Job description

Summer Camp Consultant

When I started school, I knew I wanted to look into consulting. I had the opportunity to connect with people who wanted to start a summer camp and needed a group of young adults to help with the process. I went to many summer camps in upstate New York and saw how they were managed and structured.
 
A consultant is a person who offers advice to an organization in a specific area. Because I was new to the camping world, they offered lessons on what camps focused on and the experiences they provided children. For my project, I focused on making camping a more inclusive experience for children.
 
When we went to different camps, I interviewed the children and staff. I wanted to know what they liked and disliked about their camps. We also saw how living arrangements varied between camps. The way they were structured made me evaluate the best accommodations for the future children in our camp.
 
As a consultant, three things were important to me.
Adaptability
Creativity
Communication
 
Adaptability
Camping was a new experience for me, and there were things I had never done before. I have never been to a summer camp as a child. My only camping experience was staying in a cabin for a group retreat in high school. Our supervisors wanted us to see and experience the type of cabins kids were staying in. We had a rotating system for cabins. When we were not traveling, we worked in the camp. We all had to stay there for one month. We all started in cabins with a room to ourselves. As the weeks progressed, we moved to different ones. We could also sleep in a tent when we visited a camp quite far from us.

There were also unexpected circumstances that we all had to adapt to. We went to many different summer camps where communication was not the best. Miscommunication with camp directors put us in uncomfortable circumstances. When these situations happen, we all evaluate our best course of action. Visiting different camps also meant we needed to adapt to their culture. Depending on what summer camp we visited, things were significantly different. In certain camps, there were ways in which you needed to interact with a child. Some places were more carefree, and others were more structured.
 
Creativity
We had the opportunity to work with architects and suggest how we wanted our camp to look. Staying in different types of cabins made me evaluate what aspects I thought were outdated. When people think of a summer camp, they might think of a rustic place. A place where being uncomfortable is part of the camping experience. When we moved to the more standard cabins, I thought, who would want to stay here? It was a bit cramped; there was no personal space, and the bathrooms were far from the cabins. The cabins were also far from each other, and there was not enough space for everyone to get together and relax. When considering how I wanted the cabins to look, I had to consider the cost of demolishing the current cabins and the construction restrictions placed on summer camps. In my final draft, I decided to expand the size of cabins and add restrooms. I also changed the design of the beds and added a shared space.
 
Furthermore, I suggested meal plans and a way to make sure kids felt comfortable and at home. I focused on how food is a way for people to bond and feel accepted. To put this into practice, I asked the cook to let me prepare a meal for my coworkers. Some of them even wanted to help with the cooking process, which allowed us to bond with each other. I did this to show them how food brings people together. If you eat the same type of food daily, things get boring. However, implementing food from different cultures on our menu can be a learning experience for the kids.
 
Communication
Interviewing a lot of people made me realize the importance of good communication. How I spoke to children differed from how I talked to staff. The camps I went to had different age demographics, which meant how I framed questions had to vary. When I spoke with staff, I tried to be direct. When talking to kids, I asked them more open-ended questions. I also learned how miscommunication can lead to uncomfortable situations, which made me mindful of how I interacted with the camp directors.
 
In addition, I had to be able to communicate my ideas and findings to my supervisors. When presenting my final project, I made sure to apply what they taught me during my time there and use my findings as evidence for the changes I wanted to implement. I had an amazing time in this internship. I was able to work in an industry that I had little experience in, and I got to know great people!


Passive Sentences: 3.5%
Flesch Reading Ease: 69.9
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level:7