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Being a summer camp counselor is not only incredibly fun but – at a relatively early age – you also get to develop important, valuable skills that are crucial to jobs you’ll have in your adult life. Working with children in the summer – and with no disrespect to delivering pizzas, carrying golf bags or folding pants – prepares you for your future, long after the summer has ended.
Summer camp counselors get to have meaningful responsibilities and develop their own leadership, people management, communication and problem solving skills, all of which will be brought to “adult” jobs. We reached out to Briarwood’s former staff members – now out in the world – to tell us about how being a camp counselor positively influenced their present careers.
Here are their reflections (stay tuned for more insights in future editions!):
Marty W., Doctor
I’m a doctor now. I grew up at Briarwood. Here are a few life lessons I learned at camp that apply to me specifically:
• Working at Briarwood helped me learn how to effectively communicate with other staff – especially older staff who will respect you and listen to you, even when you’re a freshly minted junior counselor – and that helped me build confidence in self-advocacy and communication. This is one of the most practical skills to have when interviewing for medical school, residency, your first big time doctor job, etc.
• Working as maintenance for a few summers taught me that in an organization, nobody is too big, too smart or too important to get their hands dirty.
• Also, being a color war captain and losing color war to your sister who is a captain on the other team is especially painful. It’s okay to come in 2nd place. You won’t always finish at the top of your class.
Danielle L., Legal Administrative Assistant
I currently work at a place where we help low income immigrants receive legal and social services here in the US. Working as a camp counselor taught me many things that tie into both my adult life and career.
Growing up as a younger sibling, I always looked up to my older brother (and still do!) but I never saw myself as someone anyone truly looked up to or admired. Being a counselor at Briarwood showed me that I too can always be someone’s role model and make a strong impact on their lives (even if I didn’t always realize it at the time). I’m happy to say that, in my current job, I can still be someone’s role model and still have strong impact with people’s lives in a different setting. I’m glad I learned how to do that by working as a camp counselor.
Being a counselor also taught me how to communicate with supervisors and managers in an articulate, respectful way. It also taught me that in order to be content and productive in a workplace, you have to advocate for yourself when faced with conflict or difficulties.
Working as a counselor at Briarwood Day Camp is a fantastic way to build skills for “grown up” jobs and opportunities. Briarwood counselors are given responsibility, they get to lead, they communicate with customers, they learn better management skills, they network and THEY HAVE FUN!
Interested in working at Briarwood this summer? Click here to learn even more!
Want to read more about being a Briarwood staff member?
Here are some articles:
- The Best Things About Working at a Summer Day Camp (written by our staff)
- Working at a Day Camp – The Best Job You’ll Ever Have AND It Looks Great on Your Resume
- What Are the Responsibilities of Summer Camp Counselors
- The Top Four Qualities We Look for in a Camp Counselor
- Working at Camp Develops Skills for Grown Up Jobs – Part 1 (written by our former staff)
- Working at Camp Develops Skills for Grown Up Jobs – Part 3 (written by our former staff)
- Working at Camp Develops Skills for Grown Up Jobs – Part 4 (written by our former staff)
- Working at Camp Develops Skills for Grown Up Jobs – Part 5 (written by our former staff)
- Working at Camp Develops Skills for Grown Up Jobs – Part 6 (written by a present staff member)