What MAKES SNC SO SPECIAL?  IT'S OUR CAMP COUNSELORS

Summer Camp May Improve College Admissions Odds

Kelli B. Grant | CNBC -Sunday, 27 Apr 2014 | 10:00 AM

How you spend your summer vacation isn't just fodder for first-day-back-in-school essays. It could provide a boost on college or job applications—especially if you went to camp.

Colleges have been getting more selective in recent years. In 2012, the average four-year college accepted 63.9 percent of applicants, down from 69.6 percent in 2003, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling. Many are even more selective. This year, Yale University accepted just 6.26 percent of applicants, down from 6.27 percent a year ago and 11 percent in 2005, according to educational consulting company IvyWise. Cornell University accepted 14 percent, versus 31 percent in 2005.

Grades and standardized test scores are still the top factor for admission, but educational counselors say colleges are starting to take a harder look at extracurricular activities, particularly those over summer vacation. "Parents assume their kids need to be even more competitive on grades," said Eric Greenberg, founder and director of education consulting firm Greenberg Educational Group. "What has happened, ironically, is the opposite."

To colleges, summertime is like the hiatus between jobs a prospective employer would ask about, said Mark Kantrowitz, senior vice president and publisher at Edvisors Network. "Colleges want to understand, what have you been doing with yourself?" he said. "What happened during that gap?" The answer can be telling of what a student will do on campus.

Source: Talia Rodwin,

Campers: Sylv, Hannah and Talia.

Parents shouldn't immediately race for the nearest camp sign-up sheet. While there are surely college admissions officers with fond memories of lake swims and archery, the camp experience that is more likely to stand out is a specialized one that speaks to a student's interests, experts say. Summers at soccer camp can help show a would-be college athlete's dedication, for example, while theater camp can be an edge for someone applying to the acting program—especially if the high school's drama program is so-so (or nonexistent).

Focused camps aren't that difficult to find. Half of day camps have some kind of academic activities or areas of study, and one-third offer a STEM (i.e., science, technology, engineering or math) program, according to the American Camp Association.

"By being stronger on the extracurricular activities, you can actually make up somewhat for weaknesses academically," Kantrowitz said. It's no slam dunk, though. "Not everyone is going to yield a benefit, but it's something that distinguishes you," he said. (Considering, however, that some camps can cost upwards of $1,000 per week, it's worth pointing out that extra experience in a student's areas of interest could just as easily come from a summer course at a local college, volunteer experiences or work, he said.)

Steven Infanti, associate vice president for admissions at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, said a STEM camp experience is something that makes him take a closer look at a student's application. "When I look at an applicant who has a 2.5 [GPA], which would be kind of a borderline admit for us, but I see on his application, I participate in this camp…that shows a lot of initiative and someone who has a passion," he said.

For higher-achievers, relevant camp experience may put them in the running for the university's fellowship program, which pairs 15 incoming freshmen with faculty for research projects, among other advantages.

Colleges may also find longer camp relationships interesting, even if the camp isn't academically focused. "The regular camper who becomes a counselor is a good type of continuity," Greenberg said. That kind of camp experience can indicate positive qualities such as leadership, resilience and good social skills, he said.

That's the kind of story Oberlin College freshman Talia Rodwin expressed in her application essay. Rodwin, 19, has been attending Habon Dror Camp Moshava in Silver Spring, Md., since 2006 and plans to return this summer for her second year as a counselor. (The youth movement camp emphasizes sharing, leadership and communal responsibility.) "I wrote about my camp experiences and community," she said. "I explained how I think of myself as a community builder…and I think that had an impact."

Source: Simon Solis-Cohen

Simon Solis-Cohen (R), whose camp experience led him to become a chef.

While camp as an application booster isn't a guarantee, it could have other benefits for a college-bound student. Overnight camps can offer a taste of independent living (or at least, living away from mom and dad). The right camp could even help solidify a career path, reducing the chance of a five- or six-year stint at a four-year college while an undeclared student explores options.

"If you go to summer camp and you decide because of the camp that this is what you want to be, you're going to be much more focused as a student," Kantrowitz said.

When he was in middle school, Simon Solis-Cohen, now 23, signed up for a magic camp through Julian Krinsky Camps & Programs in Pennsylvania. He liked it so much that the next year, he tried one of the group's business camps. Then, in the summer leading up to his freshman year of high school, he discovered cooking camp. "It really opened my eyes," Solis-Cohen said.

He was so enamored with cooking that he started working weekends during the school year at the camp chef-instructor's restaurant, then attended college at the Culinary Institute of the America. "I ended up using this as my launching pad," said Solis-Cohen, who is currently with Grgich Hills Estate in Rutherford, Calif., after a stint at renowned Napa Valley restaurant The French Laundry.

As Solis-Cohen discovered, camp can even be a kick-starter for jobs down the line—provided the experience backs up other bona-fides. "Camp is about the social experience of working with other young people in a group setting that's outside your comfort zone," said Chad Oakley, president and chief operating officer of executive search firm Charles Aris, Inc. "That in itself is 50 percent of success in a business environment."

But it's no job shoe-in. "You might get the interview because you went to math camp, but you'd actually get the job because of your ability to interface with people during the interview," said Oakley.

Showcasing a camp experience during the college admissions process can be done in a handful of ways. It might be listed as extra-curricular activities on the college application, or a particularly meaningful experiences worked into the essay portion.

"If you had a transformative experience at the summer camp or a big impact on others, that tells them more about who you are as an individual, especially if you can write about how it set you in a particular direction," Kantrowitz said. "If something is of interest to you, you're more likely to write a passionate essay."

Favorite counselors or camp directors should also be considered for letters of recommendation. "Relatively few students submit letters from outside [school] or that are job-related," said Greenberg. "That can be enormously valuable."

Kelli B. Grant Personal Finance and Consumer Spending Reporter

With access to apps that instantly connect us to millions of users, much of our day is spent hunched over a screen. Adam Alter, author of ''Irresistible,'' explores the rise of technology addiction — specifically in teenagers.

The following is a transcript of the video.

Adam Alter: "Nomophobia" is a new word that's being coined to describe no mobile phobia, and it's the idea that a lot of us, in thinking about not having our phones, experience something like a phobia, and this is supposed to describe hundreds of millions of people today, and I'm sure that number is growing at the moment. What that means is that when you think about, for example, your phone falling out of your pocket, tumbling to the ground, and shattering into a million pieces, you should experience anxiety symptoms, and it's especially true among young people.

I ran a study at one point where I asked young people, a whole lot of teenagers, a very simple question. I said to them: "Imagine you have this very unpleasant choice. So, you can either watch your phone tumble to the ground and shatter into a million pieces or you can have a small bone in your hand broken." Now, that seems to people of a certain age and older like a fairly straightforward question with a straightforward answer. It seems ridiculous. Of course you choose to save the integrity of your hand and let your phone break. You can always replace a phone, but for young people this is actually a very difficult question. In my experience, about 40% to 50% of them will say, "Ultimately, I think it probably makes more sense to have a bone in my hand broken than it does to have my phone broken."

And you can understand why that is, apart from the fact that it is expensive to have a phone repaired and there's some time where you're without your phone. That is their portal to a social world that is very important to them. Being without that social world for a while is probably not as detrimental in some respects as being without a particular bone in your hand. Most of the time, you can get by and you can see this in the way they ask follow-up questions. So, a lot of these teens will say to me things like, "Is it my left hand or my right hand?" and the most important question, "Once I break that bone in my hand, can I still use my phone? Is it a bone that I need to be able to scroll on the phone, because if it is, then that's no deal, but if it's not a bone that I need to use my screen at least I can continue to use my phone during the time I'm healing." If people are willing to endure physical harm to keep their phones that obviously suggests that this is a major issue.

The definition that I like for behavioral addiction that makes the most sense to me is an experience that we return to compulsively over and over again because it feels good in a short run but in the long run, it ultimately undermines our well-being in some respect. So, it can be someone who notices that over time their social relationships are degrading because they don't have a consistent, face-to-face contact with people and that's especially problematic for kids who need time in that real face-to-face social world because that's where they develop all the competencies of being a social creature. The way to work out what other people are thinking, to share your feelings in a way that you want them to be shared for other people to understand you for you to make just the right facial expressions at just the right times. Those seem like obvious and easy-to-do things for most adults but for kids it's very difficult to do that. They take time to hone those skills and so you need face-to-face time to do that and if you don't have that, if you're spending all your time on screens because it's really fun to crush one more candy on Candy Crush or do whatever it is that you might be doing, you're not developing those long-term competencies and therefore your long-term well-being is degraded.

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Overnight summer camp is more than Fun & Games. Sure, the plan is to have fun and make new friends.  Research is showing that computers and robots will take away many jobs in the future. But what technology can not achieve, are the soft interpersonal skills. Living with others in a communal setting like camp provides campers to learn empathy, problem solving skills, leadership and independence.

The Top 10 Outcomes of Experiential Learning at Camp

“Camp is an experience every child deserves,” according to the American Camp Association (ACA), which accredits more than 2,400 camps serving more than 7.2 million children and teens. Specifically, ACA points to the "joy" kids experience when they make new friends and the inherent value in unplugging from their electronic devices, enjoying being out of doors, connecting with other young people, and learning about themselves.

And the ACA adds that, from a quantifiable perspective, the outcomes of a summer camp experience include the same skills that are needed in the 21st Century.

1. Friendship skills: Make friends and maintain relationships.

2. Independence: Rely less on adults and other people for solving problems and day-to-day activities.

3. Teamwork: Be more effective working in groups of peers.

4. Family citizenship: Gain attributes important to being a member of a family.

5. Perceived competence: Believe that they can be successful in the things they do.

6. Interest in exploration: Be more curious and eager to learn new things.

7. Responsibility: Learn to be accountable for their own actions and mistakes.

8. Affinity for nature: Develop feelings of emotional attraction toward nature.

9. Problem-solving confidence: Believe they have abilities to resolve problems.

10. Spiritual well-being: Develop purpose and meaning in life.

Gaining experience in these highly valued non-cognitive or soft skills will be life changers for today's youth. Cap provides a safe place to hone leadership and social entrepreneurship skills.

Stephen Gray Wallace is president and director of the Center for Adolescent Research and Education

As parents of a teen, I often worry about how todays childrens are fairing in this world of Social Media. I know I try to keep our son away from the adictive behaviors that the electronic world brings. The science says we and our kids are being manipulated by big business  like the Googles, and all the other social media types. They are working dilegently to hook us and our kids on their sites. Here is a recent article of some of the downsides of Social Media on our children

The Effects of Social Media and How to Build a Healthy Relationship
April 12, 2018 By Smart Social Team

More and more, students are gaining access to social media and devices at a younger age. According to research, 85% of parents with teenage children ages 13-17 report that their child have a social networking profile. While social media can be used positively as a tool to help with college admissions, career opportunities, and creating an online resume — more often students are making choices on social media that can have a negative impact on their future. In order for social media to be used in a positive way it’s imperative that parents and educators teach students about the effects of social media.

So, we asked 5 experts to share some of the negative effects of social media and how parents can teach students to have a healthy relationship with technology.

1. Social media can negatively affect students’ college and career opportunities

Jonas Sickler, ReputationManagement.com, @RepMgmt_com
The news says that teens are addicted to social media, and parents yell at their kids to unplug, but the real danger teens face with social media may not turn up until later in their lives—when they’re applying for college or looking for a job. So how can parents help their kids?

Parents should realize that their kids are already using social media. By attempting to restrict social media use, parents risk both the safety and online reputation of their children who will use the technology without the crucial guidance needed to keep them safe.

Even adults have a hard time navigating and understanding the privacy settings on their social media accounts, but we must make an effort to teach your kids how to properly configure aggressive privacy settings.

Public WiFi is dangerous. Parents must teach their kids never to send passwords or sensitive information when on free wifi networks. As expensive as it is to buy more data, it may be worth the cost to keep your kids off public WiFi networks.

2. Schedule social media time for students

Lesley Vos, PlagiarismCheck, @LesleyVos
A lack of literacy and interpersonal skills are some of the most negative effects of social media. Teens know how to find and contact people online but fail to build effective communication offline. Constitution of social interaction breaks, the importance of face-to-face contacts diminishes, literacy collapses (poor spelling and grammar, no argumentation, and inability to put ideas into words are far from all consequences here), and teens simply don’t learn to build relationships. What to do? Schedule “social media” time, encourage offline communication with friends, delete social media apps from a phone, and forget about gadgets once you go to bed.

3. Blue light emitted from screens can cause teens to lose sleep

Josh Ochs, SmartSocial, @JoshOchs
Teens are notorious for staying glued to their devices late into the night. As a result, teens might not be getting enough sleep for optimal alertness and concentration during the day. Also, there’s another factor that might be causing all of us to be losing sleep: blue light emitting from our electronic screens. The light from our screens can suppress melatonin—a hormone that helps regulate sleep and wake cycles—and increase alertness (which is great in some circumstances, but not so much if you’re trying to sleep).

Limiting screen time at night is great in theory but can be hard to enforce. So, if you’re struggling to limit screen time at night, consider using these alternatives to unplugging all the screens in your house after dark:

• Wear “blue blocker” glasses before bed
• Use warm-light light bulbs
• Enable the Night Shift feature on iOS devices

4. Interacting on social media can cause students to lose social skills

Heidi McBain, MA, LMFT, LPC, RPT
Social media can become an obsession and students can start to forget what’s most important in life. How often do we see a family out to dinner and everyone is on their mobile devices? The concern is that tweens and teens are so used to interacting with their friends on social media the importance of face-to-face interactions may start to get lost, and they might start to lose (or never learn) some of these social skills. Also, on social media people are often just putting their “best face” out into the world, meaning that people can see someone at an event having fun, but what’s really going on with them at a deeper level gets lost unless you see them or talk to them outside of the social media world.

Parents need to lead by example and set parameters around social media use. If you don’t want you child on technology all the time, then you need to model this behavior for them. Don’t use your phone while driving, plug your phone in when you get home and ignore it, and read on a separate device that doesn’t have all your social media apps on it. Also, start setting boundaries early/when they are young with technology and your children, and prepare for some push back. Our kids get one hour a day on their devices once all homework and chores are complete, they set a timer and when it’s done it’s done. They plug their devices in downstairs, and yes, we all have old fashioned alarm clocks that we use to wake up in the mornings! We are a little more lax on vacation when we’re in the car or on an airplane traveling, but when we’re out-and-about visiting people or seeing new things, all technology is put away so we can all enjoy the present moment together.

5. Social media encourages students to chase perfection

Daniel Patterson, Patterson Perspective Inc., @cdmveep
Some negative effects of social media include:

• Establishing an over-reliance on 3rd parties to define personal happiness and success
• Chasing perfection: what others appear to be, do, like, etc as dominant personal bellwether for choices, decisions, and opinions
• Getting stuck in the audience: being so consumed with others’ lives that living their own life, having independent passions becomes secondary

How to build a healthy relationship with technology:

• Use moderation. Parents should limit screen-time, especially at night, to allow for sleep, detachment, and a mental reset
• Call a spade a spade: be direct and point out the inaccuracies or false optics on social media. Teach students to read through the fanfare and value quality content over showy content
• Lead by example: ditch the smartphone at dinner, implement phone free car rides/road trips, get outside and engage with your teen…I hear a lot of “teens need to go outside”…so show ‘em how it’s done!
• Empower children to experience moments without memorializing them. So, yes, this means even you might have to skip the selfie and taking phone pictures at your next outing…but try it! See how freeing it feels

So as as an Overnight Summer Camp Director, it is easy to see how going away from home and being out in the Northwoods of Wisconsin could solve all of the above issues, while reducing the conflict and nagging parents often create while trying to reduce their childs addiction to social media. So why don't more familes embrase summer camp? I think often parents only see camp as a way to give their children a fun time. Rather than seeing camp as a place to help their child develop interpersonal skills, like: team building, responsibiliry, communication, leadership and reducing their dependance on electronics. So much more than FUN happen at Overnight Summer Camp .

Camp Jobs Prepare you for the Workforce and for Life

 Summer Camp Jobs have always been Fun, but have you ever wondered what's really going on and how it can be a resume builder for you? Recently, loads of research is coming out showing that camp jobs are give camp staff the skills that will be needed into the future. It is suggested that over the next 10-20 years automation will have taken many jobs, yet, the experts say, it is the soft skills that computers will have difficult time replaceing. Camp is all about soft skills.  We will teach you how to use these soft skills while you practice your leadership skills.

Here are skills you will develop:

1) Oral Communication Skills - We will give you the opportunity to learn how to communicate effectively with people at every level of camp including campers, fellow staff, camp directors and parents. The goals of your communication will require you to change your tactic depending on your audience and the activity.

2) Critical Thinking Skills - We will help you think on your feet and make good sound decisions. After all you are responsible for the safety of children. Daily you will be become a problem solver. You will be asked to solve a myriad of issues from safety to how to get 10 children's teeth brushed and back in the cabin within 12 minutes. This is hands on practice at problem solving.

3) Interpersonal & Leadership Skills - We will train you how to model professionalism and compassion by managing a group of campers while contributing to the personal growth and development of each individual participant.

4) Collaborative Skills - You will receive on the ground, practical, real life training in how to work with a team and help build the culture of your camp community.

5) Creativity - You will develop innovative and fun ways to engage an audience of 2- 100 and implement alternate plans when faced with unexpected changes to the daily routine.

CAMP - THE REAL JOB WITH REAL EXPERIENCE

21st Century Skills - Communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity and contribution are important for success in today's world. At camp these skills are taught, developed and practiced. These skills are what today's employers are looking for.

Letters of Recommendation - Because we will know you better than any other employer you have had, we live with you. We can write amazingly specific letters of recommendation that will highlight the key traits your future boss is looking for.

Professional Development - Ongoing professional development sets you up to learn about your job while building a strong team with the people you will be working with, and offers support all throughout the summer.

Pay Check - Yes, you will get paid for your time at camp. We pay a base salary, experience bonuses, and a travel bonus. Since your room & food is included, your personal expenses are almost nil resulting in most staff leaving with most of their earnings.

Leadership - You will be supervising 8-10 children along with your co-counselor in real life situations...not simulated experience. You will hone your skills to be engaging and motivating as you make decisions, manage behaviors while adjusting your living ethics. These are skills you will take with you for life.

Networking - SNC has about 100 campers and 25 staff. All of these folks can and will become networking possibilities for you. Chances are we have contacts in your career.

Diverse & Global - At camp we provide campers and staff from around the world. It is always an exciting session when we have all 7 continents represented at camp. Seven you say? Yes, we have a stuffed penguin in the dinning hall.

Training & Certification - We train our staff in First Aid, Life-guarding and other certifications that will go with you from camp, and be represented on your resume.

Internships - It's easy to see how all these skills can be used in almost any college major. We can work with you and your school to create an internship that is relevant to you and your career. This is much more than getting coffee for the executive.

So there you have it. As you can see, being a camp counselor is the best of both worlds: being outside having fun while changing the world one camper at a time. Yet, it also can provide you with the skills you will need in your professional life and your personal life. Summer Camp gives you the skills to be a better person.

As a Camp Director and parent of a teen who is studying this week for his SAT's, I often ask myself if we have missed the boat by sending our child to camp every summer. Not only Swift Nature Camp but other camps "his camps" rather than working on his resume.  Below is an article that helped me figure it all out.

Reprinted from the Washington Post -2016

Indeed, every summer, my kids “miss out” on the specialized, résumé-building summers that their peers have. Their friends go to one-sport summer camps and take summer school to skip ahead in math. Older peers go to SAT/ACT prep classes. One kid worked in his dad’s business as an intern, while another enrolled in a summer program that helped him write all his college essays.

Many (this woman included) would say that I’m doing my children a serious disservice by choosing a quaint and out-of-date ideal instead. There are online “Ivy League Coaches” that might say we are making a terrible mistake.

We don’t think this is a mistake at all. It might not be something to put on the college application (unless my child eventually becomes a counselor), but that isn’t the goal for us.

Our goal is bigger.

We are consciously opting out of the things-to-put-on-the-college-application arms race and instead betting on three huge benefits of summer camp, which we believe will give them a true competitive advantage in life:

1. Building creativity.

2. Developing broadly as a human being.

3. Not-living-in-my-basement-as-an-adult independence.

MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson says in his book The Second Machine Age that we have reached a pivotal moment where technology is replacing skills and people at an accelerated pace. He argues that creativity and innovation are becoming competitive advantages in the race against artificial intelligence, because creativity is something a machine has a hard time replicating.

The problem is that creativity seems so intangible.

Steve Jobs once said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” He believed that people invent when they connect the dots between the experiences they’ve had. To do this, he argued, we need to have more experiences and spend more time thinking about those experiences.

Indeed. According to Adam Grant’s book Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, researchers at Michigan State University found that to receive the Nobel Prize, you need deep study in your field and those broad experiences Jobs was talking about. They studied the winning scientists from 1901 through 2005 and compared them with typical scientists living at the same time. Grant writes that the Nobel Prize winners were:

• Two times more likely to play an instrument, compose or conduct.

• Seven times more likely to draw, paint or sculpt.

• Seven-and-a-half times more likely to do woodwork or be a mechanic, electrician or glass-blower.

• Twelve times more likely to write poetry, plays, novels or short stories.

• And 22 times more likely to be an amateur actor, dancer or magician.

You read that right. Magician.

It’s not just that this kind of original thinker actively seeks out creative pursuits. These original experiences provide a new way of looking at the world, which helped the prizewinners think differently in their day jobs.

The beauty of summer camp is that not only do kids get to do all sorts of crazy new things, they also get to do it in nature, which lends its own creative boost.

Most importantly, my kids have such intensely packed schedules full of sports, music, art classes, community service and technological stimulation throughout the school year that it makes finding these all-important quiet mental spaces more difficult.

Summers provide a much-needed opportunity for my children to unplug, achieve focus and develop those creative thought processes and connections.

OK, OK. Creativity might be a compelling tool to beat out that neighbour girl applying to the same college, but what about this “developing broadly as a human being” stuff?

I didn’t come up with that phrase. Harvard did.

William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions at Harvard, has penned a compelling letter to parents. It practically begs and pleads with them to re-evaluate the summer extracurriculars race and to “bring summer back,” with an “old-fashioned summer job” perhaps, or simply time to “gather strength for the school year ahead.”

Fitzsimmons writes, “What can be negative is when people lose sight of the fact that it’s important to develop broadly as a human being, as opposed to being an achievement machine. In the end, people will do much better reflecting, perhaps through some down time, in the summer.”

In terms of “developing broadly as a human being,” summer camp can provide an impressive list of life skills.

Studies over the past decade have shown outdoor programs stimulate the development of interpersonal competencies, enhance leadership skills and have positive effects on adolescents’ sense of empowerment, self-control, independence, self-understanding, assertiveness, decision-making skills, self-esteem, leadership, academics, personality and interpersonal relations.

Now for the cherry on top: independence.

Michael Thompson, the author of Homesick and Happy, has written, “ ... there are things that, as a parent, you cannot do for your children, as much as you might wish to. You cannot make them happy (if you try too hard they become whiners); you cannot give them self-esteem and confidence (those come from their own accomplishments); you cannot pick friends for them and micromanage their social lives, and finally you cannot give them independence. The only way children can grow into independence is to have their parents open the door and let them walk out. That’s what makes camp such a life-changing experience for children.”

So, yes, Ms. Tiger Mom, I am letting my children walk out the door and make useless lanyards for two months.

They might not have anything “constructive” to place on their college application, but they will reflect, unwind, think and laugh. They will explore, perform skits they wrote themselves and make those endless friendship bracelets to tie onto the wrists of lifelong friends.

The result will be that when they come back through our door, we’re pretty sure that, in addition to having gobs of creativity and independence, they’ll be more comfortable with who they are as people.

And just maybe they’ll even bring back a few magic tricks.

Laura Clydesdale lives in Berkeley, Calif., with her husband and children. She blogs at lauraclydesdale.com. Follow her on Twitter @l_clydesdale.

Last night we had a surprise 70th Birthday Party, it was for our sons Godfather. Yet, what happened was something parents rarely see, our son putting down his phone, having face to face conversations with strangers, yes socializing. Then of course the coolest part is to have other adults come up to us and tell us "what a wonderful young man our son is" or "he is so creative". Obliviously, it makes a parent proud, yet more importantly, it makes us more confident that he will be a fruitful part of society. Reconfirming to this family that Overnight Summer Camp should be a part of every child's life.