Types of Summer Camp
Where will you fit best?
Summer camp is part of the American culture. Most children, at some stage in their lives, will attend a summer camp of some sort. In fact, every year around twelve million children will attend around eleven thousand camps all over America.
There is a camp for every individual and normally you can find several examples of the main camp genres within each state.
We should stress that although we work with some of the top summer camps across America, we do not consider an individual’s preference to a geographical location. Where your camp is located is the least important thing to worry about.
You need to focus on what kind of environment you would feel comfortable working in. The more relaxed you are, the better the job you will do and the more positive the impact you will have on your campers. Besides which, you will have plenty of time to travel around America after camp, and domestic flights in the US are cheap as chips.
So what choices of camp do you have?
Performing and creative arts: This is kind of self explanatory but basically it means that the camp’s activity program will focus more heavily on the performing and creative arts side of things. They will still run all the quintessential land and water sports, there just won’t be the same importance placed upon them.
To apply for an American performing or creative arts camp, you need to have a great deal of experience in one or several genres. This could be ceramics, piano, video, ballet or even circus. They are normally more non-competitive environments to work in, as campers are motivated by different situations than those synonymous with the big sports camps. Be warned...places at these camps are very hard to come by and highly competitive.
Take a few minutes and watch Rebecca’s brief video. Rebecca works in the arts and crafts department at her camp and gives a accurate account of what the role of a creative arts camps staff members role would be. We should not that this role is also the same on just about every other camp in America as they all have huge arts departments.
Traditional Camps: A traditional camp is one where the camp’s activity program offers everything and does not specialise in one particular area, such as equestrian skills. The campers have the opportunity to try everything but will probably never become experts in one particular activity.
These summer camps normally have a much larger emphasis on sports and competition. Large, camp-wide events are common place alongside inter-camp competitions, such as swim meets and track and field. The traditional camps constitute the majority of the camps in American and can range in size from as small as fifty campers right up to five hundred campers.
Special needs camp: Again they rather do what it says on the tin, but “Special needs” is a very broad term when discussing summer camps. They can range from weight loss camps through to camps that deal with severely mentally and disabled children/adults. For the more extreme end of this scale we would stress that unless you already have significant experience in dealing with special needs, this is probably not the camp for you as they are one of the most demanding environments to work in.
We also work with a number of camps that deal with underprivileged children. You don’t have to be rich to attend summer camp in America. In fact the camps that see the highest levels of returning staff are those that deal with children form less affluent backgrounds because the children give back so much more than those who simply expect everything on a plate.
A few other points to bear in mind...
Many camps have a split site where the boys camp is one side of the lake and the girls are on the other.
Every camp we work with will put you through extensive training prior to the arrival of the children and you will only ever be placed with an age of children you are comfortable working with.
Just about every camp we work with also run large equine and adventure programs, so if you’re a climber or horse nut then have a think about the best type of environment that you would like to teach your activity in.
Short of sky diving, you can pretty much find any kind of activity or camp type in America. Do not limit yourself by thinking what you are into would not be needed on camp. From Glass Blowers to Trapeze, from Video Editing to Photography, Archery to Rocketry, the choices really are immense. (Full activities list can be found on the staff application form)
For more information on this, you should check out our US camper pages and have a look through the photo galleries. They will help put you in the picture.