The Role of the Specialty Counselor
Although general counselors are usually placed in charge of the same small group of campers, supervising them throughout the day and night, often specialty counselors are not responsible for any particular cabin or group of campers, but see all the campers throughout the week.
General counselors will escort their campers to the various activities and programs that the camp has planned for them, and it is at this point that the specialty counselor will take over. Depending on the camp, the general counselor may or may not stay to assist the specialty counselor during that activity period.
Specialty counselors are hired for the special skills they possess and are able to pass on to campers. They may be tennis experts, art majors skilled in arts and crafts, singers, dancers, or equestrians. For every camp program a specialty counselor must be on hand to teach and guide the campers.
Training for Specialty Counselors
Often no formal qualifications are expected of specialty counselors, other than proven expertise in the area and the ability to instruct others. A physical education major, skilled in a variety of sports, could apply for a sports-related specialty position. In the same vein, a dance student or professional dancer could land a job teaching different forms of dance at a specialty camp.
That rule of thumb, though, does not usually apply to waterfront staff.
Waterfront Staff
Whether situated lakeside or by a pool or even at the ocean, most day and resident camps prominently feature waterfront activities, including swim instruction, water safety, and sometimes boating, as a cornerstone of their summer programs.
Although many specialty camp jobs do not require specific certification, waterfront jobs usually do. Although waterfront activities often can offer the most pleasure--what could be nicer than jumping into a refreshing spring--fed lake to cool off during a hot summer day?-they can also present the most danger. Waterfront staff must be skilled, observant supervisors who are well versed in safety procedures, lifesaving and rescue techniques, and first aid.
Training for Waterfront Staff
Camps seeking to hire swimming and boating instructors and lifeguards more often than not expect their staff to show proof of professional training and will generally want them to possess Red Cross certification.
Here are some sample Red Cross courses that lead to that certification:
American Red Cross Lifeguard Certification Course
Purpose: To teach lifeguards the skills and knowledge needed to prevent and respond to aquatic emergencies.
Includes: Adult, child, and infant CPR; CPR for professional rescuer; and first aid certification. Must be fifteen years of age and attend every session.
Objectives: Understand the value of behaving in a professional manner. Recognize the characteristic behaviors of distressed swimmers, as well as active and passive drowning victims. Recognize an aquatic emergency and act promptly and appropriately. Apply the equipment-based rescue skills and techniques used by professional lifeguards. Recognize and care for a possible spinal injury. Provide first aid and CPR.
Prerequisites: Must be able to swim 500 yards: 100 yards each of the front crawl, breast stroke, and sidestroke; the stroke(s) used for the remaining 200 yards are the participants' choice. Tread water for two minutes using legs only, crossing arms across the chest. Submerge to a minimum depth of 7 feet, retrieve a ten-pound object, and return to the surface.
Certification requirements: Successfully complete two written exams with a minimum score of 80 percent; complete two final skill scenarios; perform all critical skills.
Course length: Suggested minimum: thirty-three hours (plus a one-and-one-half-hour pre-course session).
Certificate validity: Lifeguard training (including first aid): three years. CPR for the professional rescuer: 1 year.
Red Cross Safety Training for Swim Coaches
Purpose: To provide training in aquatic safety for competitive swim coaches and officials, athletic trainers, athletes participating in aquatic activities, aquatic exercise trainers, and others involved in aquatic competition or exercise programs.
Objectives: Understand the safety responsibilities of an aquatic leader. Recognize hazards associated with swimming pools and explain how to eliminate or minimize these hazards. Recognize a swimmer in distress or drowning. Explain and demonstrate rescue skills. Recognize specific medical conditions that pertain to swimmers. Explain and demonstrate in-line stabilization skills for spinal injury management.
Prerequisites: None.
Certification requirements: Successfully complete final skills test and pass written test with a minimum score of 80 percent.
Course length: Suggested minimum: eight hours.
Certificate validity: Three years.
Red Cross Water Safety Instructor Certificate (Wsi)
Purpose: To train instructor candidates to teach the Infant and Preschool Aquatics Program, the seven levels of the Learn to Swim Program, the Community Water Safety and Water Safety Instructor Aide courses, and, for eligible individuals, the Safety Training for Swim Coaches course.
Objectives: Use program materials effectively and plan and conduct effective courses. Evaluate the progress of students for certification. Prepare and submit accurate records and reports.
Prerequisites: Must possess an Instructor Candidate Training certificate issued in the last twelve months or a current Health and Safety Services instructor authorization and must successfully complete the pre-course session consisting of tests of water safety and swimming skills and knowledge.
Certification requirements: Successfully participate in course activities, meet instructor candidate competencies, and pass a written test with a minimum score of 80 percent.
Minimum age: Seventeen by end of course.
Course length: Suggested minimum: thirty-six hours (not including the pre-course session).
Certification validity: Authorization is for two calendar years. All authorizations expire on December 31.
For more information on swim instructor, lifesaving, and life-guard courses, contact your local Red Cross or YMCA.
What a Waterfront Job Is Like
While general counselors will escort their campers to a variety of activities during the day, swimming and boating instructors and lifeguards generally spend the whole day at the waterfront.
Mornings are usually spent in providing scheduled instruction to swimmers of different levels. Depending on how many swim instructors a camp has on staff, you could be responsible for beginner, intermediate, and advanced swimmers, or work with only one particular level.
Class time usually runs for thirty to forty-five minutes, with no breaks in between each group. Swim instructors spend a lot of time in and out of the water--more time in when teaching beginners-- and are in direct sunlight for most of the day. Sunscreen and large hats and T-shirts worn over bathing suits are essential gear for any waterfront staff.
Lunchtime and an hour's rest period thereafter are usually scheduled into most camp's activities. In the afternoon, swim instruction can continue, or the camp can offer a play period or a "free swim." During this time either lifeguards or swim instructors doubling as lifeguards take over to supervise the free-swim periods. Depending upon the size of the camp and the number of campers, general counselors also might be scheduled to assist with lifeguarding duties.
As boating instruction can be scheduled throughout the day, boating instructors face the same sun exposure hazards that their swimming instructor counterparts do. In addition boating instructors often have to maneuver canoes or row boats into the water and carry paddles, oars, and life jackets. This all requires physical strength.
At the beginning of the season, the sun, water, and all that fresh air can be tiring for new instructors. All waterfront staff members need to be in good physical health.
Other Duties for Waterfront Staff
Waterfront staff might also be expected to maintain equipment; clean and neaten the waterfront area, including boathouses and storage sheds; ensure proper chlorine levels in swimming pools; and operate boats.
During mealtimes waterfront staff might supervise tables, and in the evening they may be expected to participate in special activities. Waterfront staff also might have night duty for a cabin or group of cabins.
Salaries for Specialty Staff
Salaries for a general or cabin counselor or similar job generally are from $750 to $2,000 for the camp season. Employees with special skills, such as lifeguard training, may earn up to $3,000, but they often have fewer breaks or rest periods.
Additional benefits also include free housing and meals, free laundry, and sometimes health and accident insurance and free transportation to and from the camp.
And, of course, all counselors gain valuable experience that can be important additions to resumes and that can offer memories to last a lifetime.
Firsthand Accounts
The following firsthand accounts will give you an idea of what specialty counselor jobs in swimming, sports, and arts and crafts are really like, the upsides as well as the down.
Claire Best, Swim Instructor
Claire Best worked as a swim instructor both at a resident Girl Scout camp and for a metropolitan YMCA.
How Claire Got Started
"Between the time I was eight years old and nineteen, I spent almost every summer of my life at a variety of camps, in one capacity or another. I started with day camps, and then at age twelve I was finally allowed to go away to overnight camp. At age fifteen I was made a CIT, counselor-in-training, and at age seven-teen I got my first paying camp job, as a swim and canoeing instructor at a Girl Scout camp in Maine. Two years later I was a general counselor at another camp. Even in college I ended up doing similar work in my work-study program, employed by the local YMCA as a swim instructor and also as a youth counselor.
"My years as a camper prepared me for work as a counselor. I had learned a lot of skills, some of which I was later able to help other campers learn. Swimming was my strongest area, and by the time I was sixteen I had passed my Red Cross junior and then senior lifesaver tests. I never did go on for my WSI (Water Safety Instructor), but I was lucky. I was able to find work without it. It helped that at the time the YMCA followed a different swimming program than the Red Cross. These days, though, the more certification you have, the better it is for you."
What the Work Was Like
"As a camp swim instructor I spent all day at the waterfront, on the dock or in the water, teaching beginner, intermediate, and advanced swimmers. With the little children, you had to be in the water with them, for their safety and to reassure them and to demonstrate. The older children, who were better swimmers, needed less demonstration, so, if you didn't feel like getting wet on a certain day, you could just set them to swimming laps. I'd call out instructions to help them improve their strokes. By the end of the day, my voice would be hoarse, or I'd feel pretty waterlogged sometimes. But it was a great way to spend the summers-in the sun all day."
The Upsides
"Camp life is what I enjoyed the most. The commotion in the dining hall, living in a rustic cabin in a wooded setting, the camp-fires at night, the songs, the skits, the sports competitions, and the friendships. They were free and easy days. The salaries were pretty horrendous, but you got room and board and a couple of days off here or there to explore the surrounding area. It was like a paid vacation."
Carol Montague, Swim Instructor
Carol Montague worked both as a general counselor and a swim instructor at various camps in Texas. Here is her account:
'Teaching was usually a joy. My favorite class was the beginner group. Sometimes I had kids who were not afraid of the water but didn't know a proper stroke. Other times I had students who were terrified of the water. I witnessed one such student doing the crawl stroke during free swim. It was terrible-but at the beginning of the week, she wouldn't even put her face in the water.
"Another student, too afraid to swim, a couple of years later, passed with flying colors. Some of these kids do know the crawl to some extent, and I assumed she was one because her stroke was so good. But, no. She said she didn't know it at all before I taught her. It feels so good when you are able to teach children something you love yourself!"
Rose Elizabeth Ledbetter, Lifeguard
Rose Elizabeth Ledbetter worked for two years as a camp life-guard.
"I worked all through my high school and several college summers at camp. I began as a kitchen worker, and then moved on to counselor, then I ran a concession, and then the last two years I worked as a lifeguard. The camp began as a Baptist camp, then was opened for all children, and the last two years I was there, it was home to Camp Smile-a-Mile, a camp for children who either had cancer or had survived it.
"As a lifeguard things were a little more relaxed than with other positions I had held. The chlorine had to be tested first thing in the morning, but that only took one person, so we took turns. One of us got up at six-thirty, threw on a suit, tested the levels, and added chlorine. The rest of us slept in.
"We weren't required to show up at breakfast, so we usually slept in until ten or fifteen minutes before the first group of campers hit the pool at nine. Then we'd get up, skip the shower, and put on a suit. The style we adopted was a baseball cap with our hair sticking out the back, a tank-style suit with a sports bra underneath it, and a pair of oversized men's boxer shorts over the suit with the waist rolled down. The one 'must' was a hat. Even those of us with the darkest complexions needed a hat. I'd always thought my fair skin didn't tan, but even with layers of sunscreen, after a few monster burns, I got the tan of a lifetime.
"In the mornings we usually snuck in the kitchen and sweet-talked the staff there into a few leftover breakfast tidbits and then headed down to the pool. After a quick dip to wake ourselves up, we got ready for the campers.
"At the beginning of the season, when the campers first arrived at camp, we made them form a single file line at the gate and then directed them to walk in quietly and sit at the edge of the pool. We gave them the rules of the pool: no horseplay, no running, no diving in the shallow end of the pool, no hanging on the rope, no pushing, no hanging on the lifeguard chair.
"We used the buddy system, pairing up the children (an abhor-rent system that doesn't work and always leaves one poor kid without a buddy). One of us climbed up into the chair and the other lined up those who wanted to take the swim test. The test was to swim the length of the pool on the deep side of the rope. That was pretty funny. You wouldn't believe the kids who lied about their swimming abilities to stay with their friends. We also made the counselors take the test after one too many 'grown-ups' lied about their abilities as well.
"Then we sat there looking cool in our shades, swinging our whistles off the ends of our fingers, and watching the campers swim.
"On Baywatch, they save three or four people on every show, but the truth is not nearly so exciting. We made only a save or two a week, and most of those were really more panic than drowning. My first real save was a chaperone who'd had a heart attack in the pool. In all of the lifeguarding classes and the CPR classes I'd taken, no one had informed me that a drowning victim could throw up in your mouth when you give them mouth to mouth. It was so gross. I wasn't scared when it was going on, but after everything was okay, and the ambulance had left, I walked out of the fence to a clump of bushes and got sick myself.
"In between scheduled swims, we cleaned the pool. Remember this isn't a home pool. The pool was nearly Olympic-size and the deep end was ten feet. So to clean the pool, we'd throw in a folding metal chair, balance ourselves standing on the back of the chair with our noses barely poking out of the water, and use a brush to reach the bottom. The sides could be cleaned from out of the water, but cleaning the bottom was a miserable job. A person can get hypothermia even in 80-degree water in less than an hour. So we were careful to work in short shifts. Still, the work was exhausting and freezing.
'The last group of campers ended their swim time before dinner, and after dinner the pool was open to staffers and chaperones only. Those were the real fun times. We broke every rule we made the kids follow."
Some Advice from Rose Elizabeth
"Get in shape before camp begins and make sure you get your certification before summer starts.
'To get your lifeguarding license, you have to be sixteen or eighteen, depending on your state. Only two organizations can give you that license: the Red Cross or the YMCA. Classes cost less than one hundred dollars, but they are tough and time consuming.
"You will be required to know the breast stroke, back stroke, and the side stroke (life-saving stroke) and swim these strokes in timed laps.
"You must be able to swim a certain distance, usually the length of the pool, under water. You must learn several holds and carries, as well as different ways to enter and exit the water.
"You must be able to do the dead man's float for a half hour (lifting your face to breathe as needed) and tread water fully clothed for ten to twenty minutes.
"Even if you are not a lifeguard, many camps require that all staffers know CPR and take a basic first aid course. Some camps offer these classes as a seminar for staffers at the beginning of the summer.
"Working at a camp also looks great on a resume. The job instills more responsibility than running a drive-through or cooking fries. Some camps take counselors on a volunteer basis. When Smile-a-Mile, a program for young cancer victims, came to our camp, I was a lifeguard. Most of the counselors worked for little or no pay. The experience was well worth it. Contact the local children's hospital if you are interested in this sort of work. Many have summer programs like the one I saw."
Nicole Hebson, Sports Counselor/Assistant Director
Nicole started camp work in 1995 and has spent three years at Skokie Park District Outdoor Sports Camp in Illinois. In the summer of 1997, she spent the first session as a counselor and the second session as an assistant director.
She graduated in 1997 from the University of Iowa with a B.A. in English. In the fall of 1997, she started at Northeastern Illinois University, where she is pursuing her secondary education teacher certification and a master's degree program at the same time.
How Nicole Got Started
"I have always enjoyed working with kids. I applied for a job as a counselor and gave them my qualifications-my CPR and first aid certification were really the key. I told them why I thought I would be a good addition to the camp and what I'd have to offer, and I was hired.
"Another thing that was pretty big was that I had been involved in intercollegiate athletics. They were looking for people who specifically had that experience and the ability to teach different sports.
"I knew a few people who were the heads of administration up at the park district. They gave me recommendations, which helped immensely. They knew me from our parish and parochial grade school and all of my involvement in those two areas, and so I'm sure somewhere along the way, that was mentioned.
"I'd have to say that being active in your community, parish, school, or whatever, is one of the best ways to help out a resume."
What the Job's Really Like
"Honestly, this may be the last year for me. I don't know for sure, but it seems as if it's different than it used to be. The kids, the parents (especially), and the enthusiasm at the park have all changed.
"I guess by different I mean the kids used to be way more athletic. They used to be great, but now it's dramatically different. Here's an example: one of my jobs as an assistant sports director is to get a morning relay going that the whole camp participates in, only we haven't had an all-camp relay in a while because the camp has more than two-hundred campers and only twenty staff-we are way understaffed. The plan was that the kids were to do three cartwheels and sprint to where their counselors were and then on the way back do three somersaults. But the kids could not do the cartwheels-they had no idea how to go about it.
"The gymnastics we were asking them to do weren't that hard, but they had trouble with the somersaults, too. If they had had my school gym teacher, they'd know how to do this stuff. I don't know what gym teachers are teaching them these days.
"Also, a handful of kids do not know how to play many of the sports we play at camp, and in the first two weeks of each session (four weeks a session, two sessions total), we have our counselors run drills and practice skills with the kids to get them acclimated with what we will have them playing in the weeks to come. We try as hard as we can to get the kids ready to compete with one another as well as with other groups in the camp, and they love the competition, but it gets frustrating when they don't want to learn the skills it takes to compete.
"I guess I am coming from the standpoint of being a bit of a jock, but that was why I was hired, and that is why we hire a lot of our counselors. We know their athletic backgrounds and we know they can be effective with kids.
"When I think about the job, I think a lot these days about the people I work with, because many times that's why I go to work. Nine out of ten of our counselors will tell you the same thing. We are a relatively tight-knit bunch. There are about five of us who attended the same university.
"But, the job is a cinch, no matter how much we moan about whatever, it is a cinch. How many jobs allow you to go out and play in the sun all day with a bunch of kids?
"On Mondays you get to go ice-skating for half of the day, on Tuesdays and Thursdays we take the kids to the pool for the morning up until lunch, on Wednesdays we go on field trips to water parks, bowling alleys, batting cages, mini-golf courses, and the best trip-a Cubs game."
Kendall Cutadean, Sports Counselor
Kendall Cutadean works at an athletic club in Broomfield, Colorado, that hosts a sports-day camp every summer for kids ages six to thirteen. He started as a camper, then worked as a junior counselor for two years, and has now been a paid counselor for two years. He is currently a junior in high school.
Camp facilities include a swimming pool, squash and racquet-ball courts, a gym, a track, an outdoor sand volleyball court, and an indoor "wallyball court" (a racquetball court with a volleyball net built in).
How Kendall Got Started
"I started as an attendee at this camp. I was one of the five people who attended it the very first year it opened. I kept going to camp every summer, until I was trained to be a junior counselor. I was not paid for this work, but I had some authority and was allowed to attend for free. After two years being a junior counselor, I became a full-time counselor, in 1996.
"What attracted me to work in a day camp was that I liked the idea of teaching and promoting various sports, seeing as how that is my life. I play soccer for a competitive club team called F. C. Boulder. We are in the top division in the state, known as Premier. I plan to play in the future. My goal is to make it to college soccer, major league soccer, and my lifelong dream is to play for the U.S. National Team. I will continue to practice and work hard in order to fulfill my goal.
"I got my first sport camp job by calling the athletic director at the club (he knew me very well). I told him I was interested and ready to have a job there."
What Kendall's Job Is Like
'This camp involves many different kinds of sports, games, and activities that keep the children involved and in shape throughout the summer. We are very fortunate to use the fine facilities at the club.
"My job is fun on some days, and very difficult on others. It is mainly in the hands of the kids. If they want to be disruptive and disrespectful, they will. But that is usually not the case. Most days are filled with various sports, which I enjoy teaching and participating in.
"I have a wide variety of duties. As a counselor I am responsible for the safety of the kids and to make sure everyone is having a good time. We don't like to have kids not participate; we try our best to get all people involved.
"Also, we try to ensure that parents feel safe about leaving their kids with us. It is required for every counselor to be certified in first aid and CPR."
A Typical Day
6:30 A.M. Open to all "early bird" campers
"One counselor will be there at 6:25, waiting for those early campers. The first kid gets to pick out a movie, and we will watch it to its end. After the movie, usually enough kids have arrived to start playing games."
8:00 Go to gym and let campers decide on a game
"The game of choice is usually a dodgeball game, which every-one is eager to play. If the game is running well, we will continue with it until 9:00, which is when we start the formal schedule."
9:00 Take attendance and lunch order forms, and divide campers into three groups
"The attendance is for the athletic director, to ensure that everyone is paid for. The club is nice enough to offer lunch menus, from which the kids can order lunch for great prices. We divide the kids into three groups and they participate in three different 'rotations.'"
9:30 Rotations
"Each of the three rotations is forty minutes. One or more counselors teach each rotation.
One rotation is in the gym. Usually there is a theme for the week. Early in the week we teach fundamentals and end the week with full-fledged games.
Another rotation is spent at the volleyball court. The weather determines if we use the outdoor court or the indoor 'wallyball court.'
The third rotation is held on a racquetball court, where we emphasize cooperation and teamwork."
11:30 Lunch
12:30 P.M. Field
"Each week one counselor is assigned to pick a sport or a game to work on at the field and teach it. I, for instance, work with soccer. I start with fundamentals and end with games."
2:00 Swim time
"After a hot outing at the field, there is always time for a swim. The pool is outdoors and four feet all the way across. We give them kick boards, diving rings and sticks, goggles and masks, and snorkels they can use. This is the most relaxing time of the day. The counselors have the choice of sitting and watching, or being in the pool with the kids. We always have one person in and one person out, if not more, at all times. There are no lifeguards on duty, and that is part of the reason we must be trained in CPR and first aid.
If the weather is bad, we will substitute a movie for the swim period."
3:45 Snack
4:00 Racquetball or quiet games
"At this time campers have the choice to keep the rigorous day going by choosing racquetball, or they can 'chill out' in the aerobic room and play relaxing, quiet games."
5:00 Gym
"We move all kids into the gym with all of their stuff and play another big game. Parents come between five and six to pick up their children."
Special Days
"On Wednesdays we usually take campers on various field trips such as a Colorado Rockies baseball game, a roller skating rink, putt-putt golf, Water World, or bowling.
The days are very busy and very exciting. There is no nap time like in some day care centers. We have great facilities to use and we take advantage of them. We make sure we always have something to do, every day of the week."
Kendall's Hours
"In a normal week, I work anywhere from twenty-eight to forty hours. We have a lot of counselors, so time must be juggled between us."
The Upsides and Downsides
"The good things are the facilities. We have access to great equipment. That is one sure thing about the camp. You get what you see, and it is a nice club, so parents know that their kids are in good hands.
"The only downside about it is that for every bundle of great kids you get, there will always be a troublemaker. And that person always seems to bring others down. Naturally we are the ones responsible for taking care of that so the environment for the others is not threatened."
Salary
"A counselor can expect to receive anywhere from minimum wage to $10 an hour. At the moment, because of my age, I am only making $5.25 per hour. The thing about it is, the hours are so good, it seems as if it makes up for little pay."
Advice from Kendall
"One thing you must be sure of is that you are not working in a day camp or sports camp because you need money. It must be because you love kids and you're willing to deal with them and teach a lot of activities.
"If you have problems with kids, this kind of job is not for you. I guarantee they will eat you alive."
Katherine Baum, Arts and Crafts Instructor/Cabin Counselor
In 1997, the summer before Katherine Baum started her senior year of high school, she landed her first job at Camp Conrad Weiser, a resident camp in Wernersville, Pennsylvania.
How Katherine got Started
"I got interested in camp work because I wanted to work with children. Also, I thought it would give me experience for other things, future jobs.
"I was looking in the newspaper for a summer job and this job caught my attention. It also sounded like a lot of fun."
What the Job is Really Like
"I work forty hours a week, eighty hours for two weeks. Because I am both an arts and crafts instructor and a cabin counselor, I don't really have much, if any, free time, so at times it can be really tiring. All the counselors are really close to one another, but because we do get tired, we can also get snappy with other counselors or the kids. We have a really good director, though, considering all the pressure she is under. And we do have a lot of fun. The hard work is worth it-the kids are always full of surprises.
"I get my kids ready in the morning and teach for the day. I teach crafts such as gimp, folk art, molding, and weaving. The thing I like most is the fact that we get paid for playing all day with kids!"
Advice from Katherine
"I think you should try to find a job that can make you happy, and you should be kind, and most definitely honest.
"Your salary will depend on the amount of experience you have and whether you are a counselor or a junior counselor, but you don't do it for the money."
