April showers bring May flowers and Latin Upper School students looking for summer jobs. With just over a month left in the school year, students are turning their focus to opportunities that will bring them real world experiences (and money).
Working as a camp counselor is a popular choice among many students—it’s a valuable leadership position and a chance to do something you’re passionate about.
Freshman Lia Cooper-Ortega is one such student. “I’m working as a camp intern at my old middle school. I did that job last year. It was fun and it’s with little little kids,” she said. “The ability to take a nap drew me to this job.”
Similar to Lia, many students are returning as counselors to camps they attended themselves. “I’m working as a camp counselor at a farm camp in Michigan because I used to go there,” sophomore Elle Hodes said.
Sophomore Ava Nelson had a specific goal in mind when she set out to find a job. “I’m trying to look for life skills,” she said. Taking a camp counselor job in high school can provide you with such skills. Business executives, for one, often note that their management and personal skills are drawn from their time as camp counselors.
Apart from broadening their skill set, Upper School students take many other factors into account. Namely, what they don’t want.
“I was going to work at the Target near my house if I didn’t get the [After School Matters job],” junior Finn Deeney said. “But I just didn’t really want to work at Target. Red doesn’t really look good on me. Plus, I’d rather get paid for doing something that I actually want to do, like acting, and if I were to work at Target, it would be purely for the money rather than the experience.”
Sophomore Izzy Schafer faced a similar predicament, though it didn’t revolve around wardrobe choices. Originally, she was offered a job as a camp counselor at the day camp Apachi JCC—but she had a choice to make. “When I found this job opportunity from [After School Matters], I decided to choose [it],” she said.
Regarding Apachi, Izzy said, “It’s working with an age range that I didn’t really have a lot of experience with. I feel like 11 year olds would not respect me.”
There’s a multitude of reasons to become a summer camp counselor. “You’ll learn things about yourself, how you interact with others, and find your place in the world,” Camp Leaders wrote. “Camp changes you in so many ways. You’ll emerge from the summer a more confident, open, and happy person, and you can bring that forward in your everyday life.”
