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Elite Summer Camps Are Now Selling Career Networking
Kumbaya // Illustration by Kate Walker
Summer is officially underway, and at some of America’s priciest sleepaway camps, the counselor job now comes with a networking opportunity attached, according to Bloomberg. At camps that can run $15,000 for seven weeks, the lake now comes with a résumé line.
The Sell: With roughly 5,500 overnight camps competing for families, the elite ones are repackaging the great outdoors as a career accelerator. Most counselors are former campers, so the pitch is simple: come back to staff the place, leave with a network.
Around The Campfire: The pitch is no longer just fresh air and friendship — it’s career development with a side of s’mores.
Counselors are the high school and college students who keep the camp running day to day. Now, they also receive résumé and interview coaching over video calls, while camp staff taps alumni networks to help secure school-year internships.
It all runs “through the lens of career management,” says Kim Shyer, a recruiter who builds these programs for camps. In some cases, the coaching starts as early as age 15.
And the payoff can be real. One former counselor told Bloomberg that her camp handed her a list of every graduate working in hospitality dating back to the 1990s. She worked the list and ultimately landed a job at a major restaurant group.
The Catch: But here’s the awkward part: the same privilege that buys access to the network is often the thing applicants are coached to downplay. Hannah Skaran, an admissions consultant at Ivy Coach, advises students to leave camp off their college applications because “summer camps signal privilege.” Admissions officers, she says, “want to see that you participated in meaningful activities related to your academic passions and goals.” Not a receipt.
Lights Out: If a $15,000 summer job can double as an internship, the rest of childhood may not be far behind. Somewhere, a camp is probably already building its first careers page.
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Today’s email was written by Nick Comney and Kait Cunniff.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.