For the 2017-2018 academic year, 81 students are projected to work 100,000 hours, which would take one person over 50 years to complete.

Mr. Hensley concluded his 20-minute presentation with five tips to help teenagers prepare for Herbert W. Armstrong College:

1. Take the act early. Retake the test if you are not satisfied with your score.

2. Take the college preparatory classes in high school.

3. Save $4,000 for the admission fee.

4. Share with your minister and with God your desire to attend college.

5. Live this way of life when you return home.

With that, I was off to the Dwight Armstrong Performing Arts Conservatory to join dorms 4B, 5B and 6B for a presentation about Imperial Academy by the assistant principal, Brandon Nice.

Mr. Nice asserted a main benefit of attending Imperial Academy: It is a more interactive online experience than any homeschool course can offer. Online students produce videos for the annual science fair—projects like burning hair in an oven and growing mouth bacteria—just like the local students do. Online students and local students alike dissect dead animals in biology class.

The online classroom interface allows teachers to see online students, online students to see teachers and local students, and local students to see their online counterparts. “It’s as much like a real classroom as we can possibly get,” Mr. Nice said.

One way that life for online students is different is that they cannot attend field trips. However, they are encouraged to do something educational on those days. “Go learn how to gut a deer, work on your jump shot, whatever,” Mr. Nice joked.

Mr. Nice said that Imperial Academy offers the core history, math, science and English classes, plus required credits in the arts, web development, speech, Bible and other subjects. Students can graduate from the school without needing supplemental credits from elsewhere.

The presentation ended with an IA-style game of “The Price Is Right.” Mr. Nice pitted the three dorms against one another, asking trivia questions about the number of students currently attending IA (101), the number of IA graduates (61), the percentage of IA graduates accepted to Herbert W. Armstrong College (88.5 percent, or 54 of 61), the number of countries (5) and the number of American states (16) where students who attend IA live, and the year that IA was founded (2008).

Dorm 5B triumphed over 4B and 6B, earning bragging rights for their ability to guess random numbers.

I walked through the darkened dance practice rooms at the performing arts building and into the choir room, where True Education managing editor Mark Jenkins gave a presentation to dorms 4G, 5G, and 6G about the magazine he holds dear.

Mr. Jenkins previewed the upcoming two issues, the first one with a prayer theme, and the second one focusing on Bible study. Both will be 32 pages instead of the usual 24.

The prayer issue has been in the works for one and a half years, Mr. Jenkins said, but a sermon about Herbert W. Armstrong’s prayer rock, given in January by Philadelphia Church of God Pastor General Gerald Flurry, triggered its upcoming publication. It contains articles about Mr. Armstrong’s prayer life, breaking through to God, the 30 minute-plus prayer program, and praising God’s name. Along with the issue, pcg youths will receive laminated prayer cards.

The Bible study issue includes articles about study resources like concordances, note-taking techniques and strategies, the slow read and annotation. The issue after that centers around the fall holy days and, Mr. Jenkins revealed, is already 75 percent complete.

Mr. Jenkins asked the three girls dorms what True Education articles they enjoy most. Popular categories included life lessons from Herbert W. Armstrong College students, Know Your Bible segments, and stories about historical figures. Campers said that they would like to see more articles reminiscent of the Church’s Bible Story series, personal accounts from pcg teenagers around the world, and get-the-facts pieces on subjects that the dorms failed to answer questions about during Monday’s Bible Bowl at Armstrong Auditorium. Several girls also expressed interest in a Bible memory scripture in each issue.

Finally, Mr. Jenkins offered the anonymous idea box for any campers who would like to submit ideas for the True Education but were too shy to say them out loud. “Donations accepted,” he joked. Although, one girl in the next dorm took that statement seriously and actually put a dollar in the box. The dollar will be going to the offering fund as any other donations do. Thank you random camper.