Camp Counselor
Rocky Mountain Getaway
The Rocky Mountain Getaway is a Christian conference, led by CRU, that attempts to lead high school students to Christ. The goal of the camp is not only to lead students to Christ, but also to make the students into leaders.
As a counselor, my daily responsibilities included:
- Leading discussion groups
- Leading outdoor hikes and sports activities
- Performing nightly security tasks
- Attending staff meetings
- Setting up stage and outdoor activities
- Working a food stand
Although I did many things as a camp counselor, there were three major outcomes that I still look back on and use as a guide in everyday life.
Problem Solving
Being able to solve problems is a requirement when studying engineering, but I have found that a lot of my problem solving has been practiced in everyday life. One day during the camp the students take a bus into downtown Estes Park to go shopping. I was a chaperon on the trip, thus I had to count all of the students beforehand so I could make sure they all get on the bus back to the camp. After the day of shopping, the students came back to the bus, but it seemed there were two students missing. I decided we would wait ten more minutes, but if they didn't show I would have to do something about it. My process started by thinking about any students who would have the girl’s numbers, but nobody on the bus had it. I then continued by attempting to call my staff leader, but I couldn't get any cellular reception. My only choice was to send the bus back to the camp along with another counselor, and for me to stay in town and wait at the spot where the bus was to pick them up. Eventually, one of the counselors was able to get reception at the camp and informed me that another chaperon had picked up the girls and gone back to camp. If I hadn't sent a counselor back to the camp, we may have spent hours waiting for the girls.
Communication
Serving as a camp counselor gave me an opportunity to communicate with students. One of the most important times I communicated with them was when I gave a two day seminar concerning accountability. Before giving the seminar I had to consider the audience and determine a way to communicate the main message in a way that would truly sink in. The seminar ended up going really well, and the students felt comfortable enough to come and discuss some of the best ways to hold themselves and others accountable. This experience not only helped me to communicate effectively, but also helped me to get over issues I had with speaking in front of large crowds.
Collaboration
When I was asked to lead the seminar, my staff leader gave me a partner with whom I could collaborate to develop the seminar. We were able to get together and talk about the most important things we wanted to the students to get out of the seminar, and how we could convey these things. There were several instances where we were not able to meet up, so we were able to collaborate through a technology called google drive. This helped us get many things done and saved a lot of time. Because we were able to communicate so much before we gave the seminar, the seminar went very smoothly and we worked great as a team.