Counselor Blog

Everyone has skills and abilities. Some are your unique aptitudes and talents that come to you naturally and easily. Other skills and abilities will be added or improved upon through education, training, and experience.

You will need many skills in the 21st century job market.

The experience gained from working a camp is a stepping-stone on your long-term career path. You have the opportunity to acquire and practice critical 21st century job skills at camp that will be transferable to all of your future environments — professional and personal.

Translating these might be as difficult as getting campers to bed each night, but if you can identify the skills you have developed, then you will have those important items that fill a resume and carry you through interviews.

Many human resources managers in lots of different fields find summer camp experience very impressive because of the level of dedication and commitment required. Summer camp also demonstrates that you can adapt well to new cultures, which is essential for success in many corporate environments. In fact, many corporate executives were once campers and/or camp counselors themselves.

If you’re an education major, it goes without saying that experience working directly with children is a huge plus on a new teacher’s resume.

EMPLOYERS LOVE REAL-WORLD CONTEXT!

The camp experience is unique. Participants eat, sleep, work, and play 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Since it's a small community, counselors must work collaboratively with the administration, camp nurse, maintenance department, waterfront director, other staff, and kitchen help. This experience can't be duplicated in a normal 9–5 summer job.

What you’re doing is important! Check back to the blog as we discuss several 21st century skills YOU are learning at camp and should be putting on your resume.

In the meantime, tell us the most significant thing you learned from this camp season in the comments below:

Camp is an action-packed adventure — so it’s no wonder that campers can become a little tired, moody, or grumpy at the thought of the camp season ending and having to say goodbye to their friends.

Use these 4 tips to help campers beat the “end of camp blues”:

1. Remind campers that they’ll miss camp because they had fun — and that feeling is normal.
2. Encourage campers to reconnect with friends at home and let them know the importance of sharing camp experiences and stories with those friends.
3. Tell them to watch for or plan local reunions and get-togethers where they can connect with friends from camp.
4. Explain that they can stay in touch with camp friends. Have them exchange addresses, e-mails, or phone numbers.

Before using these tips, make sure you know the rules about connecting with your campers after camp.

• If your camp’s policy does not allow you to communicate with campers after the season is over, make sure you do not give out your contact information.
• If your camp has social media policies, make sure you and your campers are following those rules, too.

Now go out and enjoy these last few weeks of camp!

Again this week, we look at “apps” you don’t need a cell phone to access at camp! Kim Aycock, MST, shows you how to be flexible this summer with a “Gumby App” — for those times when bad weather, technical difficulties, or longer-than-expected activities threaten “regularly scheduled programming.”

Kim writes:
“It may be impossible to teach someone to be flexible, but rather, it may be helpful if you are aware of times when you will be called on to 'be Gumby' as a counselor and adapt to any changes that come your way. Veteran staff can verify that you may need to use 'plan B' because the weather is bad; a technical difficulty with equipment arises; a planned activity takes ten minutes to complete and you thought it would last for an hour . . .”

Try this game with campers to practice “a change of plans”:
“‘Change That Tune’ is an activity where small groups pick a short song that everyone knows and then challenge each other to sing the old song to a new tune and rhythm . . .”

Check out more ideas from Kim Aycock.

Sandy Cameron, former editor-in-chief of Camping Magazine, offers advice on how to pace yourself for the summer season.

In the heat of the summer, it's easy to lose focus and begin to feel burnout. Read these ten summer survival tips to cool the burnout and maintain your energy and enthusiasm at camp.

An internationally recognized in trainer and mentor for youth, Jeffrey Leiken, M.A., shares advice for making a positive impact on a difficult bunk.

At some point each summer, it seems we find ourselves faced with the "difficult bunk." This is the bunk in which the wrong combination of personalities creates bad chemistry. Sometimes the campers just don't get along. Sometimes they do get along and have chosen to become famous for their prankster ways. Whatever the problem, the result is an excess demand on our time as we respond to their needs, and often this leads to a bunk meeting.

Christopher Thurber, board certified clinical psychologist and co-founder of ExpertOnlineTraining.com, offers advice to counselors working with campers who have attention deficits.

There are opportunities to teach every child better self-control. Of course, being spontaneous — even a little out of control — is fun. It's just that learning to listen, concentrate, and sustain attention are also important life skills. Camp is an ideal setting for cultivating self-control and controlled chaos.