What are the Benefits of Being Jewish Summer Camp Alumni?
Written by Anne Tursky, Director of Alumni Engagement
Summer Camp Benefits
When a child comes home from a summer at camp, there are immediately noticeable benefits such as learning a new skill like swimming or showing a greater sense of independence by making their bed or the number of friends they are constantly texting and calling. All of these are important aspects of the growth and socialization that a child gains from a summer at camp. What we may not always realize is that summers spent at overnight camp, whether as a camper or a staff member, give that person the foundation that they continue to build on as they move through life from being a child to going away to college and then onto adulthood.
The Lifetime Benefits of Being Jewish Summer Camp Alumni
1. Relationships that Last a Lifetime
One of the largest outcomes of spending a summer at camp is the relationships that are developed. Some, on the immediate surface, create friendships for life while others that may not be as close still offer opportunities for future importance. Both of these can offer opportunities for assistance in selecting, navigating, and possibly the actual acceptance process of college life. They may be key in finding the right medical professional or facility for a family member. They may offer opportunities for assistance with finding employment or starting a business. Researching a potential opportunity can sometimes be overwhelming, but chances are there is an alumnus who can assist or knows someone that can assist with this. Having camp as the connecting piece, can open avenues that may not have otherwise been available, offering you a “leg up” in the process. Your camp connection may be the deciding factor between you and another candidate for a job. In short, camp connections can make the world a little smaller and easier to navigate.
2. Human Connection
Having a place or moment in life where you felt understood, respected and included is key to quality of life and positive mental health. Camp is for many alumni, that place and that moment. Many alumni can quote chapter and verse as to when and where in camp they first started becoming the person they are today. Camp is the resource they will sight for where they first learned a specific skill. There is a language that only camp people understand. There is a feeling that only camp people carry with them. We have all, at one time or another, had that moment when we smiled without realizing it because of a sense memory. For camp alumni, many times that moment is even more intense, because it is about the place that helped to formulate the person they are. All their skill sets (communication, conflict resolution, making friends) were developed and honed at camp. For many alumni, the intense connection to their camp may present itself in many ways going forward, including where they choose to go to college, where they may give philanthropically, where they will send their children to camp or maybe even where they live or what profession they choose to pursue. For most, this intense connection is second only to their family.
3. Tolerance
Living in a bunk 24/7 with different personalities and opinions offers an intense “hands-on” education in tolerance. Living together teaches campers and staff patience and understanding, which leads to acceptance of each other’s differences. Having staff and campers from different countries opens the opportunity for a basic understanding of different cultures. It opens our eyes to the realization that there are different ways to do things and to think. Sharing these ideas is the first step towards a life of tolerance for others. Camp offers a safe space for having difficult conversations in which a variety of opposing opinions are spoken. As alumni make their way into college and life ahead, they take this foundation with them, hopefully making their tiny piece of the world a more tolerant place.
4. Life skills
One of the things that camp gives an alumnus is life skills, such as learning to take care of your belongings, making your bed, cleaning up your space and so on. These are the kinds of life skills that set the foundation for the future. College life involves all these skills. Professional life involves all these skills. These are skills that present you to the outside world. If you are a messy person who doesn’t concern yourself with being organized, that will most likely affect how you are perceived in your professional life. It may even affect whether you are chosen for a certain project team in college, which can then affect potential references for future employment. Having life skills gives our alumni the foundation for future success.
5. International World View
It has been said that the best time to travel is when you are young. However, traveling to another country can seem overwhelming. Where to go? What to see? Navigating the travel, hotel, food and finances can be complicated. Working a summer at camp offers the opportunity to meet people from many countries, which opens the wonderful opportunity for seeing the world. Camp alumni, no matter here or abroad, love to play host for their camp friends. Knowing someone from another country may influence a semester abroad decision or even just the idea of travelling for a week or two to another country. All of this travel opens a person up to new experiences, independence, self-awareness and, hopefully, a better understanding of the world around them.
6. Sense of Purpose
Camp offers a variety of activities, from arts and sciences to sports to outdoor adventure. As a camper you try a variety of activities and over time develop a more specific interest in an area. Working on staff, you spend a great deal of time honing your skills as a teacher in a specific area. Either way, there are many alumni who find that their life’s purpose came out of an interest that started in camp. Some will take that skill and continue it as their major in college which then leads into their professional life. Some may use it as a serious hobby or secondary profession. For some the skills they develop through one area in camp transfers into another that they decide to pursue for life. Camp offers many arenas for an alumnus to explore and pursue that they may never have had the opportunity to discover about themselves.
7. Finding Jewish Community and Jewish Identity
For several campers and staff, Jewish overnight camp is the first true sense of Jewish community. After a summer spent at camp, statements such as sitting with my friends in a community of white shirts on Friday night or the ruach (spirit) of song sessions in the dining room, or the banging on the tables during the birkhat hamazon prayer after meals, become some of the major joyful moments that represent true Jewish community and Jewish expression. Camp offers a 24/7 immersive experience in living Jewishly with other Jews, which for some alumni, who may have been the only Jewish person in their school or neighborhood, becomes the first time they feel fully accepted. For some alumni, who may have been raised in a family that was not observant, Jewish overnight camp gives them the opportunity to “try Judaism on” through daily living, allowing them to decide which, if any, aspects they wish to include in their lives going forward. In the future, alumni may seek out and join the Hillel at their college or introduce Shabbat traditions in their own homes. Camp may be the catalyst for joining a birthright trip to Israel. Whatever the outcome, camp offers alumni a safe place for personal Jewish exploration and community.
8. Set of Core Values
Jewish Overnight camp has within its mission a set of written core values that are the foundation of camp life. This set of values is clearly stated and are a huge part of every aspect of the daily living experience. Values such as respecting others, kindness, gratitude and belonging are all part of the camp’s way of living and treatment of each other. Under these values fall others such as, visiting the sick, paying it forward and taking care of the environment. After having spent summers at camp, alumni will leave with this foundation of core values as they move through each chapter of their life. They lean on these values as a road map to how they treat others and for many of the choices they make in the future. It is the hope of camp that these values will then be passed onto their children and so on, hopefully making an impact on the community around them.
9. The Hidden Skillset You Acquire at Camp
Along with basic life skills, staff at camp learn a variety of skills that they never realized would ever come in handy outside of camp…until they did. Skills such as how to plunge the toilet, how to hammer a nail, dealing with bugs, how to fold and pack clothes to get the most amount in the smallest suitcase and more. These are skills that alumni use throughout life when they pack and leave for college or move into their first apartment or house. Basic hands-on skills such as these become an important part of daily living and the ability to survive on your own.
Contact NJY Camps Today to Enroll Your Child
To learn more about the long-lasting impacts of Jewish Summer Camp for fellow alumni, or are interested in enrolling your child in our sleepaway camp program, contact us today!
