Counselors, where do they come from?
Thursday, November 30, 2006
The mystical creature called “Counselor” is a curious creature. They can usually be found during the winter time in College campuses. Usually in the hibernation position for 15 hours of the day during the winter, the Counselor has a totally different habitat during the summer.
During the summer months the counselor develops into a multi skilled highly trained machine. Experts in everything from tent securing to camp fire making, from soccer star to big brother, big sister to riding instructor. The list is endless.
But how does a counselor become a counselor? For the foreign counselors like me it’s a long process. Lets say a guy called Fred wants to come and work on a summer camp. His first stop is a company called BUNAC (British Universities North America Club). Fred will have a short interview with BUNAC to asses Fred’s skills and area of expertise. The next step is to get accepted by a camp. BUNAC will send Fred’s details to camps they think will be suitable. Forrestel gets Freds details in the mail and instantly hire him. Then Fred has to have a criminal background check done and then go and visit the United States Embassy in London to ask nicely for a Visa.
The Visa arrives in the post and Fred is on his way to camp.
So you can see it takes a lot of dedication to become a counselor way before coming into contact with a camper.