Why You or Your Teenager Should
Work On Camp Staff
By Anne Taylor
Long hours , very little pay , virtually no time off , uniforms , hot sun , camp mattresses , and camp food all summer , sounds perfect right ? That is the life of a camp staffer . So why , every summer , do thousands of teenagers and young adults flock to summer camps to work ? In short , it ’ s the experience . They do it for the kids , they do it to have fun , and they do it to hang out with their friends and make lifelong memories , but they also do it for their futures . Working on a summer camp staff is shown by this study to be beneficial to employment later in life . A study by Garst and Johnson ( 2005 ) found that a main incentive for camp staff employees is that working at a summer camp will make them more competitive for employment in the future . Many people who work at summer camps find “ the experience of working at camp to be rewarding and beneficial in personal and professional ways ” ( Bialeschki , et al ., 1998 “ Putting It All Together ” para . 1 ). Many skills that Hansen and Hansen ( 2015 ) say are in high demand amongst employers are skills that camp staff said they gained from working at camps .
In a study I designed for a Research in the Outdoors college course I looked further into how useful camp staff traits are to professional careers . I surveyed camp staff alumni in the workforce , the traits they gained from being on a camp staff and whether they are directly useful in careers ( Taylor , 2016 “ Usefulness of Camp Staff Traits to Employment Later in Life ”). In addition to the traits given to them subjects added loyalty , honor , public speaking skills , self confidence , strong work ethic , maturity and decency to a list of traits necessary to being on camp staff . One subject contributed more than a few adjectives and wrote , “ you have to believe that what you are doing could change someone ' s life .” If that doesn ’ t assure you that camp staff genuinely cares about what they do , and that it is a valuable pursuit , I don ’ t know what will . And while there was disagreement amongst participants for which traits mattered for summer camp staff and and while the usefulness of traits gained by summers on a camp staff vary from career to career most participants agreed on a number of traits . For instance teamwork skills had the highest agreement rate at 96 % of participants checking off that it was an integral part of camp staff and 78 % of participants rated it as “ Very Useful ,” responsibility had an agreement rate of 91 % of participants checking off that it was an integral part of camp staff and 87 % of participants rated it as five for “ Very Useful ” and leadership skills had an agreement rate of 91 % of participants checking off that it was an integral part of camp staff and 83 % of participants rated it as five for “ Very Useful .” Additionally everyone in the study agreed on one thing . All participants answered “ yes ” when asked “ Do you believe working at a summer camp has benefited you in your career ?”
Individuals who worked on camp staffs will gain or possess skills that are valuable to employers and useful to careers beyond summer camp . So next time you see a teenager trying to decide between a summer working at camp and a summer scooping icecream , remind them that summer camp staff , especially those at Boy Scout camps are doing more than saving up money for a car or video games ; they ’ re building character and gaining transferable skills that will support them through their entire lives .