As summer approaches, individuals are faced with the question of where to work for the summer. While acquiring an internship can give you extensive experience in your respective field of work, the benefits of working as a camp counselor are too large to ignore. For seven weeks, you are working in a fast-paced environment with people from all over the world. These seven weeks present challenges, valuable lessons, and an increase in skills you never realized you had.

Recognizing Individuality

Living in a bunk day in and day out with both campers and co-counselors is a unique situation that many people wouldn’t necessarily find themselves in. As a camp counselor, you are presented with the task of getting to know each of your campers on an individual level in order to establish strong relationships and ensure a safe and enjoyable environment. The ability to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each of your campers is a skill that is highly valuable in any profession.

Building Confidence

The environment at camp allows counselors to discover their individuality and be themselves. This environment of acceptance fosters the development of each counselor’s confidence and overall skill set. With higher confidence comes clearer decision making abilities, higher quality instruction, and stronger performance.

At camp, you are both a coach and a mentor to not only the kids in your bunk, but also to the rest of the children at camp. Camp transforms counselors into natural leaders with the drive to be successful. The confidence that is established at camp can be carried over to all aspects of life after the summer is over. From going into a job interview to giving a presentation to your boss, having confidence in yourself will allow for the highest success rate.

Team Building and Problem Solving

Working with co-counselors at camp teaches a valuable lesson in both teamwork and problem solving. Although your co-counselors are around your age, they can be from all different parts of the world. Counselors come to camp from the United States, the UK, South Africa, and Australia. This wide range in backgrounds presents the opportunity for understanding and appreciating different cultures, working with varied experience levels, and finding a common ground to resolve conflict and effectively problem solve as a cohesive unit.

Communication

The fast-paced nature of camp highlights the importance of learning flexibility and communicating with those around you. Whether it be schedule changes caused by inclement weather or adapting to the preferences of your campers, the ability to be flexible and innovative is a lifelong skill that allows your leadership capabilities to excel.

The combination of the skills learned as a camp counselor which include communication, problem solving, flexibility, individuality, and confidence, is a key factor in being successful to any workplace. When faced with the decision to apply for an internship or a counselor at a sleepaway camp, take into consideration that in just seven weeks, lifelong skills will be developed and achieved.