Tag: summer camp programs

The Benefits of Counselor in Training and Counselor Assistant Programs

November 5th, 2012

A recent article in the New York Times examined a father’s struggle with his daughter’s choice to forego a summer internship to spend the summer working at her former summer camp.  Upon first hearing of his daughter’s choice, the father was concerned that the camp counselor experience would not ultimately prove substantial on a resume.  However, upon further consideration, he concluded that the internship experience was overrated. Based on statistical data, those who have intern experience do not secure jobs any faster than those who do not, and  the well-rounded experience his daughter would gain while working at camp added to the benefit of being able to delay the start of an “office job.”

Even before entering college, former campers who’ve become too old to attend camp decide to enter their camp’s counselor in training program.  As the college student who was the subject of the her father’s New York Times debate, many parents of former campers find themselves wondering about the benefits of counselor assistant programs versus a year off from camp, teen tours, or a more traditional summer job.  In addition to providing a very good transition from the role of camper to staff member, counselor in training programs are a great foundation for college.

College is a clean slate for students.  When students leave high school, they also leave behind their reputations and accomplishments.  Like college is a place at which students have the opportunity to demonstrate that they attained the skills to succeed in college through high school, counselor assistants or counselors in training have the opportunity to demonstrate that years of being a camper have given them the skills required to be a good staff member.  As part campers, part staff members, they have opportunity to take initiative and show responsibility by performing some of the duties of a camp counselor.  In doing so, they also gain entry level work experience.  They are accountable for performing up to the standards set by their camp leadership, they report to multiple supervisors at various levels, and by nature of working twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with children, they must perform jobs responsibilities with immediacy.

A counselor in training or counselor assistant program is also a great way to help teenagers choose a college.  Since counselor assistant or counselor in training groups tend to be smaller than other camp age groups, the smaller setting can help students decide whether they prefer a larger college with more students, like those of their younger camping days, or a smaller, more intimate setting like that of their counselor in training or counselor assistant group.  Living at camp is also time away from home that helps those thinking of college determine whether living away from home in a dorm setting or living at home while attending a local college is more to their preference.

Ultimately, regardless of whether a former camper decides to do a traditional internship once he or she gets to college, a year or two spent as a counselor in training or a counselor assistant could help build some of the most helpful tools for making some very important, life impacting decisions regarding college and work.

Choose Your Own Summer Camp Adventure

October 18th, 2012

There is a new trend sneaking into summer camps.  An increasing number of sleepaway camps are foregoing the traditional pre-determined summer camp schedule in favor of giving campers complete control over their summer camp experience.  This approach to summer camp has become  a particularly popular approach to the summer camp experience at session camps, which tend to attract a less traditional family of campers than seven week camps.  And the appeal is mutual.

Allowing campers to customize their experience gives them the opportunity to experience a traditional summer camp while enjoying many of the same benefits that they might enjoy by attending a specialized camp.  It’s truly a best of both worlds scenario, and the response has been overwhelming.

There is certainly no shortage of children who want to experience summer camp.  The conflict seems to arise from increasingly busy summer schedules and the pressure placed on children to be great at—well—everything.  Despite our inclination as adults to want them to be everything we are and more, along with everything we are not, children need time and space to be…children.  Enter the session sleepaway camp, an environment catered to letting them be themselves while improving their skills in those activities they love while giving them ample opportunity to try out new ones in shorter, more realistic segments for the busy family.

In addition to having freedom over their activity choices, the independence children gain while at summer camp is also a great way of letting them try out their wings. For many children, camp is their first experience away from their parents.  It’s the first time they’re choosing their own clothes, deciding what to eat, determining which activities to try, and learning how to be part of a social network without the assistance of mom and dad.  For those children not quite ready for the full summer experience, a session camp is the perfect way to give camp a test drive.
So if you’ve hesitated to enroll your children in summer camp because you’re afraid it’s too much structure, or if you’ve been thinking you would like them to learn how to be a little bit more independent, consider a session summer camp.  It just may be the perfect fit.

Camp: A Different Set of Expectations

October 9th, 2012

Okay, admit it.  You’ve found yourself spending a considerable amount of time admiring that candle your daughter gave you on her camp’s Visiting Day or those wooden bookends your son brought home.  Part of you wonders how come you never got to make stuff that cool when you were a kid while another part of you is mystified by how the arts and crafts staff of your child’s summer camp was able to draw out the Picasso in your little ones.    After all, you can barely get them to focus long enough to make a poster for their science projects.  What is it about camp that seems to facilitate children’s creativity?

Sure it’s woodsy and remote, even quaint–the perfect place for children to feel free to be themselves. They certainly do a lot of things at camp that they don’t get to do at home.  And you did spend the entire summer looking at photos of your daughter posing in a rainbow colored tutu—Did she ever take that thing off?—and of your son covered in face paint knowing full well that neither of them would EVER dress like that at home.  And was that your son dressed as a dog singing on stage?  Singing?  Him?  Really?  And last night he just told you, by the way, that he is trying out for the school play this year because the camp play was really fun.  He would never ever—even if someone had double dog dared him—have auditioned for a play before camp.  What changed?  The Expectations.

There are a lot of reasons children find themselves exploring more creative avenues at summer camp, but one really big one is that the expectations are different.  Children learn to respond to expectations.  Moreover, they learn to respond to the expectations of individuals.  They understand that their parents have expectations as do their teachers, siblings, friends, coaches, so on and so forth.  Whether  we’re comfortable admitting it or not, a lot of the expectations in that ten month world campers know as “winter” in some way promote conformity.  Expectations placed on children at home, in school, etc. emphasize the importance of following rules and established guidelines.  Of course, camp expectations do this, too, but the emphasis at camp is not to find one’s place in that larger whole by blending in but by standing out.  Camp is a place in which children are encouraged to try new things in a quest to find their passion.

Sure you’re thinking of those photos of your daughter holding up her latest tie-dye creation for the camp photographer’s camera—those ones in which she was covered to her elbows in dye—and you’re thinking that’s you wouldn’t really classify tie-dye as a “passion.”  Maybe not.  But it could be the beginning of one, the spark that leads to an interest in art or the arts, or even just the memory of trying something new that turned out to be fun that lends courage to trying other new things.  The expectations in the “world” of camp is that campers will explore it.  Perhaps this is why it’s no surprise that many well known figures attended summer camp and attribute it to being the place where they found long-term direction.  Sure, learning how to plunk out folk songs on a guitar is a long way from the philharmonic and being part of the chorus in the camp play is certainly not Broadway, but the idea is the same and, for many campers, it’s the start of building enough self confidence to stand out.