The Recruitment Reality Check

You're sitting at your desk, staring at a list of unfilled summer staff positions. Your recruitment materials beautifully showcase leadership development, personal growth, and the meaningful impact of camp employment. You even set up an online application process that can be easily navigated from a cell phone. Yet, student applications aren't flowing in as expected. If this scenario feels familiar, you're not alone — and there's a reason why.

The UltraCamp Summer Camp Employment Study revealed a fascinating disconnect: while over half of students surveyed (54.96 percent) cited personal growth as a top factor in evaluating summer opportunities and about three-quarters of students surveyed (74.47 percent) recognized summer camp's potential for personal growth, nearly two-thirds of students surveyed (62.76 percent) cited compensation as their primary reason for looking elsewhere. Students want growth and they see camp employment as a valid way to attain it, but they don’t feel like they can afford it.

Inside the Student Mindset

Today's college students face unprecedented financial pressures. Rising education costs, competitive internship markets, and mounting student debt create a lens through which they evaluate many, if not all, opportunities. When considering summer employment, students often get hung up focusing on the paycheck and struggle to conduct a more complex cost-benefit analysis that factors in everything from housing costs to career advancement to personal growth.  

While camp directors overwhelmingly focus on promoting the positive experiences camp offers its staff (91% emphasize this in recruitment), students are increasingly concerned with minimizing perceived costs, both financial and personal. The traditional "come grow with us" message, while still important, isn't enough on its own.

Reframing Your Value Proposition

The solution isn't necessarily offering higher salaries (though it certainly helps) — it's communicating value more effectively. Consider this: when a student takes a summer camp position, they're often receiving:

  • Lodging and food
  • Professional development and certifications
  • Leadership training that corporations spend thousands providing to entry-level employees
  • Networking opportunities with industry professionals
  • Real-world experience managing people and programs

Yet we rarely quantify these benefits in our recruitment materials or pitches. Instead of simply stating "room and board included," break down the actual value. Rather than promoting "leadership experience," translate it into corporate equivalents along with the kinds of investments that the job market often makes to achieve those outcomes.

Four Steps to Better Communication

  1. Audit Your Materials — Review your current recruitment messaging. Are you leading with growth opportunities when you should be leading with value? Are you clearly articulating the total compensation package?
  2. Speak Their Language — Frame benefits in terms of cost reduction and future value. For example: "Save $3,000 on summer living expenses while gaining management experience valued by top employers."
  3. Get Specific — Instead of vague promises about skill development, provide concrete examples: "Gain 300 hours of documented leadership experience managing teams and programs.”
  4. Show the Math — Create transparent breakdowns of total compensation packages, including:
    • Base salary
    • Value of room and board
    • Cost of certifications provided
    • Estimated value of training received
    • Additional benefits (staff discounts, potential bonuses, etc.)

Moving Forward

The research is clear: we're not facing a value problem — we're facing a communication problem. Camp employment remains one of the most comprehensive professional development opportunities available to college students. By adjusting how we present this value, we can better align with student priorities while maintaining the core mission and impact of camp employment.

Success in modern camp recruitment requires understanding that while students deeply value personal growth and meaningful experiences, they need help justifying these opportunities within their larger financial and professional landscape. By bridging this gap in our communication, we can help students see camp employment not as a summer job, but as a valuable investment in their future.

About the Author

Donnie Keele III leads Media & Learning at UltraCamp, bringing 18 years of experience in summer camp operations and higher education student affairs. His research bridges the gap between camps and future staff, focusing on student attitudes toward camp employment.

This blog was written by UltraCamp.


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