Summer camp experience in USA

I completed my practical training this summer (2019) at Camp Sloane in Connecticut US. I’ve spent my past three summers now at Sloane and it has become my second home. It is a great place for learning and growth and you always get to know amazing campers and staff there. I have been lucky to work in such a place.

I had a pleasure of having two new roles this summer. I was an Arts director, which meant that I had a team of 10 counselors who taught activities such as: acting, dance, crafts, drawing and cooking. My responsibilities were:

Supervising a counselling staff of 2-15 counselors in the daily delivery of activities.
Monitoring the safety of my activity areas in accordance with the standards of Camp Sloane
YMCA, the State of Connecticut and the American Camp Association.
Designing classes in my activity discipline that are both skill-progressive and age-appropriate.
Overseeing final assignment of campers to classes each week.
Creating and utilizing a skill-progressive system of recognition within my activity area.
Assisting in and assigning my activity area for evening programs.
Attending to the maintenance and repairing of all equipment used at my activity area.
Attending evening office duty hours as assigned by the program director.

My other role was to be a Boys camp director. In boys camp we had 4 villages for different age groups. I mostly worked with and provided support to the 4 male village directors and to their staff if they needed it. My responsibilities were:

To be in charge of honor village checks once a week (making sure living area meets the camps cleanliness and activity expectation)
Helping out with on-duty needs.
Communication between village directors and Camp director.
Managing with micro-issues that might come up with staff in villages.
Working with the male staff to get them to the next level.

Summer camp is not for everyone, we work long hours with little free time caring for others and challenging ourselves to be the best versions we can to be great role models. Even though it is a much harder job than you could imagine it is also the most rewarding one. I would recommend it to others if they love working with kids and are ready to challenge themselves.

Author: Alisa Savolainen K9293