By: Jeremy Klotz, Director

In these competitive times, we know that many families measure the value of spending a summer at GUCI in Avodah or on Staff against the potential benefits of gaining “real world” experience through an internship or other work experience.  Planning strategically for future employment or acceptance into college is a very personal thing, taking into account many factors and considerations.  I won’t pretend to be an expert on what’s best for any particular family or student. However, I can attest to the great benefits I gained through my work years ago on staff at camp, and would argue that it is not only real world experience, but essential preparation for future success.Our staff have very real, and very significant, responsibilities.  During camper years, one of the primary goals our campers have is to have fun, exciting times with their great friends.  When they transition to staff, their experience becomes much different.

Our focus, as the camp’s leadership, is to transition young staff members from participants to leaders.  We train them well, and give them immediate responsibility for the well-being of young kids.  They have many resources to aid them, but they are the front-line people working directly with the kids, sleeping with them in the cabins, and managing the different personalities, conflicts, and behavioral issues presented.  They also live in close quarters with their co-counselors (much like they will in a dorm room at college).  No matter how solid your relationship, living that close to 2 or 3 other people for a month can be challenging, and requires our staff to develop and use problem-solving skills, compromise, and persistence to maintain the high standards of programming, supervision and creativity we require of them.

In addition, our staff members are our primary program planners.  They are not simply shepherds walking campers from program to program.  They own many aspects of our elective and social programs, and are responsible for delivering our education programs on teams with our Faculty.  To be successful, they must manage their time wisely, learn to work well in groups under time pressures, and accept accountability for the success of the programs.  They gain management and organizational skills, experience presenting to large groups, share successes, and learn to work through disagreements and disappointments.It is very gratifying when people acknowledge the work we do, and the great benefits our staff gain through employment at camp.  We hear from former staff and their parents routinely about how the GUCI staff experience prepared them for college, employment, parenting, etc.   It is equally gratifying to have a staff that embrace the challenges of delivering a high quality program for our campers.  Being able to offer the experience and training to young people at GUCI makes me feel like I’m doing something to make our future bright.  Having the staff at camp who want to become leaders and really benefit from the opportunity is more significant.  It makes me very proud to be the Director of this great camp!

This week, as we welcome Shabbat, we celebrate our fantastic and dedicated staff; the people who really make the magic of GUCI happen!

Shabbat Shalom