Upstate New York Winter Gathering

Registration now open! Register by November 11, 2026 to get the early bird rate!

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Consultants may not self-promote at the conference and must register under the consultant rate unless they are a confirmed speaker at the conference.

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Jarod "W" Wunneburger is a visionary education leader and consultant with over 15 years of experience driving transformative change in schools, after-school programs, and camps. As Owner and Education Consultant at Thrive Point Studio, he specializes in leadership development, organizational design, and training programs that improve retention, performance, and culture in summer camp settings. Previously, Jarod served as Director of Programs at Farm and Wilderness and ran Camp Timberlake, an overnight wilderness camp for boys ages 9-14, where he developed hands-on expertise in camp operations and youth development. He has presented at numerous American Camp Association conferences across the country, delivering sessions on classroom management, coaching systems, leadership development, and behavior management strategies. His camp consulting work includes transforming staff observation frameworks, redesigning disciplinary approaches from punitive to restorative models, and developing leadership training programs that have resulted in measurable improvements in staff retention and confidence metrics. He holds a Master's in School Leadership from Harvard University and a Master's in Special Education from St. John's University, and his approach focuses on aligning strong individual habits, intentional community culture, and robust organizational systems to create lasting impact in camp environments.

Keynote Details Coming Soon!

Schedule at a Glance

• 9:00-9:30 — Coffee & Check-In
• 9:30-9:45 — Welcome 
• 9:45-11:00 — Session 1
• 11:15-12:15- Session 2
• 12:30-1:15- Lunch & Announcements
• 1:30-2:30-Boys of Summer Screening with Q&A
• 2:30-3:30- Closing

NPR went looking for a camp because of what the research keeps saying about boys: that they are lonelier than they used to be, with fewer close friendships and less practice being honest with each other. They wanted to film a place where that was already being addressed, and where the work looked like summer.

Boys of Summer is the NPR Studios original documentary that came out of it. It follows a cabin of teenagers at a remote summer camp in the Vermont woods across one summer. Free from screens, they learn to open up and support one another. It is a tender vérité portrait of vulnerability and friendship, and of the quiet rebellion of feeling deeply.

The film premiered this year and is not yet streaming, so can only be seen at a camp conference. 

Jarod Wunneburger spent five years directing the camp where it was filmed and now leads educational and community engagement strategy for the documentary. He has spent fifteen years building programs for kids, at camps and in schools, and now works as a school administrator in Vermont. He will screen the film in full, take you behind the scenes on how NPR made it, and discuss the mix of staff skills, intentional culture, and robust systems that made it happen. 

It is a love letter to the work of all camps, and a reminder of what that work is for.