Skilled, passionate, dynamic counselors work here!
Working at YMCA Camp Santa Maria isn’t just a summer job…it’s an opportunity to have an active role in mentoring youth! While at camp you’ll experience lots of fun, unique challenges, and adventurous activities in a community you help create. And it is the community of understanding, peers, and encouragement that keeps campers and staff coming back year after year. We strive to create a community where everyone is accepted, challenged to be their best, and respected.
Professional Training and Experience:
Get a head start! Thinking about a career in education or outdoor recreation? Get real life experience working at camp and honing your skills. The education that you will get during staff training and while working at camp can help you in a wide variety of careers. You will get skills in public speaking, behavioral guidance, first aid, child development, the creative process, conflict management, project planning, and you might even teach some of staff training! Our goal is to help develop some of the most talented and skilled camp staff in the country.
Community:
Working at Camp Santa Maria provides you with an opportunity to live and work in a community unlike few others you will find at other jobs. At Camp Santa Maria every staff member is a valuable member of our dynamic community. You will have the opportunity to help craft the community you live and work in. The development of both our staff and camper communities form the foundation of Camp Santa Maria. It takes effort and commitment, and it is worth it!
Certifications:
Take it with you when you go! All of the Camp Santa Maria staff has Wilderness First Aid, CPR, and Lifeguard certifications. These certifications can be an asset in your job search after the summer.
References:
We love telling everybody how great our staff is. Camp is the perfect opportunity to create relationships with people who want you to succeed at camp and beyond.
Pro Deals:
Outfit yourself for the outdoors! Pro purchasing is available to Camp Santa Maria staff members through numerous outdoor gear manufacturers.
Rocky Mountain Setting:
Location, location, location! While our focus is on youth development, it doesn’t hurt that we’re surrounded by the scenic Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Not a bad place to play and explore during the summer!
Friends:
While working at Camp Santa Maria you just might make friends with folks with whom you will remain connected to for years. And not just as “friends” on some social network, but working for 12 weeks with your peers in a camp setting provides you with a unique opportunity to see others at their best and form a lasting bond. Being a camp counselor is not for everyone, but for those who take the step to work at camp, the rewards are long lasting and life shaping.
What Is A Counselor?
By Phyllis M. Ford, 1970
Somewhere between adolescence and adulthood there occurs in human development an age which is physically and psychologically impossible. It is that unfathomable stage known as the camp counselor, a creature undefined by psychologists, misunderstood by camp directors, worshiped by campers, either admired or doubted by parents, and unheard of by the rest of society.
A camp counselor is a rare combination of doctor, lawyer, indian and chief. She is a competent child psychologist with her sophomore textbook as proof. He is an underpaid babysitter with neither television nor refrigerator. She is a strict disciplinarian with a twinkle in her eye. He is referee, coach, teacher, and advisor. She is an example of humanity in worn out tennis shoes, a sweatshirt two sizes too large, and a hat two sizes too small. He is a humorist in a crisis, a doctor in an emergency, and a song leader, entertainer, and play director. She is an idol with her head in a cloud of woodsmoke and her feet in the mud. He is a comforter under a leaky tarp on a canoe overnight, and a pal who just loaned someone her last pair of dry socks.
He is a teacher of the outdoors, knee deep in poison ivy. A counselor dislikes waiting in line, cabin inspection and rainy days. She is fond of sunbathing, exploring, teaching new games, an old car named Mrs. Beasley, and days off. He is handy for patching up broken friendships, bloody noses, and torn jeans. She is good at locating lost towels at the waterfront, fixing stopped up toilets, making friendship bracelets, and catching fish. He is poor at crawling out of bed on rainy mornings, and remembering to fill out forms. A counselor is a friendly guide in the middle of a cold, dark, wet night on the long winding trail to the TLC. Who but she can cure homesickness, air out wet bedding, play 16 games of 4-square in succession, whistle “Dixie” through her fingers, carry all the cook-out food, speak Pig Latin in Spanish, stand on her hands, sing 37 verses of “You Can’t get to Heaven”, and eat four helpings of Sunday dinner.
A counselor is expected to repair 10 years of damage to Jill in 10 days, make Julie into a woman, rehabilitate Judy, allow Joan to be an individual and help Gertrude adjust to a group. He is expected to lead the most prized possessions of adults much older than she. She is expected to lead them in fun and adventure, even when her head aches; to teach them to live in the outdoors, even though she spends 9 months a year in the city; to teach them indigenous activities when she can’t even spell the word; to guide youngsters in social adjustment, when she hasn’t even reached a legal age; to ensure safety and health, with a sunburned nose, a band-aid on her thumb, and a blister on her heel.
For all this he is paid enough to buy the second text in psychology, some aspirin, some new socks, two tires for Mrs. Beasley, and some new tennis shoes. You wonder how she can stand the pace and the pressure. You wonder if he really knows how much he is worth. And somehow, you realize that you can never pay her enough when, as she leaves at the end of the summer, she waves goodbye and says, “See ya next year!”
