Photo courtesy of Camp Lebanon

You probably receive lots of advice from those who are older than you. It’s sort of a rite of passage in some ways. Often, it’s parents advising you to be careful when choosing friends, grandparents encouraging you to obey your parents, bosses sharing life lessons during a team meeting or instructors telling you to be on time to class. Acquiring wisdom isn’t just a good idea. It’s necessary to navigate the world and its everyday challenges. But, if we’re honest, it’s really easy to nod and check out.

Let me ask you this. Has someone ever started a conversation with, “If you ever get the chance, you should…” Internally you might brace yourself for an unfiltered, 10-minute lecture, wondering if the advice will actually apply to you and your stage of life.

Right now, if I told you, “If you ever get the chance, you should work at a summer camp,” it might be tempting to move along. But this is the advice I would give to high school and college age students.

Working at camp is a DREAM job. You get to spend time with other summer staff who have similar goals and want to grow personally and professionally. You get to be a part of a team that loves serving and making a difference in the lives of campers. And you get to be outdoors, soaking up that Vitamin D in the sunshine.

Beyond building community and working outdoors, camps are goldmines for opportunities to grow. You’re given responsibilities and your leaders want you to succeed. You might be developing resume-ready skills like managing teams, organizing check-in processes for hundreds of campers, growing your own emotional intelligence as you work with teammates of different personalities, and adapting programming to meet the needs of campers. Those are the kinds of employable, transferrable skills you can add to your resume by the end of the summer.

So, if you get the chance, apply to work at a summer camp. It’s a great choice for you and your future self. Check out job listings at FindACampJob.com.