Our Campus Manager Matt, tells us why everyone should do Summer Camp USA!

Hear about Matt’s experience working as at Summer Camp USA…

I lived in a bunk with 8, 12 year old campers and 2 other American counsellors. Over the 7 weeks, it was incredible to see how much they all developed and how they improved as people. They all learnt many new skills and characteristics which the other counsellors and I taught them – that’s the best part about working at Summer Camp USA.There are an extremely low amount of negatives which comes with the job, however the most significant one is the tiredness. You work from around 7:30am when the kids wake up, util 9:30pm when the kids go to bed and only have a few hours off, so it’s extremely draining. I didn’t really know what to expect from camp, so there’s no surprise when I say it wasn’t what I expected. I knew it would be fun, but I didn’t realise how fun! You participate in so many activities which you never would have seen yourself doing, sure I did the stereotypical activities: sang camp songs and ate far too many smores (which even when made with awful Hershey’s chocolate, are insane)! But I also jumped off cliffs into a river, learnt to water ski, climbed a mountain, taught a child how to swim and beat the Americans in a game of counsellor soccer!

My favourite memory has to be our trip to an island. We kayaked our way to a deserted island, set up camp and played loads of fun games like counsellor hunt (where we hid and the campers had to find us) and rope burning races. You also meet some amazing characters at camp- both campers and counsellors. My unit leader was a man called Caleb. He has been working at Summer Camp USA for 6 summers now and then kids adore him, for good reason too. He is one of the nicest men you will ever meet, no one is a stranger to him and he has time for everyone. He also has some of the best advice you will ever hear- I learnt just as much from him this summer as the campers did!

Working as a counsellor at Summer Camp USA, you will work with young children who are sensitive and thus there are some difficult situations. Kids often read too much into what others say, or even say something themselves which they don’t understand and it can be tough to deal with this. However, my toughest situation was when my camper lost his cuddly toy dog. He had slept with this dog for most of his life. When he lost it he couldn’t sleep at all and was constantly worried about where it was. At 2am I had to calm him down and reassure him we would find it the next day- I even went to laundry at 2am to try and find it for him. Eventually he settled down and we managed to find it in the morning.

Travel after Summer Camp USA…

After I finished Summer Camp USA, I travelled all over the East Coast for three and a half weeks: Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C, Miami, Disney land Florida, New Orleans, Atlanta, Charleston, Virginia and New York. You must visit New Orleans – it’s the coolest city I’ve ever seen! Better still I managed to do most of that on my camp wage – whereas friends who went through other Summer Camp USA companies couldn’t as their small wages didn’t cover it!

Summer Camp USA has definitely improved me as a person, I have become much more patient and have learnt a wide spectrum of skills which I can apply to everyday life. I can’t recommend this experience enough and if you are ‘umming’ and ‘arghing’ about doing it next year, I say go for it! Have you ever met someone who said they did this and didn’t enjoy it? I certainly haven’t!