How a major university uses our private Florida retreat campus to bring first-year Honors students together
By Mike Sokol, Owner, Orange Springs Retreat Center
September 2026 · Approximately 7-minute read
When the University of Florida Honors Program brings its first-year Honors students together for H-Camp, the setting matters.
As a UF alumnus and the owner of Orange Springs Retreat Center, hosting the Gator Honors Students on our campus is particularly meaningful. It is also a clear example of how a private retreat environment can support a large student program.
H-Camp is the official retreat of UF’s Honors Program. It brings first-year Honors students together at the beginning of the fall semester for two full days focused on connection, leadership, friendship, and integration into the Honors community.
For 2026, the official University of Florida H-Camp page lists Orange Springs Retreat Center as the location for the program:
H-Camp | Honors – University of Florida
H-Camp has been held at Orange Springs every August since 2022. The 2026 retreat was the fifth. The Honors Program has already reserved the campus for a sixth H-Camp in 2027. Though we do not speak for the University, we do know what five summers and a sixth reservation look like from the venue side: a large group that needs to arrive together, stay together, eat together, and leave with relationships that continue on campus. We are glad to serve the University of Florida!
Why H-Camp is more than an overnight trip
According to the University of Florida, H-Camp is designed to welcome and integrate first-year students into the Honors Program.
That requires more than hotel rooms and a meeting block.
Students need room to:
- Build friendships with other first-year Honors students
- Interact with experienced student leaders
- Participate in group activities
- Form connections around shared interests and goals
- Spend informal time together outside scheduled sessions
- Work in an environment that is both mentally and physically engaging
UF describes H-Camp as a two-day experience built around those goals.
When a group is together that long, some of the most useful moments happen between sessions — at meals, during recreation, and in the conversations that start when nobody has to leave for another address.
That is why the retreat environment is part of the program, not a backdrop.
Why a university retreat belongs on one campus
A university retreat has different logistics than a conference.
A large student group needs somewhere to gather, eat, sleep, take part in activities, and spend unstructured time together.
If those pieces sit on different properties, the schedule starts depending on buses, headcounts, and the next departure time.
On a campus designed for groups, lodging, meals, meetings, recreation, and gathering spaces can stay inside one environment.
For H-Camp, that supports the stated purpose: helping students form connections that continue after they return to Gainesville.
H-Camp at Orange Springs Retreat Center
First-year Honors students leave the UF campus and spend those days in a different setting — one organized around being together.
Orange Springs is a private 100-plus-acre campus. One group uses the property at a time.
The campus includes:
- Climate-controlled cabin lodging
- On-site dining
- Meeting and gathering spaces
- A spring-fed lake with a private white-sand beach
- Canoeing, kayaking, and paddleboarding
- An inflatable water park
- Sports fields
- Tennis and basketball
- A ropes course and climbing wall
- Trails
- Campfire areas
- A swimming pool
The point is not the amenity list.
The point is that those pieces sit on the same private campus, so the program does not have to become a transportation exercise.
H-Camp’s return for a fifth summer, with 2027 already reserved as the sixth year, is the practical test of that setup.
The Honors Program keeps bringing the same retreat back to the same campus.
The value of keeping the group together
The advantage of a private retreat campus is simple:
The group can stay together.
Students do not have to leave the retreat to move between lodging, meals, and activities.
Organizers spend less attention on where the next shuttle is.
That matters for a program whose purpose is relationship-building.
UF says the friendships formed during H-Camp continue to strengthen throughout students’ time at the university.
Those connections do not happen only in formal sessions.
They happen at meals.
They happen walking between activities.
They happen sitting together after an event — when the group is not being moved to another site.
A private retreat environment creates more opportunities for those moments.
What UF’s H-Camp results show
The University of Florida’s own published results speak to the program, not to the venue alone.
For H-Camp 2025, UF reports that:
- 96% of campers rated their H-Camp facilitators as excellent
- 91% rated H-Camp as an excellent or near-excellent introduction to UF and UF Honors
- 96% said they were extremely likely, or more likely than not, to recommend H-Camp to a friend
Those figures belong to UF Honors.
We do not claim the campus produced them.
They do show what a university is aiming at when it takes first-year students off campus for an immersive retreat centered on connection, leadership, and community.
What other university groups can take from this
H-Camp is a useful example for universities, colleges, honors programs, and student organizations.
The question is not only whether the property has enough beds.
Better questions include:
- Campus footprint: Can the entire group stay on the same property?
- On-site dining: Can meals happen on site?
- Flexible spaces: Are there spaces for the whole group and for smaller breakouts?
- Self-contained recreation: Can recreation happen without leaving campus?
- Informal time: Will students have meaningful time together between sessions?
- Exclusivity: Will another group be sharing the dining hall, waterfront, or meeting rooms?
- Schedule control: Can the organizers control the schedule and environment?
Those questions become more important as the group gets larger.
A venue that works for a 20-person meeting is not automatically designed for a 100- or 200-person student retreat.
A university retreat at Orange Springs
H-Camp is one of the organized groups that use Orange Springs Retreat Center.
The property began as Camp Shalom in 1971 and became a year-round exclusive-use retreat venue in 2002.
The operating model has stayed straightforward:
One group at a time.
One private campus.
No other organization sharing the retreat environment.
That is the setting UF Honors has returned to every August since 2022 — five H-Camps so far, with a sixth already reserved for 2027.
We are proud to host H-Camp, and we are glad to keep serving the University of Florida.
A Florida university or college retreat
H-Camp demonstrates one approach to a university retreat: take a large group of students out of their normal environment, give them time together, provide meaningful activities, and create the conditions for relationships to develop.
For universities, colleges, honors programs, student organizations, and other educational groups considering a Florida retreat, the venue should be evaluated as part of the program — not simply as a place to sleep.
The right retreat location can reduce logistical friction and leave more of the retreat for the reason the group came.
And when the entire group has the same private campus, those opportunities do not have to end when the scheduled session does.
Learn more about Orange Springs Retreat Center
Orange Springs Retreat Center is an exclusive-use retreat venue in North Central Florida, on more than 100 private acres near the Ocala National Forest, for organized groups of approximately 60–200+ guests.
Official UF H-Camp page: H-Camp | University of Florida Honors
Group Retreat Venue in Florida
What Makes a Retreat Venue Truly Designed for Groups?
Rates, Availability & Booking Guide
Orange Springs Retreat Center’s 2026 calendar is fully booked, with an active waitlist for cancellations. New reservations are focused on Fall 2027 through Summer 2028.
Located just south of Gainesville, Florida, Orange Springs Retreat Center offers Group Retreat Rentals, Fall & Spring School/Church Camp venue, and an ideal Summer Camp Location designed for groups. What separates us from other retreat venues is true exclusivity:
“One Group At a Time Always- No Shared Spaces, No Outside Guests”
