Girl Scouts Camp Robbinswold: How to Grow as a Role Model
"I love camp because it's the only place I know where you can look up at the stars and feel totally insignificant, but then you look down at a girl's face and realize you never will be." - anonymous
I have been spending part of my summer at Camp Robbinswold since I was 10 years old, spanning 11 years of my life. At Girl Scout camp I have grown into a confident and caring person who knows how to step outside of her comfort zone, can take charge or step back depending on what the situation demands, and isn't too cool to be silly.
After taking a summer off to work in my research lab, I went back to camp the summer between my junior and senior years of college. I needed to recharge, and I was afraid that this would be my last chance to go back before I got caught up in the "real world" after I graduated. I was hired as a Unit Leader, which is a supervisory position where I worked in units with campers and led a staff of 2 to 4 other counselors each week. Our campers range from 6 to 17 years old, and I usually work with the "big kids" in middle or high school.
One of my goals for the summer was to be a teacher. I love working with older girls because they are old enough to learn difficult skills and tackle bigger challenges, but also because they are at the cusp of discovering who they are. Even in a week you can have a profound impact on the type of person they want to be when they grow up. I often teach boating skills, and there is nothing quite like watching a girl take the tiller of her sailboat for the first time, and seeing the look of empowerment on her face as she realizes that she is controlling her own fate on the water. This summer I also got to be a teacher and a mentor for many of the younger staff members and Counselors-in-Training that I worked with. I practiced working with a team and communicating effectively, which also means handling conflicts gracefully when they inevitably do arise.
Summer camp is about building a community, and the friendships you make in a week at camp are deeper than a year in the real world.
After taking a summer off to work in my research lab, I went back to camp the summer between my junior and senior years of college. I needed to recharge, and I was afraid that this would be my last chance to go back before I got caught up in the "real world" after I graduated. I was hired as a Unit Leader, which is a supervisory position where I worked in units with campers and led a staff of 2 to 4 other counselors each week. Our campers range from 6 to 17 years old, and I usually work with the "big kids" in middle or high school.
One of my goals for the summer was to be a teacher. I love working with older girls because they are old enough to learn difficult skills and tackle bigger challenges, but also because they are at the cusp of discovering who they are. Even in a week you can have a profound impact on the type of person they want to be when they grow up. I often teach boating skills, and there is nothing quite like watching a girl take the tiller of her sailboat for the first time, and seeing the look of empowerment on her face as she realizes that she is controlling her own fate on the water. This summer I also got to be a teacher and a mentor for many of the younger staff members and Counselors-in-Training that I worked with. I practiced working with a team and communicating effectively, which also means handling conflicts gracefully when they inevitably do arise.
Summer camp is about building a community, and the friendships you make in a week at camp are deeper than a year in the real world.