LE3 .A278 2016

2016

Warner, Alan

Acadia University

Bachelor of Recreation Management

Honours

Recreation Management

Kinesiology

Each year, millions of young people in North America work in residential summer camps (American Camp Association, 2013). Research suggests that this camp employment experience is beneficial for the staff in many ways (Duerden et al., 2014). It suggests that camp is a key opportunity for people to gain skills that will be useful in future employment, yet research is limited on this topic. There is no previous research that combined the three topics in this study–the skills learned from camp employment, what aspects of the camp experience facilitated those skills, and how those skills transfer to future work or education–in order to holistically determine the impacts of residential camp employment. In this study, ten former staff members from two different residential summer camps participated in qualitative, semi-structured interviews with the goal of understanding the skills they learned as camp staff, the elements of the amp experience that facilitated those skills, and the potential effect of those skills in helping them in subsequent work, education, and personal life roles. The skills the staff learned were categorized into eight growth areas: communication skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, business & management skills, personal development, facilitation skills, stress management, and technical skills. These eight growth areas transferred into the participants' current fields of work and study. Fore core characteristics of residential camp were identified in facilitating the learning of skills: the residential environment, the support network allowing for staff to be pushed out of their comfort zones, working with children in a residential setting, and the opportunity to learn through experience. There is also discussion around the diversity of camp work experiences, the accessibility of the camp work experience, and how those unable to attend residential camp may be able to substitute the development opportunity.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1416