Category: Campfire Conversation

Human AI: The Secret to the Best Summer Camp Experience

February 27th, 2026

Artificial intelligence, large language models and more are all the rage now. New tools, new processes, new workflows. AI at summer camp is going to be a real thing.

Director Kate has used Claude and Gemini to develop a new bunk log system that will both improve the info we get from our staff each night (still no screens in the bunks!) and for us to review. We’ve updated our menu, created new guidebooks for staff, improved our inventory controls and more.

I’m sure we are barely scratching the surface of what this new set of tools can do for us. Use cases abound, even at camp in the Pocono Mountains. AI can certainly help summer camp.

However, artificial intelligence is not even close to the most important AI at Camp Weequahic. Here are the top 5 most important AIs for camp… at least at Camp Weequahic!

Authentic Inclusion: Building Friendships at Camp

This is what we all want, isn’t it? To find our group, to be accepted for who we are now and who we are becoming. At Weequahic, we build connections before camp starts with our Pen Pal program. New campers are bunked with other new kids their same age. New kids start building friends quickly thru the activities they’ve chosen together. All of this is done under the watchful eyes of our selectively chosen and personally trained staff. Camp begins and ends with community which is why this AI is number one!

Active Interaction: Getting Kids Off Screens

At Weequahic, we move and play and create with no phones, social media or comparison. Campers interact with each other and our staff and enjoy spontaneity like nowhere else in their lives. (There is a great podcast on those two points with Jeff Leiken.) From the time campers wake up until their close their eyes to dream about the next day, they are actively interacting all over camp.

Attitude Influence: Teaching Kids How to React

Camp is the perfect place to realize that we control our response to actions… and to practice that control. Without the dopamine rush of video games and the phone, our kids have more control over their nervous system and their emotions. With those near-peer counselors modeling the behaviors and responses we want, campers’ attitudes are changed for the better.

Audacious Independence: Building Independence in Kids

Parents want to protect their kids. We have three of them – we get it! The idea of shipping them off to camp is a scary one, especially if you’ve not done it yourself. (More than half of our families have no ‘summer camp’ experience.)

Camp is the perfect place for kids – and parents – to build what feels like audacious independence. They pick what they get, choose their programs, solve their problems, and more. Of course, all of this is in a supportive environment that keeps everyone safe… while allowing kids to expand their comfort zones. This broadens their world, brings happiness and builds confidence. It’s among the great benefits of summer camp.

Always Improving: One Idea at a Time

This one may be for us. We can’t help it – we are competitive with ourselves. This will include new tools like artificial intelligence as well as a lot of old tools: books, paper and pencil, a phone and a whole lot of conversations. Whether we improve how we train our team, the offerings at camp, the message at campfire, the activities… camp should always be improving while keeping the core – the continued growth of our kids and staff – of utmost importance.  

So, there you have it. Five AIs that are a lot more important than artificial intelligence at camp. Do you agree? Disagree? What did I miss? Happy to go ‘old school’ and talk about it any time.

Until then, have a great weekend and may Spring start quickly. The faster it gets here, the faster we’ll all be back together again at camp!

New Frames for the Green-Eyed Monster

January 2nd, 2026

Kiddos, I promise this not a history or English lesson. Instead, it’s an old idea that is just as useful – perhaps even more so – today. So… a bit of an opener:

A New York City-based researcher and teacher on emotions recently gave a talk to a high school of 1500 students. He did a bit of research with them prior to his talk. He asked them all to let him know (anonymously) which emotions they most often felt at school.

Now, when I think about what y’all will be feeling most, I would have bet money the answer would be ‘anxiety.’ That’s been the main source of anxiety for the parents with whom I speak about you during the year.

Well… we ‘adults’ would be wrong. The emotion most felt by these 1500 high schoolers?

Envy.

That means looking at someone else and wishing you had what (you think*) they have. A better grade point average or hair or social media following or calmness or whatever. Surprising but true. But it’s holding young people back from being their best.

How do you get past it? Two ways. Here’s the first:

Reframing

Some of you wear glasses or contacts all the time. I wear two different sets of frames often. My sunglasses help me when I drive to see new campers. The other lenses I use are to help me read (and type this!) As I get older, this part of my vision continues to get worse. It’s not terrible… but I definitely need these ‘reader frames’ to help.

I also wear another set of frames from time to time that no one sees: the green-eyed envy frames.

Shakespeare wrote a line in Othello talking about envy:

O, beware, my lord, of envy; ‘tis a green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat upon which it feeds.

I read that a long time ago and it always stuck with me. When I look at someone with a repeatable, effortless golf swing, I’m envious. Someone who can handle the intricacies of the tax code, I’m envious. My sister-in-law who seems to be able to eat whatever holiday treat she likes without worry… I’m envious.

But – that emotion doesn’t help me. Unless… unless I reframe the situation.

Rather than looking at Nelly’s golf swing with envy, I can reframe it to be ‘what can I learn from her move to apply to my own?’ Same thing with understanding the tax code or recognize how much my sister-in-law exercises and drinks so much water, etc.

If you reframe the feeling as an opportunity to learn from or imitate something admirable, you’ll begin to use that envy for good. There is a second way to get past the negative effects of envy:

Gratitude

Full disclosure: when I heard the researcher say this second answer to getting past envy, I yelled out ‘YES!’ in my car. (Thankfully, I was alone!)

My friends, when you feel envy and then think about all the good in your life – your great school, teacher, friends, family, home, opportunities for activities, CAMP and more… it begins to swamp those envious feelings. It turns your eyes from the envious shade of green to whatever natural color they are. (There are different shades of green, you know….)

But, is that enough? Just thinking about a couple of good things every now and then?

Well… that helps but only in the way an Advil takes away the discomfort in my lower back: just for a little while. Until I start stretching more, that pain is going to be there.

But, if you practice your gratitude daily – telling a loved one each night your top three, for example – you start to focus more on that which brings you joy and peace and calm.

You’ll notice that you’ll be less focused on that which you don’t have (and think that other person does*) and more on all the good in your life.

My friend, beware the green-eyed monster of envy. If you let it, it’ll eat you up. Instead, reframe and get better. And… be grateful. Every day.

*That friend or acquaintance you think is killing it? Careful here: you are comparing ALL of the information you have about yourself with the little you think you know about your friends. In other words, you are comparing your inside with everyone else’s outside.

More than likely, they are struggling with something else. We all are. It’s a natural condition of us humans. Be kind to yourself… and those around you. You’ve got no idea of what is going on in their heads or hearts.

PS – Happy New Year!

Team handball

Love the Moment

October 17th, 2025

What parts of camp did you love most last summer? Playing with your friends on the ‘big bouncies’ in the Lake? Laughing in the bunk with your bunkmates? Perhaps it was one of the incredible Evening Activities or sitting by the campfire?

When you think back of those moments, you not only get a memory but a feeling. There is an extra energy that comes from loving those moments, one that makes the moment even more special.

Sister Corita Kent said this: Love the moment and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.

This is easy to do at camp – there are a lot of moments that are easy to love! That’s why its so easy for us all to do so many things during a day, wake up the next day and do even more! Could you move and interact with the same energy at school as you do at camp? While I doubt you can right now, I bet a subtle shift in perspective could help.

Love the Moment

Working on that paper. Cleaning the dishes after dinner. Making your bed before school. Riding the bus or the car or the scooter on the way in.

All of these (and all the others!) are moments you can love. You don’t have to love the coach that is speaking sternly to you or the grade you get back. You should appreciate those as learning moments… before you fall in love with the process and moments of getting better.

Some moments are easier to love than others. Yes, dancing on your chair in the Dining Hall at camp is certainly more lovable than unpacking that ziplocked sandwich and bag of chips. And, in the second situation, you are getting to eat. You are probably around some buddies. You aren’t in class. These are all things you can love.

(You can also really love the class work and the interaction with your teacher!)

Get the Energy

When that love of the moment is flowing, the energy starts, too. You feel more ‘up’, more alive. You are totally engaged and probably bringing others along with you. You’ve got a spring in your step and (normally) a smile on your face. (MJ used to stick his tongue out when he was loving the moment. Look it up if you don’t believe me!)

So, if you want more energy, more pop in your life, all you have to do is choose. Am I going to love this moment? Am I going to search for things I love about it? Or, am I just going to let it pass on by with a ‘meh… no big whoop’ or, worse, ‘this stinks.’

You get to choose your focus and the story you tell yourself. So, pick wisely!

(PS – Attitudes like this are ‘catching.’ So are the negative ones. Be thoughtful who you spend your time around as their attitude may rub off on your, too!)