Few fields combine such a variety of backgrounds and disciplines as the camp field. Management roles in camps, outdoor education centers, or conference/retreat centers require some know-how and background in very technical fields such as human resources, nutrition and health care, food service, facility and business management; it also necessitates the blending of the principles of youth development and social group work, recreation, physical education, psychology, and education.
Read MoreSummer may be a time for relaxing in the sun, but many students cannot live solely on student loans and ramen noodles. Students are discovering that they can earn much more than cash as a camp counselor.
There are approximately 1.2 million camp staff in the United States today. A camp job or internship differs from a traditional job or internship because it provides students an opportunity to gain resume-building skills or even academic credit while working with children in the great outdoors.
Read MoreYou love the outdoors. You love hiking and biking and sailing. And — your good friend says you're great with kids.
If you relate to this, then there's the perfect place waiting for you: summer camp. Over half a million college students will find their way from their campus to camp this summer to fill openings at camps across the United States.
Imagine a job where almost anything is possible:
Read MoreEach year, ACA’s Eleanor P. Eells Award for Program Excellence recognizes camps that embody the award’s namesake by creating exceptional programming and developing effective, creative responses to the needs of people and society through the camp experience. We celebrate the 2014 winners, as well as the first Eleanor Eells Award-winner for Excellence in Research in Practice.
Read MoreI grew up at Camp Arcadia. I was so excited to finally be a real camper in 1942. My mother, Juliette Meylan Henderson, called Mum Mum by everyone, was directing the camp with her father, Dr. George Meylan. Arcadia, a camp for girls, had been started in 1916 and my grandfather, who already owned a boys’ camp, bought it in 1920.
Read MoreI have spent many interesting summers at my town summer day camp in Weymouth, Massachusetts, and I am excited to be part of that experience again. I met some very good friends at camp and some people I wish I had not met. The people who are part of the community of a camp can teach you many things and they are often very nice.
Read MoreNo camp is immune to sneaky food raids. Over the years many camp directors have reported food incidents involving bears, strangers break-ing into kitchens, and, most often, camp staff. Tales of food raids are often legendary among staff, and they provide fodder for staff campfire stories and unspoken challenges that crop up each summer. Making the call about how to approach each food service-related issue falls to the camp director.
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