Season Workers Help Guide - Summer Camp Counselor Jobs

The Summer Camp Counselor position generally refers to working on Camps in America as oppose to one of the thousands of UK camps. (Otherwise referred to as Summer Camp USA or Camp America and is a tradition that is over 100 years old). Under specific visa conditions, British students have been travelling to America to work on summer camps for decades.

There is no shortage of USA summer camps, in fact there are over 10,000! These camps are normally set in places of natural beauty and have access to the beach, a lake or have a swimming pool. The camps have the usual you would expect, dining halls, dormitories or tent grounds, kitchens, arts and sports areas etc to keep thousands of American kids from all backgrounds happy and enriched for the summer.

General Counselors are there to help, encourage and support the kids, act as a role model and hero to campers ages 8 – 16. Camp Counselors main responsibility is of course safety but to the kids their counselor is so much more than that. Camp Counselors normally live with their campers 24 hours a day – you are there to make sure they eat, sleep and get involved in activities which you will also be expected to assist with. It’s a tough job but for the right person with an open and positive mental attitude it will be the most rewarding summer of your life.

Specialty Counselors do all of the above but lead or instruct in a sport, art or other special session based activity. Some camps specialize in a particular skill – you can even go on a Mathematics camp. More commonly, specialist camps are centered on a sport, art or academic genre. Some camps are specialists in providing a summer camp experience for inner city children, a religion based experience or handicapped people. Experience is not normally expected for all roles on these camps.

To do it you can either apply through an agency (many of which advertise here on Season Workers) or direct to the camps themselves. Te camps all take on a great number of camp counselors but if you go direct you will have to sort out the visa yourself and also gamble on the camp you go to being un-vetted and potentially not up to scratch. Either way this is a highly recommended job and you even get time to travel at the end of most contracts.