Camp counselor training becoming more extensive, diverse

To their young charges, they're the slightly older arbiters of fun in the summer. The camp counselor is the hip role model who is cool to look up to.

But the young people whose job it is to take care of campers during the summer say their jobs are about more than supervising the basketball game or taking the easy path to summer employment. Their role has increasing responsibility and requires training that has become more extensive and varied.

"We see the kid whose parents are going through a divorce, or the kid coming in the same clothes day after day. Sometimes we see pain and suffering that they may be going through at home," said Josh Watters, 24, a counselor at the Diamond Ridge day camp in Jamison. "It's my job to make sure they forget that for eight hours."

Camp counselors are expected to guide and discipline youngsters they've never before met while keeping them safe, happy, and occupied in a unfamiliar setting with a group of other youngsters they probably don't know.

They are often the key to a successful camp experience, says Peg Smith, chief executive officer of the American Camp Association (ACA), which represents camping professionals and also accredits day and overnight camps.

"It's a matter of translating what may look like fun - and it is - into real skills and competencies," Smith said.

Between 1.2 million and 1.5 million people are employed in seasonal and full-time camp jobs, according to the ACA. More than a half-million are college students.

Their jobs involve more complexity than people generally assume, said Sara K. Johnson, a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts University who studied camp counselors.

Before camp starts, staff development can include lectures from visiting child development professionals, lessons on behavior management, online courses and webinars.

Camp director Steven Bernstein, who supervises Diamond Ridge and its sister camp, Sesame/Rockwood in Blue Bell, brought in Mara Yacobi, a licensed social worker and youth development specialist, to discuss behavior management and discipline strategies.

Bernstein also requires counselors to take an online course created by psychologist Chris Thurber before setting foot on campgrounds. Training sessions can continue almost until the last camper leaves for the season.

College Settlement Camp, a overnight camp in Horsham, brought in the Devereaux Foundation, which serves children and adults with intellectual, emotional, developmental, and behavioral challenges.

That training focused on teaching counselors about how to de-escalate a conflict, and transform a potentially negative outcome into a positive one, said Karyn McGee, camp director who also oversees the Kuhn Day Camp.

The reasons for the increased focus on training, and the greater valuation of the counselor's role are varied, camp directors and researchers say.

As child development study and practices evolve, the camp's training approach follows and counselors become more informed, directors say.

"Kids are more sophisticated" and, therefore, "more challenging," said Bernstein, who runs a nut-free, tech-free camp in a bow to the awareness of food allergies and the potential distractions for young people armed with cell phones.

Grant-making organizations that help fund camps and oversight organizations that accredit them are requiring more extensive proof of competency, Johnson said.

Also, camps don't want to get sued, directors say. Protecting the campers, and by extension the camp, is critical.

Staff development at Camp Onas, an overnight camp in Jamison grounded in Quaker values, prepared counselor Eliza Sankar, 19, for handling different age groups differently.

"One second you're with a 7-year-old, the next you're with a 13-year-old," said Sankar, of Gorton, Pa. "We can deal with them as individuals. A 7-year-old doesn't like to break rules, a 13-year-old loves to."

Sankar says she would favorably compare her training to any her friends are getting "making coffee" as part of a corporate internship.

At the College Settlement Camp, counselor Lamin Conteh, 20, soaked up all the training that would equip him to be the kind of counselor that he had when he was a camper there.

"I don't have a father figure in my life, and my counselor told me what's wrong and what's right," Conteh said. "I wanted to be that for somebody else."

Fellow counselor Steve Rule of Lower Providence said his training and experience helped him handle a fight that resulted in an "outstanding camper" being expelled.

"I had to sit him down and talk to him and his mom," said Rule, 22. It was his responsibility.