Posts tagged with experience.

A summer job can change your life

Kathy Dobson, June 3, 2009 at 12:03 PM

Not all summer jobs are created equal.

Depending on the student, a summer job can represent completely different goals. Making money for the upcoming school year. Gaining valuable work experience. Or maybe just a way to learn responsibility and independence.

According to a study from the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation released earlier this year, close to 50% of all full-time post-secondary students have jobs. For my two oldest, who have just completed their first year at the University of Waterloo, their summer jobs are a way to help pay for their education.

But sometimes a summer job isn't just about making some extra cash, a way to help pay for the next stage of your life, or to gain invaluable work experience to help you move forward in your future career.

Sometimes, it can change your life.

It was the summer of 1975. I was 15 years old and working as a Counselor-In-Training (C.I.T.) at Camp Amy Molson, a residential summer camp specialized to the needs of socially disadvantaged children aged 4 to 8.

Barbara Patterson, the camp director, explained to us during staff training that some of the campers had been emotionally, sexually, or physically abused. Most of them came from single parent homes, and all were living well below the poverty level.

These kids don't take anything for granted, she said. Their stay at Amy Molson might mean the first time they've ever been able to really be kids. Some of them are used to taking care of younger siblings. Others are used to going to bed hungry. Many of them are going to test the camp's claim to never use corporal punishment, no matter what, she added.

She also told us that most of the kids would be crying their hearts out on their last day at camp. Happy to be finally going home to see their moms, but also sad to be leaving the safety and nurturing environment they'd experienced during their stay at camp.

As I sat on the floor in the staff lounge that day, with the rest of the staff all around me, my biggest fear was that one of the other counselors or C.I.T.s would discover my secret. That this wasn't my first time at the camp.

I had been there for the first time 11 years earlier. As a junior girl camper. I returned every summer until finally, at age 10, the camp director gently told me I was really too old to keep coming back. But she promised there would be a spot for me if I looked her up in five years. To return as a C.I.T.

When I called Barbara Patterson five years later, she didn't hesitate.

Of course she remembered me, she said. Come to her office and we'll talk.

As a result of that talk, I ended up working at the camp for the next 10 summers. As long as I stayed in school, the director would interview me again each summer. I went from C.I.T., to camp counsellor, to program leader, to remedial counsellor, working closely with some of the camp's most troubled campers. I loved every minute of every summer.

As it states on its website, the camp's mission is to "...provide underprivileged children with a happy, outdoor holiday where campers can build self-esteem, develop positive relationships and learn valuable life skills in a context that promotes group learning and nurtures each child individually ... we enthusiastically accept children from all ethnic and linguistic backgrounds and home environments. Camp Amy Molson is an extremely rewarding experience, for both children and staff."

I couldn't believe I was being paid to do something I adored.

After several summers as the assistant director, now a few credits short of earning my first undergraduate degree at Concordia University in Montreal, I became the camp's executive director.

Unlike the summer jobs with the camp, this one was full-time. In addition to operating a residential summer camp near Hawkesbury, in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, Quebec, Camp Amy Molson has an office in Montreal. It offers support to some of its neediest families year-round.

I still remember the winter boots, Christmas turkeys, and lightly used toys the camp director would drop off at our home in Pointe St. Charles each Christmas. I still remember the year she gave me a small suitcase to replace the huge garbage bag my mom used to send me off to camp with each summer. I still had it years later, when I went off to university for the first time.

After five years as the camp's executive director, I knew it was time to move on. But I never forgot the camp. I knew it was a magical place. A place that could change children's lives.

Recently I learned that the camp is celebrating its 65th anniversary.

There have been many changes since I last stepped onto the camp's grounds. For example, after checking out their website, I learned that the campers are now ages 5 to 12.

But some things haven't changed.

It's still a not-for-profit residential camp for inner-city Montreal children. Many are recommended through social service agencies, and most would never have the chance to attend summer camp if not for Camp Amy Molson.

Last summer the camp started a new program - Leaders in Training (L.I.T.) - for 13-year-olds. The executive director, Shauna Joyce, explains that it fills that gap when campers aren't old enough to be part of the staff, yet too old to return as campers.

"Some of these 12-year-old inner-city children are in high-risk environments and we felt they would benefit from another summer with us."

It's been 34 years since I first got that summer job. Decades later, I still believe my most valuable education came from Camp Amy Molson.

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