Lonely Planet: USA
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USA ADVENTURE TOUR
After camp finishes, why not join this six-week tour of the USA?
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I WORKED IN AMERICA
"I immediately felt welcomed and accepted at camp: everyone's in the same boat"
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<< Back to Work on summer and adventure camps Why work on a summer camp? |
Why work on a summer camp? Duncan Jane of CCUSA writes..."Working at US summer camp really could be the best experience of your life. The CCUSA camp program includes flights to the USA, your working visa, insurance and full board too... and the fun gets thrown in for free!  Working on a summer camp means you could work in a beautiful, outdoor setting (very often on a lake), surrounded by great people from many different countries and excited American children who are out to have the time of their lives. You too will also have a great time and get paid for the pleasure! Yes that’s right, you do get paid; the amount you earn depends on your age, experience and position you work at camp.So what can you do at camp? There are a number of options, you can work as a camp counselor - a General Counselor, which involves being responsible for and assisting a group of children as they go round to different activities - which you will also get to participate in. Then there is a Speciality Counselor who teaches and assists with a skill that they love, such as dance, drama, soccer, archery, rock-climbing, gymnastics, tennis, swimming to name but a few.  Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a qualified teacher or professional sportsman/Olympic athlete to do this... you simply need a good level of personal experience and the desire to help children learn new skills or develop existing ones. If you would love to go to camp, but would prefer to work behind the scenes (i.e. not directly with the children), you can work in the kitchen, laundry room, office, store room or help with maintenance around the camp. This is ideal if you would like to earn slightly more money or do not feel that you have enough experience with children (although lots of experience is not really necessary). Remember to work at a camp with children you don’t need to have loads of experience, as all of the camps run full training programs for staff that usually last a week prior to the campers' arrival. So whether you have tons of experience with children, or have just babysat for friends and relatives, you are an ideal candidate. The desire to make a difference in a child’s life is more important than experience on paper, so please don't think you don’t have the experience or qualifications to work at a summer camp, because I bet you do - just check with CCUSA!  After camp you get up to nine weeks in which to travel the United States. Yes, you can visit the places you have heard about on TV or seen in the movies and glossy magazines. Why not visit the Big Apple, go up the Empire State Building, see a Yankees game, go shopping on 5th Avenue or take in a show on Broadway? You can also visit the Deep South of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana, see California and visit Hollywood, Beverly Hills and San Francisco. Visit the casinos and desert of Las Vegas or for those who wish to travel further, visit the island of Hawaii, where they film Lost! Paid work, new friends, loads of fun and travel opportunities, sounds perfect right? But that’s still not all - for all of your hard work and enjoyment, you will now have the perfect life experience to add to your CV. If you are planning on a teaching career, or indeed any other career, working at a camp in an international setting, will set you apart from the other candidates.  It is a proven fact that when you get down to the last two or three for an interview it is because everyone has the same qualifications and ambition, but I bet the others wouldn’t have increased their independence and cultural diversity by working in a different country, where this program will allow you too.If you want to experience the best summer of your life and be successful in summer camp, you must be very hard working, compassionate, a good communicator, committed, a team player and more importantly have a great sense of humour and want to have fun. If you are all of these things, then you should apply to be a camp counselor with CCUSA right now!"  Click here >> for all jobs available on summer camps with CCUSA Click here >> to read a CCUSA camp counselor's summer camp diary Click here >> for summer camp postcards Click here >> for frequently asked questions about summer camp work Click here >> for more experiences on working for CCUSA |
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