Ben Eisenberg ’19

Lake Owego Camp for Boys, Greeley, PA

Ben and his team are very excited about the first day of camp.
Ben and his team are very excited about the first day of camp.

I have spent the past eight weeks working as a head staff intern at Lake Owego Camp. Although I have been at Camp for many summers, this year I have had the privilege of taking on substantial responsibility and independence as a Camp Leader. My goal this summer was to serve as a guide and role model for our counseling staff and to mentor them in their role as counselors to our campers. My specific job was a Division Leader for the 7th and 8th graders, who we refer to as the “Senior Division.” I was the youngest Division Leader for Senior Division, with my two colleagues being 25 and 32 years old. This division is known to be particularly challenging because it is often a very difficult time in a young man’s life. Most boys this age are at widely varying degrees of physical and emotional maturation. Some are fully through puberty while others have yet to begin. These variations, and range of development and experience, highlight the challenges of working with this age group. Although challenging, my experience this summer demonstrated the profound rewards of engaging with the older boys as they begin to seek independence, push limits, and define themselves and their world.

Being part of the leadership at camp this summer involved an intense level of dedication both of my time and focus. Camp is a 24/7 job, and supervising counselors and being responsible for the welfare of young children demanded my complete attention. I have known many of the head staff and camp director for years and found working as part of the lead-staff team to be very rewarding. We emphasized cooperation and generated new and exciting ideas for activities and maintaining staff and camper morale. The head-staff are mostly educators (teachers, school counselors, and administrators) and their experience working with students translates directly to the camp environment. Classroom management tools and strategies were easily adapted for camp and proved highly effective. I learned so much about successfully managing campers and helping them see that cooperation and teamwork leads to an enjoyable experience.

As a Division Leader, it was my responsibility to make sure that each bunk was running efficiently and the kids were all having fun. By the end of the summer, there were no campers in our division who left camp early and a record number had decided to stay the full eight weeks. This was not without difficulties. For example, my Co-Division Leader and I grappled with one particular bunk dynamic. There was a child named Mark (not his real name) who struggled with ADHD. He proved quite disruptive to his bunkmates and we had to utilize numerous strategies to support him. These included regular check-ins where he could talk to us about problems he was facing, pairing him with other campers who were organized and cooperative, breaking down his tasks into manageable units, and giving him jobs that he could complete successfully in order to help him feel more a part of the bunk team. Although these strategies were helpful, we continued to need to generate innovative ways to support him throughout the summer.

Ben posing with the winner of the Shelly Silver Award. This award is given to the most outstanding camper in the senior division.
Ben posing with the winner of the Shelly Silver Award. This award is given to the most outstanding camper in the senior division.

Another important responsibility of my leadership role was communicating with the parents of each child. At the end of each session (which last approximately four weeks), I was required to write a comprehensive letter home to each child’s parents detailing the activities that he had participated in as well as the status of how their summer was going overall. A shortened example of how a letter for a thriving camper might look is as follows:

In his 4th summer at camp Jesse continues to easily maintain and develop relationships both in the bunk and throughout the division. He has taken full advantage of our athletic and outdoor adventure programs, competing in a USTA tennis tournament and going on a 3-day canoe trip down the Delaware River. His kind, respectful nature is an asset to campers and counselors alike. Overall, it has been another fun, successful summer for Jesse and we look forward to his return next year!

Crafting meaningful and genuine letters about forty-five campers was challenging and helped me to think about activities and goals for the second half of the summer I take great pride in knowing each camper and hope to give parents a glimpse of their son’s camp experience.

Over the course of the summer, I found that leading by example was the most effective way to reach both the counseling staff and the campers. I was able to provide support and resources for the counselors and encourage them to be engaged and effective role models for their campers. We worked as a team and the coordination and cooperation of our staff was essential to demonstrating good teamwork to the campers. If the counselors were working together and solving problems and having fun, the campers were motivated to follow. I was particularly cognizant of making myself available to counselors who were struggling or feeling depleted by the round-the-clock structure of camp work. Helping them to identify support, take a break, or set a new goal for the next few weeks was effective to maintaining a good moral during the latter half of camp. I’m generally a very organized person and applying these skills at camp was extremely helpful with our busy and ever shifting camp activities.

The most difficult and complex event I had to organize was our division trip to Vermont. The whole division attended the trip—both counselors and campers alike. It was very challenging organizing all the medications for each child and keeping track of any money they had brought. The trip was a three-day event where we went to numerous fun sites including a camp favorite—the Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory. It was important for me to stress to the boys the importance of good behavior outside of camp, as they were now representing the camp to the greater community. Overall, the trip was a success and went off without a hitch.

Twelve campers and two co-counselors, including Ben, from all over the United States.
Twelve campers and two co-counselors, including Ben, from all over the United States.

The most important goal of overnight camp is to have fun. Within the context of an enjoyable experience, campers can achieve many goals including: exploration and improvement of athletic, artistic, and intellectual skills; developing social skills and making friends; building independence; and learning from positive adult role models. Many of the challenges of camp are part of the skills needed to lead a healthy productive life. I hope that supporting the development of these young boys into caring and engaged citizens will have a positive impact on their communities and our world in general.

As a dual psychology and economics major, I continue to be interested in working directly with people, especially children and young adults. I hope to continue to use what I have learned this summer to fine-tune my academic and employment goals. I particularly enjoyed working with the younger campers this summer and hope to find further opportunities to study and work with young children. I am thinking of selecting an experiential educational course for the spring semester and/or joining the Williams Middle School Volunteer Program, Assist. I am extremely grateful to the Alumni Sponsored Internship Program and the Education Internships for making my summer experience possible.