Student Camp Leadership Academy
Empowering Tomorrow's Camp Professional
The Student Camp Leadership Academy (SCLA) is a weekend retreat that brings together students, camp professionals, ACA staff and leadership to explore, learn, and understand what the camp professional of the future must be and the leadership opportunities within the ACA structure at the local and National levels to impact the development of youth and others. For more information about the SCLA and its history, please read The Student Camp Leadership Academy: Developing the Next Generation of Camp Professionals.
After successful completion of the SCLA experience, all students will receive an ACA SCLA certificate.
Midwest
Nov. 11-13, 2011
Hosted by Midwest ACA Sections: Great Rivers, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, St. Louis & Wisconsin
Camp Henry Horner
Ingleside, IL
Cost: $35 program fee plus $100 room and board
West
Feb. 3-5, 2012
Hosted by ACA, Southern California
Lazy W Ranch Camp
San Juan Capistrano, CA
Cost: $35 program fee plus $115 room and board
Application Process for SCLA – West Applicants
Southeastern
Feb. 21-23, 2012
In Collaboration with the ACA National Conference
Hosted by ACA, Southeastern
Hyatt Regency
Atlanta, GA
Cost: $35 Program Fee
Lodging: Students may work with SE to coordinate housing at the hotel @ $89/night, or arrange for accommodations on their own.
Application Deadline: January 13, 2012
The cost for the entire weekend experience is $35.00, plus meals, lodging, and transportation of choice/necessity. For students who use airline transportation, SCLA leaders will arrange transportation to and from local airports and the SCLA site at no additional charge.
SCLA fees can be paid for by:
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Please, note college students wanting to attend SCLA must apply and be approved to participate through their ACA local office regardless of where the funding for the students' SCLA fee is coming from (even if the student is paying for himself or herself).
Applicants must:
- Be approved by his or her local ACA local offices
- Be a current student member (undergraduate, graduate, or recently graduated) of the American Camp Association
- Have an academic and/or professional interest in the camp profession
- Be in attendance or show proof of registration currently at the college/university level
- Be employed in the past for at least one summer in a day or residential camp setting
- Be approved by his or her academic advisor
Approval and Scholarship Criteria
All SCLA applicants must be approved by the ACA local office regardless of who pays the registration fee.
Applicants will be judged on camp experience and involvement both volunteer and paid, related professional experiences, leadership, demonstration of professional involvement and commitment to a career in the camp profession.
- Complete the form. Include a current resume and a letter of support from a camp professional. Students may use their own word processing program instead of the application form. However, the student is required to present their application in the same format, and approximate spacing as the original application.
- Sign the application.
- Obtain academic adviser signature on application.
- Applications should be submitted electronically as a PDF document to your local ACA office by the application deadline for each course listed above. Find your Local ACA Office e-mail address.
- Applications will be reviewed by your local ACA office. Contact your local ACA office to inquire about scholarship opportunities.
- Applicants will be notified of their application status In writing by U.S Mail or e-mail.
- Approved applicants will receive an acceptance letter, an event schedule, and transportation planning tools including driving directions to the SCLA site, and an invoice for your registration fee. Scholarship recipients will be also be notified at this time.
- Once a student receives his or her welcome packet from SCLA, students should then review the information below regarding logistics for the event.
Information for Students After Approval by their ACA Local Office
What To Bring
"The three-day leadership training adds to their resume, improves their career opportunities, and offers fellowship with others who have found a passion to do a job they truly enjoy." Janice Rinaldo
- A GREAT attitude!
- Your resume and professional portfolio (if you have one)
- Notebook and pen
- Appropriate clothes (i.e., camp casual and comfortable) and rain gear for the weather
- Sleeping bag or bedding/linens and pillow (You will be sleeping in a cabin.)
- Hiking shoes
- Personal items (i.e., towel, wash cloth, soap, shower things, medications, etc.)
- Anything else you need to be comfortable
- Bring a University T-shirt and/or hoodie for a group photo.
Information for ACA Local Offices
The purpose of this section of the SCLA web site is to better inform ACA staff and volunteers on what to do and how to proceed with processing SCLA applications.
Local ACA office representatives will forward all approved applications and scholarship information by e-mail to the host site:
SCLA Southeastern
Katie Johnson
765-342-8456, ext. 341
kjohnson@acacamps.org
SCLA South
ACA Texoma Field Office
765-342-8456
SCLA Midwest
Gordie Kaplan, Executive, ACA, Illinois
312-332-0833 Ext 22
gordie@ACAil.org
SCLA West
Lupine Reppert
(765) 349-3521
lreppert@ACAcamps.org
If you are awarding a scholarship, you will be invoiced for the applicant.
About SCLA
The group that started this program and have conducted it since 2005 includes representatives of ACA Great Rivers, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, St. Louis, and Wisconsin. We hope that eventually other ACA local offices will offer an SCLA in other locations around the country, so that students can attend for the lowest transportation expense possible. Until additional SCLA's are available, the SCLA held in northern Illinois will continue to be open to any seriously interested student from anywhere around the United States as space permits. With the addition of SCLA South and SCLA West this is also true.
The SCLA Planning Committee also welcomes participation of one or more section leadership representatives from other ACA local offices considering offering an SCLA in their part of the country or who has or has had a student attend SCLA from their area.
The SCLA Planning Committee needs the help of local offices to ensure a smooth applicant approval process. As you noticed from the information presented above, all SCLA applications will be sent to the students' local ACA office.
SCLA usually takes place in late October/early November, which makes the application deadline usually the first Friday in October. Please, familiarize yourself with the "Application Process" presented above. You will notice that SCLA applications will be submitted to the Section Executive electronically as a single PDF file. Then, the ACA local office must review the applicants and approve or not approve the applicants by the Friday after the application dealine. Please e-mail which students will be coming to to the appropriate host office.
The SCLA Planning Committee wants a student's local ACA office staff member, volunteer leader, or Education and/or Scholarship Committee to review each application to try to ascertain if a student is seriously interested in the purpose of the SCLA and that the student is emotionally mature (i.e., being able to participate by supporting the learning experience of others, learn from others, and function as a part of the group without taking an inordinate amount of the group's attention to meet their own personal needs). The student application deadline is a guideline, NOT an absolute deadline. Our goal is to enable up to 25 students nationally to attend SCLA.
In regard to an approval process, many use their Education and/or Scholarship Committees as a review panel for applicant screening. Some students may receive a scholarship from the local office. Some students may be approved to attend SCLA, but not awarded a scholarship. Participating ACA local offices tend to offer between 1 and 5 SCLA Scholarships each year. Some ACA local offices give scholarships to cover the SCLA registration fee, while other ACA local offices provide scholarship(s) for registration fees plus the cost of transportation.
After your local office completes the applicant review process, please e-mail the names and contact information of approved students and scholarship award winners to the SCLA host office. Each host will then contact the applicants. If your local ACA office does not approve an applicant, it is the responsibility of the local ACA to inform that student in writing by letter or by e-mail.
If you award scholarship(s) to one or more students, you will be sent an invoice for reimbursement. Students who are approved to attend SCLA, but not awarded a scholarship will receive an invoice for their SCLA registration fee. Please, be clear when e-mailing in regard to which of the students from your office have been approved with a scholarship from your office, and which students have been approved and not awarded a scholarship from your office.
If you have any questions regarding SCLA (i.e., approval, finances, logistics, invoices), please contact:
Gordie Kaplan
Executive Director
American Camp Association, Illinois
67 E Madison St Ste 1406
Chicago, IL 60603-3014
Phone (312) 332-0833 Ext 22
Cell Phone (312) 835-9692
FAX (312) 332-4011
E-mail: gordie@ACAil.org.
If you have any suggestions regarding the content of this SCLA web site, please contact Dr. Nathan A. Schaumleffel at nathan.schaumleffel@indstate.edu or 812-237-2189. Our goal is to make the SCLA student recruitment and screening process as smooth as possible.
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