I’ve always wondered how our favorite Brooklyn camps find and choose such great counselors every year. So we asked the camps represented in our sponsored camp expo. Here are their answers.
“We are so proud to work with extremely talented, experienced and enthusiastic teaching artists. Many of our teaching artists are both professional actors and performers, as well as childcare professionals. Some of our teachers are pursuing higher education degrees in theatre education and early childhood learning and some of our alumni have gone on to become classroom teachers right here in Brooklyn, or have hit the road starring in incredible productions for children like Peppa Pig Live! We require a unique cross-section of high level experience in childcare, paired with performance-level energy, ability to improvise, and capture the attention of the toughest critics in NYC…large groups of kiddos ages 3-8!
Every counselor is personally interviewed and vetted by our Program Director and hiring team, and all counselors train with us extensively before being considered for our lead teaching positions. We are a team here at Treasure Trunk, and sometimes…if you are lucky…you may even still see our founder and CEO (and mom of 2 little ones) leading your class, camp or birthday party!”
“Our camp counselors are actually the same teachers we have on staff year-round. Child’s Play NY runs over 50 classes a week in partner public and private schools. So the teachers – professional theater artists with years of experience teaching kids – are also the staff of our summer camps! We don’t need to hire other counselors, because we keep camps small, just like our classes.”
(c) Hunter Canning for Child’s Play NY.
“Our teaching artists, assistant teaching artists, and musicians are highly qualified educators who work with us throughout the year to deliver all the classes in The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center. They have access to regular professional development and are supported by a full operations, facilities, and education staff to ensure that their focus can be on instruction.”
“Sprout Brooklyn welcomes staff from all backgrounds ranging from high school students to professionals who are caring role models and who understand that at Sprout Brooklyn: It is All About the Kids! Our leadership team, activity specialists and counselors are carefully selected based on experience and a passion for our mission. And all camp staff participates in intensive pre-summer training which includes workshops in developmental stages, safety & security, experiential education and more.”
“Many of our camp counselors are KoKo Teaching Artists. These are practicing artists who work with us year round providing STEAM education. We are also fortunate to have many former “KoKo kids” come and work with us in the summer as they become teens.”
“Most of our counselors for our sister locations are actually graduates of our sports training programs. We expect that to be true this summer in Brooklyn, pulling from the eldest members of our competitive teams from Connecticut and our flagship location in Chelsea, Manhattan. We choose counselors who love sports and love kids. After we choose them, we give them in-depth and detailed training over a series of several days to make sure they can provide a safe environment for campers as well as being fun and creating meaningful bonds with our campers.”
“My favorite thing about Curious Jane is the exceptional group of Instructors and Counselors it draws. Young women are so excited to be part of an all-girls’ environment… to bring their care, smarts, creativity, and enthusiasm to the campers and to the whole group. Our instructors are often school-year educators who love working with children and expanding their own experience during the summer, and some are masters students going into the field of education. Our counselors are largely college students, many of whom have been part of the CJ community for years… as campers, volunteers and now counselors.”
Leave a comment