Teen Leadership Program
Camp Birchwood’s Senior Camper Leadership Program is an enriched 4-week or full summer session specifically designed for our most experienced campers. This elite program sets itself self apart by engaging our senior campers in leadership training and character-building workshops. As they participate in these facilitated forums, the meaning of camp becomes more profound and individualized. A unique experience is curated. The time they spend as leaders at Birchwood becomes the basis for college essays, job applications, National Honor Society requirements, and community service volunteer hours.
What legacy will your legacy be at Birchwood?
Fostering Leadership Skills
Camp Birchwood’s senior campers are the most popular and most celebrated ladies in camp. Their positive energy ignites every activity and injects enthusiasm into every event. Girls of all ages look up to our senior campers for wholesome, dedicated support and genuine friendship.
On a daily basis, Birchwood’s teens assist in an activity they absolutely love for two hours of the day. In this role, they are “big sisters” who help run the activity and teach the basics. This invaluable experience of “making a difference” in the life of another is a profoundly formative experience.
Senior Campers also help run large events in camp so they can learn about organization, teamwork, leadership, and goal-setting. This also includes running their very own activity or workshop for two hours on Sundays (with a counselor present for support).
Our teens also attend leadership seminars once a week. These sophisticated meetings focus on developing leadership skills, enriching personal communication, and confidence development. Girls are challenged to think deeply and engage in respectful dialogue with others. This promotes self-reflection and deepens their connection with one another.
After four solid weeks filled with so many soulful experiences, teens leave enriched beyond compare. It truly is a time in their lives they never forget.
Leadership Titles
Every year offers high school girls a new level of responsibility and privilege. We start them off slow and then build on their skills every summer they return. In the end, they will have become integral members of our community who are truly beloved leaders. No doubt, their time as Seniors Leaders at Birchwood far surpasses the benefits of any typical summer job or high school internship.
Year One - Activity Assistant (AA’s)
Activity Assistants help at one camp activity for two (and no more than two) periods a day. These campers are encouraged to take initiative a little more each day - and to remember how much a big smile and encouraging word matters to everyone around them. A big part of their role is to become supportive “big sisters” who help younger girls feel welcome and accepted throughout the day.
Year Two - Junior Counselor (JC’s)
Junior Counselors are girls who became certified Activity Assistants the summer before and are now seeking new and greater challenges. JC’s donate two periods of assisting in an activity each day as well and begin to teach beginners. They also help at the sign-up window on a rotating schedule and have the responsibility of decorating for our four-week banquet. In and out of the cabin, these Senior Campers are more knowledgeable about camp and role model their maturity gained in a year’s time.
Year Three - Associate Counselor (AC’s)
An AC takes on many tasks that a JC takes on, but more. These Seniors have the opportunity to assist in more than one activity a day if they want to do so. They help assist the Senior Director in coordinating and planning activities and events for the senior campers, and overall, take a more direct and assertive leadership position in camp. You’re not a counselor yet, but you’re on your way, and as an excellent Associate Counselor, it will show.