“Will you teach me what I need to know?”
YES, and the people skills we teach will carry over across all areas of your life.
We’re Committed to Camper Growth (How We Help You Help Campers)
- Our mission is to strengthen young people’s positive character traits, and to increase their social skills so they can spread those traits more broadly in society.
- What character traits do we focus on?
- We work a LOT on courage, bravery, persistence – encouraging campers to try legitimately scary things. We know that when campers try and succeed at really hard things (like rolling a kayak), they will realize that they can succeed at other hard things in life (like college exams, relationships). It’s the strongest way we know to build resilient people who can bounce back from setbacks.
- We work a LOT on leadership, teamwork, fairness, and sense of community. Our core classes for all new campers are structured to require strong teamwork to pass. We all work together on chores daily, offering campers choices on different ways to contribute to our community, but ensuring that everyone is contributing. When campers behave poorly we try to frame any corrections around the inherent fairness of them repairing harm to the community.
- We work a LOT on social skills. Young people today spend much less time building social skills. They are interacting with humans face to face many fewer hours than ever before. Camp is an intensive lab class on social skills. With no electronics, campers interact with peers and staff all day. We model and praise kindness, helpfulness, friendliness, looking out for others. And we train staff how to coach campers who are struggling.
- As the summer progresses we focus on finding creative ways to instill these traits and skills in our campers through play and fun.
- Our camp is small with a maximum of 50 campers per session. We will teach you how to learn all their names within two days. You will share at least one meal per day with your own group of 5-7 campers. Our small group sizes and team approach ensures that each of our staff members finds moments to connect with each of their campers on a deeper level.
- Our 2- and 4-week resident camp format allows you to really get to know campers and gives you time to connect with and facilitate growth in your campers.
“Is this a Real Job?” or “Should I get an internship instead?”
YES, this is a very real job (with both more responsibility and more fun than most). For many staff members this is also far more valuable career preparation than a technical internship.
We’re Committed to Staff Development (How We Help You Grow)
- Our mission is to strengthen young people’s positive character traits, and to increase their social skills so they can spread those traits more broadly in society. (“Young people” includes most of our staff.)
- Staff attend 10 days of pre-camp training, learning team building, conflict resolution, group management, creative problem-solving, and much more.
- Our staff training continues throughout the summer through evening meetings, teaching observations, and individual coaching.
- Staff receive friendly one-on-one support from a Leadership Team member, who’s there to guide them as they set goals, overcome challenges, and develop skills. We emphasize this relationship as a partnership – Leadership Team members are there to help you in any way you need.
Build A 21st Century Resume By Working At Camp
The Partnership for 21st-Century Learning identified the 4 skills (or the 4 Cs) that today’s employers believe are most crucial to success in the workforce: Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Collaboration. Camp work requires you to hone each of these skills every single day, all while enjoying a job that gets you outside, gets you laughing and playing, and turns you into a role model for children.
What is more, we often hear employers say, “I can teach missing technical skills, but it’s hard to teach someone soft skills.” Our whole business is soft skills! And our leadership team writes excellent reference letters translating camp skills into industry-specific language. Our commitment to staff development also includes advising in the many areas of employment covered by our active staff alumni network.
Some of the Roles You’ll Practice That Will Develop Your 4 Cs
- Good communicator – Our staff members are communicating and learning to connect with people across all age ranges on a daily basis.
- Life-long learner – Our staff members embrace a growth mindset. They know that there’s always room to learn more and improve, and are prepared for any challenges that come their way.
- Community player – Sometimes our staff members are bombarded with what feels like a million challenges all at once. Staff and the Leadership Team members work together daily to overcome problems, develop new ideas, and best support our campers. Our staff members use their resources like Leadership Team members and fellow staff members to problem solve together and come out stronger.
- Creative thinker – Our staff members love to add twists to old games and activities to make them new, fresh, and engaging. They learn how to plan out creative classes and to think on the fly when things don’t go as planned!
- Detail-oriented worker – Our activity manuals have tons of tips for how to break down complex skills and teach them quickly. Staff who pay attention to these details watch their students soar. Outside class time staff have their own small group of campers and notice when the campers not their usual selves. They watch for little cues and changes in their faces, paying close attention to the details!
- Organizer – Our staff members are given large responsibilities and coached to see those through. These can range from ordering and organizing all the food for out-trips, to running camp construction projects, to directing our all-camp talent shows.
- Leader – Our staff members are responsible for young people, which means that they are constantly modeling attitude control, building rapport, encouraging others, building community, acting decisively when needed. More than one employer has been impressed to hear that a 20 year-old has lead multi-night wilderness trips where the safety of a dozen people depended on her sound judgement.
- Problem solver – Staff members are always problem-solving ways to help their campers grow. What might you do if a camper has a hard time when they lose a game? How about shifting the game’s focus to promote recognition of good sportsmanship rather than winning? Staff members learn specific methods to efficiently resolve problems and demonstrate problem-solving techniques for their campers.