Company: Beam Camp (http://www.beamcamp.org)
Position: Summer Camp Counselor
Dates of Employment: 6/22/24 – 8/13/24
Location: Strafford, NH
Salary: $3,157 (food and housing included)
Beam Camp is a summer camp in Strafford, NH that focuses on skill-building, collaborative challenge, responsibility, and mentorship. Campers ages 9-17 collaborate on a spectacular project, which helps kids explore what it means to make things with their own bodies and brains and how that kind of creativity is relevant and applicable to everything in our lives. At Beam Camp, we transform ideas into artifacts and personal achievement into community success. We also have a lot of fun.
The centerpiece of the program is the Big Project. Each summer, Beam commissions a unique large-scale collaborative endeavor, ranging from the conceptual to the structural, built by self-directed camper teams with on-call support from staff.
Beam Camp has two lakes and sits within a 750 acre conservation reserve of mountain and forest. Among Beam’s resources are a well-equipped fabrication woodshop and metal shop, digital lab, art/ceramics studio, basketball court, two large athletic fields, and an outdoor fire pit.
JOB DESCRIPTION
The core of the Summer Camp Counselor’s job is caring for, managing, and leading their cabin of 10-12 kids with a co-Counselor. Counselors work to ensure the safety and well-being of their campers through constant communication with campers and staff, providing structure for their cabin, and creating a supportive and respectful atmosphere in the cabin. Counselors also help their Campers maintain a clean living environment and healthy personal habits.
Beyond the cabin, we ask Counselors to think and act as “lead learners.” Beam Camp is an opportunity for all of us to grow, Campers and Staff alike. By creating an atmosphere in which we are open to experimenting, learning, and making the occasional mistake, we provide the Campers with a safe space in which they can challenge themselves. In order to be open to learning, we are not just watching Campers, but engaging in the activities with the Campers.
Counselors participate in most Program areas, either as leaders, collaborators, or in a supportive role. Program areas include Independent Work in our Guilds (self-directed projects by campers supported and guided by staff), Community Work (gardening, compost, cooking and maintenance), the Big Project (our session-long ambitious undertaking), Domains (subject-specific workshops), Pulse (swimming, sports and active play), and After Dinner (a daily post-dinner event when campers perform, play/invent a game, have campfires, and more). While the Counselor can always expect to be actively participating, they needn’t have preexisting skill in these areas but any relevant experience is a plus.
To highlight and support each individual staff members’ talents, skills, and interests, Counselors will be designated to one of three programmatic “focuses” for the summer which will dictate what they spend the majority of their time working on:
● Instruction (focusing on craft, problem solving, and teaching) – primarily based in the shops supporting Independent Work, Domains, and occasionally building the Big Project.
● Programming (focusing on celebration, fun, and theatrics) – primarily planning After Dinners, helping to plan Theme Days, coordinating skits and camp gags, and occasionally building the Big Project.
● Community (focusing on, and responding to, the health, intention, and needs of camp)- primarily invested in maintaining the health and wellbeing of the camp community through proactive care and maintenance of our community spaces and operations such as the garden, compost, and kitchen food prep and clean up. The community counselors will also be responsible for helping to coordinate 434 / 535, Pulse, and occasionally building the Big Project.
Prior to camp, Counselors are expected to participate in a 7-day staff week, where the staff will work together to open and prepare the campus for Campers to arrive. The week is a combination of technical and professional training alongside some manual labor. Staff will be trained on how to engage with all our shop spaces and their tools, as well as many group activities and conversations centered around child growth and development. Examples of some of the training, activities, and conversations that we have during this time include:
● Trauma Informed Practice Training
● Mental Health First Aid Training
● Supporting the Whole Camper Talk and Roleplay
● Self Care Discussion
● First Aid/CPR Training
● Optional Lifeguard Certification
● Race and Identity Talk
Beyond these conversations, reopening a camp can be hard physical work. This week will include a lot of lifting heavy things, moving furniture, and cleaning.
QUALIFICATIONS
● We welcome all applications, from those with extensive professional experience working with children to those whose experience is caring for family members and neighbors (although prior experience is a plus!).
● Applicants must be 21+.
● Beam Counselors are passionate about the things they invest time in, caring, curious, playful, eager to share, and have an interest in working with children. Our most successful Counselors are open to new experiences — social, creative, and work-related — and have the energy and focus to sustain themselves through a month of intense physical and emotional work and constant social interaction. Counselors have one day off per week, a two-hour break during the day, and every other night off (after lights out for Campers). Living in the woods at a sleep away camp can be difficult to adjust to at first. The hours are long, and this role does not afford much personal time and space outside of your days/evenings off and breaks. Providing the best possible and most productive experience for our Campers is as creatively, physically, and emotionally demanding as it rewarding; Counselors need to be able to manage the stress (and ask for the help needed) that accompanies this mission. Just as you will be there to support your campers through this adjustment period, we will be there to support you.
● Working at Beam Camp is an opportunity for all of us to grow, Campers and Staff alike, and to feel a circular investment within your job. We train and support you in getting the most out of your time at camp, and you bring your all to make camp the best place it can be because you are there. By creating this atmosphere in which we are open to experimenting, learning, and making the occasional mistake, we provide the Campers with a safe space in which they can challenge themselves.
HOW TO APPLY
Complete our Counselor application form on our Beam Camp hiring page.