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The value of working at camp on the lives of young camp staff research.

Article Excerpt
The impact of working as a member of a summer camp staff is seldom recognized for the valuable contributions that often arise from the experience. This article highlights findings from a project that asked young staff to discuss their perceptions of how their job as a camp counselor influenced the development of life skills and their choice of careers.

The Experience of a Lifetime: Alumni Perceptions of the Development and Transfer of Life and Workforce Skills in the Ohio 4-H Camp Counselor Program

Introduction

Ohio 4-H invests significant resources in its camp program. Most research, however, has examined camper outcomes rather than those for camp counselors. 4-H camp counselors are teens who are highly engaged in their camp counseling roles (McNeely 2004), and it is expected that the skills they learn in these roles are applied to other contexts of their lives. However, research studies examining the connection between camp counseling skills and their application to other contexts have been mixed (Brandt & Arnold, 2006; Forsythe, Matysik, & Nelson, 2004; McNeely, 2004).

The foundation for this study came from the human ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner 1979; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998) and transfer of learning (Haskell 2001). The goals of the research were to examine the following areas from the alumni perspective: (a) their experiences as a 4H camp counselor; (b) the life and workforce skills gained through their experience; (c) the impact the camp counselor experience had on their career choice; and (d) the unique aspects of being a 4H camp counselor as compared to the rest of the 4-H experience (Digby 2005).

Sample/Methods

Four focus...

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