You’ve made an amazing choice to work at camp. You already know many of the reasons why your choice is amazing: the friends, the fun, the difference you’ll make in the lives of your campers.

And I’m here to make sure you know about the professional value you’ll get from this experience. From my own 10 summers of working at camp, and also from researching the camp staff experience, I am confident in saying that working at camp is one of the most incredible professional experiences you could ever have. It’s as good as (if not more valuable than) the noncamp internships and jobs that many of your friends have lined up. So, let’s talk about what makes this true, and how you can maximize the personal and professional value of your summer camp job.

One more thing before we get started: I want to be honest that getting the most out of your decision to work at camp will require effort before, during, and after the summer. The benefits, however, will stay with you for many, many years to come. OK, let’s go.

The Personal Value: Autonomy, Belonging, and Competence

Let’s start with maximizing the personal value of working at camp. Research shows that these are the three key drivers to feeling motivated and fulfilled — whether it’s at work or in other areas of life:

Autonomy.
The freedom to make choices. At camp you get to be part of so many choices, both big and small. Sometimes these choices are within bigger decisions already made by camp leaders. Even then, though, as a staff member you will tend to have quite a bit of say in the programs you create and run, the way you interact with campers and other staff, the things you do in your time off, the games you play during the in-between times from one activity to the next, and many other decision points.

Belonging.
Both being connected to others and contributing to something bigger than just yourself (e.g., camp, campers’ lives). Camp is built on belonging. On community. As a staff member at camp, every time you act you are meaningfully contributing to what the community is creating. The impact you make is immeasurable, because for every positive action you take, there is a ripple effect that extends beyond just that moment and carries to other people and future moments. Ultimately, this becomes what your campers and your peers will remember for years to come.

Competence.
Knowing you have an ability to do something effectively. This can come in moments both big and small. You feel competence, for example, when you run a successful program, when you help a homesick camper shift into having more fun, or when you get up in front of peers at the staff talent show and share a gift you have. You also feel competence over time, like when you finish a session or the summer and reflect back on your successes.

These three drivers of motivation and fulfillment overlap; you might even feel them all at once in some cases. For me, belonging was the most prominent early in my staff career, then competence caught up, and, eventually, autonomy joined the other two in full force. No matter the ratio, you’re going to experience these key drivers countless times throughout the summer.

So, what does this have to do with professional value? Well, when you feel motivated and fulfilled you are much more likely to be the best version of yourself as a staff member, which will allow you to take full advantage of the growth and development that a staff member can experience.

The Professional Value: Skill Development

Camp is a workplace, and you are an employee. Camp is also so much more than a traditional workplace; it’s an immersive experience to which you bring your whole self, and because of that, you can develop an endless range of professional skills.

“What kind of professional skills?” I’m glad you asked! Virtually any professional skill you can think of is developed, to some extent, at camp. For some concrete examples, let’s dive into some 21st-century skills and examples of staff member behaviors/actions that connect to developing these skills:

Communication

• Explaining program rules, objectives, etc., to campers and peers
• Providing and receiving feedback, both praise and constructive criticism

Critical Thinking

• Deciding how to respond to an unexpected situation such as a disagreement between campers
• Taking many different perspectives, ideas, and opinions into account when planning a program

Creativity

• Coming up with an idea for a game or activity despite limited resources/materials
• Finding a way to motivate an unmotivated camper to participate

Leadership

• Ensuring that a decision-making process is inclusive of others’ ideas
• Guiding the process of assigning roles and tasks for a program or project

Professionalism

• Getting assigned tasks and projects done on time
• Communicating about camper issues with camp professionals and/or family members in an appropriate manner

Collaboration

• Supporting someone else’s idea by contributing complementary ideas that enhance the initial proposal
• Being responsible and accountable to your part of a shared responsibility

You are going to do these all the time this summer. Which is really great, because the opportunity to frequently repeat these types of behaviors/actions accelerates skill development and, in turn, is another part of what makes working at camp so amazing. (Bonus points if you’re a returning staff member who is entering yet another summer of frequent repetition and skill building!)

Maximizing the Value Starts Now (Pre-summer and/or During Staff Training)

There is no reason to wait until summer begins, as you can choose to take some very important steps right now.

Look into formalizing your summer position.
As an undergraduate psychology major, I went to my advisor and to the campus Career Services office and shared that I was going to work at camp. It turns out that working at camp could count as a practicum for my major (and count for course credits if I paid for them) and as an official internship through Career Services that would appear on my college transcript. (I returned to my camp job the following summer, and it was added to my transcript as a “returning internship,” which looks great to employers!)

Set clear goals for yourself.
One way to go about all of this is to wait until the end of the summer and ask yourself what you gained by working at camp. A better approach, though, is to look ahead at what you want to accomplish this summer and set some tentative goals. (It’s valuable to have a starting point; then you can adapt them along the way.) These goals could be based on a set of skills (such as the 21st-century skills previously listed) and incorporate what you see as your strengths to build on and your opportunities for growth in different areas. For example, maybe you’re already a strong collaborator and team member, and you want to work on stepping into more leadership opportunities.

Anticipate (and create) opportunities.
Whether you’ve worked at camp in previous summers or not, you can start to identify what opportunities might be available for you that connect with the goals you are setting. Continuing with the preceding goal example, if you want to step into more leadership opportunities, think about (and, if helpful, ask a year-round camp leader about) when you might be able to do this. Will there be unit-wide or camp-wide programs where you could be part of the committee that plans and implements these programs? If so, what are the steps to take to earn a spot on that committee? Is there a year-round or seasonal leadership team member to talk to about these types of opportunities in advance of the summer? You get it. Think ahead and be proactive.

Maximizing the Value in Real Time during the Summer

Keep your precamp momentum going.

Track your progress all summer long.
You are the best person to track and document your progress during the summer. You don’t want to only rely on mid-summer or end-of-summer evaluations, for example, to capture growth, especially as it relates to your own set of skill-related goals that you’re working on continuously all summer long. Keep notes about the successes and challenges you experience — both of which serve an important purpose. Successes mark your achievements, and challenges mark your journey of growth.

Focus on your repetition.
As I mentioned before, the high frequency of repetition is one of the most unique features of working at camp compared to other jobs. You should focus on how your skills evolve throughout the summer, and one relatively easy way to do this is to keep track of how you act in similar situations over and over again. There may be no better sign of growth than showing how something that was previously a challenge for you became a successful endeavor as the summer progressed.

Identify a coach/mentor and ask for their support.
You are not in this alone. Remember, you are part of a community, and a coach/mentor within the community can play a very valuable role for you. Your direct supervisor is a good candidate because they are likely to see you in action on a more regular basis than any other camp leader. That being said, a coach/mentor could be a different leader at camp or a peer who you have confidence in to serve in this type of role. Regardless of who it is, ask them for support in your goal setting and progress tracking.

Maximizing the Value after Summer Is Over

It’s time to translate the value of working at camp for noncamp people.

Put Camp on Your Résumé

You’ve made it to the most highly requested section of the work I do in supporting camp staff — how to articulate the value of working at camp. A few examples from my own experiences are provided here, and I am happy to connect and share more (see my contact information at the end).

Camp staff fall into two general categories: those looking to have professional careers that involve working with youth (e.g., teaching, social work, health care) and those looking to have professional careers that don’t typically involve working with youth (e.g., sales, finance, engineering).

For those looking to work with youth professionally, these are sample résumé entries:

• Bunk Counselor for 8- to 10-year-olds
• Residential Summer Camp (June–August 2023)
• Monitored the social, emotional, and physical safety of 12 campers at a time for eight weeks
• Developed and implemented daily programs for my campers that incorporated teamwork, critical thinking, and social interaction
• Allocated time for one-on-one conversations with each of my 12 campers

For those looking to work in professions that are not youth-focused, these are sample résumé entries:

Team Member
Nonprofit Youth Organization (June–August 2023)

• Collaborated with 20 to 25 coworkers to develop multiple mission-driven projects each week
• Created and implemented new ideas on a daily basis in order to build trust and reduce conflicts
• Balanced three leadership responsibilities to accomplish both personal and team goals

It’s worth noting that there could be overlap between these two versions as well, depending on the type of position you’re interested in.

Translating Camp Experiences into Stories of Professional Skill Development

Being able to tell your story in a way that conveys the professional value of working at camp is equally important to what’s included on your résumé. The following illustrative example follows the STARRE method for concise and powerful storytelling:

The interviewer or application prompt says, “Tell me about a time when you had to manage a project.”

Situation:
I was working at a large nonprofit youth organization, a summer camp, that had 70 staff and 250 campers.

Task:
I was assigned to plan an all-camp Olympics for those 320 people.

Action:
I led a committee of my peers on deciding the budget, timeline, and goals for the program.

Result:
The program went great — the feedback from the camp leadership was that we had succeeded in bringing the areas of camp together as one community.

Repetition:
I, along with the committee, was asked to run it again later in the summer. We made changes based on feedback, like having it be even more collaborative than competitive.

Emotion:
I was originally pretty nervous when I was assigned to run this program, though succeeding twice in one summer gave me confidence in my ability to manage a team and large-scale projects.

Conclusion

You were right. You’ve made an amazing choice to work at camp. In addition to the belonging — the friends, the fun, and the difference you’ll make in the lives of your campers — you can now feel more competent and have more autonomy in how you maximize the personal and professional value of working at camp. It is in your hands, head, and heart to make this the most rewarding and valuable summer possible. Don’t hesitate to reach out with questions or to share your successes in the next part of your camp staff journey. We’re all in this together!

Daniel Shore, PhD, is a researcher and consultant across the gamut of human interaction, from government cybersecurity teams to summer camp staff and leaders. In the camp space, he co-runs e21, an organization that aims to strengthen the value proposition for working at camp — including the professionalization of the camp staff experience. He combines his expertise in analytics, teamwork dynamics, and employee motivation with his 10 summers working on staff at an overnight camp in Wisconsin to support camps on leveling up the staff member experience. He is an ardent believer that to have happy campers, you need happy counselors. You can reach Dr. Shore at Daniel@e21.org.