Complete Guide to Working at Camp in America: Everything You Need to Know

ByVictoria Philpott Last Updated:

Working at camp in America is one of the best things I ever did. I did it for two years and without a doubt it changed my life, and its course, for the better. Here’s what you need to know if you want to work at camp in America too.

In 2005 I spent 12 weeks working at a summer camp in New York. French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts was tough going – I went through every emotion imaginable during the summer, and it was definitely a life changing experience.

Life at summer camp
  • I made some of the best friends I’ve ever had.
  • It inspired me to try travel.
  • If I’m ever feeling a bit rubbish I have a bank of thousands of funny camp memories to cheer me up.
  • The work changed me for the better.
  • I proved to myself I was capable of a lot more in life.

Working at camp in America had its ups and downs and highs and lows. I want to give you the full guide to what working in summer camp is like, to encourage you to do the same.

What is being a camp counselor like?

Working as a camp counselor is pretty much 24/7. You’re never really off duty while you’re there. I had to deal with everything from kids pooing on bunk floors, to rogue thunderstorms terrifying the little ones to homesickness and very sadly the death of two co counselors while we were at camp.

Working at summer camp day to day

I had to wake up at 7am and get 12, 13-year-old girls up, washed and at breakfast for 8am – however hard that sounds, it was harder. Then I had to teach five lessons a day of visual arts and radio, with an hour’s break and a lunch hour thrown in somewhere, and then get the kids to dinner and join in or help host the evening activity. After that it was time for a dance up at the canteen and I would DJ while the kids scoffed pizza and ice cream before being hustled off to bed by their counselor.

Then, this was where the fun really began: trying to get the kids to sleep.