If this is your first time seeing First Class Counsellors in your CampHacker feed, welcome! You can find our first episode here.

On our second episode, we are joined by Isabelle “Zukes” Paradis to discuss how we can best serve our Generation Z staff and campers. Oliver, Matt and Isabelle cover a ton of practical, ready-to-implement ideas that camp counsellors can use to benefit this exciting generation of campers and camp staff.

In this short, episode, we cover

How to capture and retain campers with short attention spans when explaining things at camp

What you can do when campers and staff are open to sharing about their mental health

3 ways to give campers and staff the face-to-face connection that Gen Z craves

Easy ways to help our campers and staff begin to take on independence and take healthy risks

Embracing Gen Z’s entrepreneurial spirit and giving them autonomy over their camp experience

As usual, what we’re getting at here is fast, furious, and it’s incredibly useful for your counselling staff

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Get Ready - Counsellors, do this NOW to level up your counselling skills

Oliver: Call a friend who has no connection to camp. Talk to them about what working at camp is really like. Share your ideas, share your stories so they can really understand something this important in your life.

Matt & Isabelle (It’s like they work together!): Buy yourself GOOD camp gear. A GOOD raincoat (not a poncho), a GOOD headlamp (almost any headlamp with good reviews on amazon), a GOOD pair of sandals (Matt’s go to’s are Chacos) and a GOOD water bottle (something that will last and where the mouthpiece won’t get dirty) and a GOOD waterproof watch.

Host Links

Oliver Gregan, Summer and Families Camp Director at YMCA Camp Jewell

Matt Honsberger, Camp Director at Pearce Williams Summer Camp & Retreat Facility

Isabelle Paradis, Counsellor & Programmer at Pearce Williams Summer Camp & Retreat Facility

What is First Class Counsellors?

Camp Directors, this Podcast won’t be for you. It’s time to delegate! First Class Counsellors will be for your counselling staff, or, the staff who are on the ground, playing with kids and changing lives.

Each week, we will hear from young camp directors and leaders to draw out practical and accessible tips that will level up their counsellor skills.

Our two hosts, Oliver Gregan, Summer and Families Camp Director at YMCA Camp Jewell and Matt Honsberger - Camp Director at Pearce Williams Summer Camp are excited to be able to provide this resource to camp counsellors, who they believe, have the most important job at camp.

This is free professional development for your counsellors! We would love your feedback. Please leave your comments below, or, send Matt and email! Thank you!