Podcast Episode Archives - There's No Place Like Summer Camp

The 50th episode of There’s No Place Like Summer Camp!! In this episode, we celebrate while discussing the best things to bring back from your time volunteering at summer camp.

In this episode, we’re talking about things you’ll want to bring back from camp. NOT THINGS WE ARE TAKING TO CAMP.

Camp shirt (I have 4): A camp shirt is the holy grail of all momentos from summer camp. They have the blood, sweat, and tears from your time at camp in their DNA. Everyone at camp wears their camp t-shirts like no tomorrow. If you check out our Instagram, you can even see mine which is framed loud and proud in my man cave wall.

Things kids made you:  This can be memories to remind you of your favourite campers. Friendship bracelets are a prime example of a gift you’ll definitely want to bring back with you from summer camp.

Things you got from counsellors + staff: Chad, who’s been mentioned before in the interview with Scott episode is a prime example of swapping things with counsellors + fellow staff. For he swapped his beloved football shirt with his co-worker while she gave him a shirt from her city, Chicago. These are small things to remember the good times with people that you are likely to not see again. And I exchanged pants with one girl!

Memories from camp: One of mine was a piece of rope from rope burn. Which is an activity from colour war (all to be discussed in the book!). To be honest, I think I may have chucked this one out specifically as it stank of smoke when trying to fill my suitcase for my travels after camp. A logical decision, but damn do I wish I kept it now.

Now, these final 2 are cringey, but are so true. Just like the post I did to Instagram the other day about ‘this one time at summer camp’ and feeling like the girl from American Pie. Damn, I love those films.

Photos: Remember to take photos of your time in America. you are out there for a long time and you want to remember all the memories you make. What better gift than having the gift of looking back in time to see the incredible memories you made. You can make them your wallpaper background on your PC or phone. Or even use them in some sort of decor in your bedroom perhaps. The more photos, the better.

Social media friends – Now I’m going to refer back to Chad one final time in this blog post as prior to camp, he didn’t have social media. All for him – it’s terrible for your mental health! But by the end of camp, he couldn’t resist. The thought of never seeing how people he grew so close with, in such a short space of time was too much. He caved in and now uses social media to stay in touch with people all around the world. So make sure to use social media in the best way, to stay in contact with incredible friends you’ve made at summer camp.

Listen to this episode below!

We go over the deadlines that you’ll need to meet in order to volunteer at summer camp. There’s more to this than you would have thought!

This month we’ve had The Most Common Reasons Counsellors Are Fired, Where Camp America Is in New York and the Top Things to Buy in America for Cheap.

This coming month’s calendar of content has been posted to Instagram!

Ok now, this episode is all about pretty much when the deadline is for submitting that application to Camp America (or other agencies for that matter). But before we begin, there needs to be some context as there’s no ‘one date fits all kind of thing’, instead there are dates, smaller deadlines and that, which you need to follow.

First:

Although all of the camps that we work with have varying programmes and dates, we do ask that all applicants are available to be at camp for a minimum of 9 weeks. This is the typical placement length for most camps but it can be slightly more or less. The longer you’re available the better

—but you can expect to be on camp for around 9 weeks from your camp’s start date once hired. By giving us your earliest start date, we will match you to a camp that has their staff on or after that date so you could depart later than your earliest available date.—-

f) It is your responsibility to ensure your application is completed and relevant documents submitted in a timely manner. We expect that all references, police checks and medical forms will be submitted and deposits paid no later April 1st. Failure to do so may result in cancellation from the programme with no refund given. If you are placed after April 1st, a separate deadline will be communicated to you. Returners will be expected to adhere to deadlines in order to keep their discounted application rate.

a) Programme payments are due 14 days from the date the charge appears on your online Camp America account. You should adhere to deadlines issued via your online Camp America account in order to avoid penalties.

b) You are expected to supply criminal history documentation and medical documentation within 14 days of placement. The final deadline for all documentations is 1st April.

Speaking of deadlines, b) Camp Counselors and Campowers (who hold J-1 visas) are required to file a U.S. Federal income tax return and in certain cases, a State income tax return to satisfy their U.S. income tax liability. If tax has not been deducted by your camp, then participants are required to make their payment to the US tax authorities when submitting their tax return. The deadline for tax payments is January 15th in the following year.

b) The deadline for changing to either a Camp America flight or the Own Transport option is 1st March (note, Camp America flight option is not available for applicants placed in California/Wisconsin). Any changes after this date will be subject to a penalty fee being imposed.

Listen to the podcast this transcript was made from below!

Smores are an essential of any campfire and summer camp experience. In this short episode, we discuss how to make the best one.

Hello and welcome to there’s no place like summer camp. I’m your host Andrew Waterhouse and in today’s episode we’re taking a look at how to make the best s’more. So come into our tent, and I’ll spill the beans.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of there’s no place like summer camp I hope you’re doing well on this fantastic Tuesday. I think the weather in the UK recently has been amazing and of course it has been when we’re all in lockdown still, which is a bit of a strange situation to be honest. You know, because the coronavirus is ongoing but we’re told to not stay at home anymore just to stay aware and it doesn’t really feel right still go out. We are in a changing phase at the moment and I hope in a few months we’ll be able to look back on this as just a really weird time that hopefully prepares us better for the future. But anyway, speaking of the coronavirus. There’s no coronavirus update from the summer camp agencies.

So we’re going to be cracking on straight away with this episode but before I begin, I’d like to just announce that there’s a new trailer for the podcast that’s been created, you may notice it if you’re on Spotify. I think it will actually be on other podcasts, as well so that’s something to talk about. Hopefully it provides a bit more insight into those that are just scrolling through podcasts and want to have a little bit of a taste of what there’s no place like summer camp actually is. Now they can because there’s a trailer.

Okay, so in this episode we’re going to be taking a look at s’mores. And first of all, the first question that I have is what is a s’more, because this is something that even though I go on a hell of a load of campouts in the UK through scouts and cubs and that sort of thing. I didn’t really have much of an inkling of what a s’more actually was but when I applied to camp America, and I was told that I was going to be an outdoor living specialist, everyone was like, “Oh my god, you’re gonna be having s’more around the campfire!”  and I didn’t really know what one was until I started googling it.

So what a s’more actually is and if you are new here, I have done two summers of doing camp America. And that was my job, two summers so I think I’m quite experienced now to define what a s’more is. Okay, so a s’more is basically a roasted marshmallow, which is in between two chunks of chocolate, and then two graham crackers, so it’s a massive big sandwich of tasty goodness really so that’s pretty much what a s’more is.

Let’s crack on with the actual recipe for one of these is. So, first of all you need two graham crackers which seems to be a little bit tricky to get in the UK. I’m pretty sure if you do a google online you’ll be able to find some sort of knockoff of a graham cracker but officially you want the official graham cracker brand. And you may be able to find these in like the Tesco American aisle, you know, like in Tescos they have that little section of American goodies… And they seem to be really overpriced for what they are but because they’re official American products sort of thing you don’t mind paying that little bit extra. I think you could find graham crackers here and literally all they are is like a really thin, like graham cracker type of thing is quite sugary.

Now, the best s’more, I would say that you need four chunks of Hershey’s, which is two chunks for each side of the s’more.

Next, of course you need a marshmallow or two if you’re feeling fat and round, and you like to bounce on the ground. Then, of course, need a decent roasting stick and personally I always like to get a stick off the floor, and then use a knife to make some sort of spear out of the stick and you know it’s going to be a clean stick because you’ve literally cut off all the dead wood, and inside you just have literally that your wood. You have to worry about hygiene not that anyone actually cares about hygiene while you’re roasting a marshmallow anyway because obviously it’s burned to the ground.

Of course, without it goes without saying you also need a campfire too. You need to roast the marshmallow until it goes golden brown. Slide the stick into the ground cracker. At the bottom, with the Hershey’s there, and use the top cracker to hold the marshmallow in place, and pull out the stick. And then you can slide in the Hershey’s at the top, which, sounds a bit tricky if it’s just the one person trying to do this but trust me, it can be done. I did this with campers as well.

So, there it is. That’s pretty much it for this episode guys I’m so sorry that it’s a short one, but let me know whether you would prefer shorter episodes like this, or longer form ones I do like to mix it up. So now we have a trailer for the podcast, I’d really appreciate it if you could follow the podcast on wherever you’re listening, whether it be Spotify or any other podcast platforms. I know personally I listen to quite a few podcasts nowadays and there’s so many different apps that offer different podcasts. And I think it’s only gonna get worse to be honest, I used to always listen to my podcasts through iTunes and apple. But nowadays iTunes is sort of dying because of streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music and even radio like tune in. They are all cracking places to go and listen to podcasts as well because you know it’s all in one place then, whereas iTunes used to be the go-to destination for music so it’ll be very interesting to see how that changes over time. But, again, I really appreciate a follow a subscription to the podcast and if you are enjoying it please leave a cracking five-star review. Okay, so in next week’s episode, we’re going to be taking a look at when you should apply for camp America or volunteering to summer camps in general. Okay, I’ll see you on Friday. Take care guys

Pay is a part of summer camp. And in this episode we discuss that topic, who pays what? How do I get paid more? What cards do I need for payment? All this and more for those new and returning to volunteer at summer camp.

Hello and welcome to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. I’m your host Andrew Waterhouse, and in today’s episode we’re taking a look at how much you get paid volunteering at summer camp. So come on into our tent, and I’ll spill the beans.

Hello and welcome to another episode of, there’s no place like summer camp. Today’s episode is a Friday episode, where every Friday we basically discuss the popular questions that people have around volunteering to summer camps.

Now, on that subject of having the two episodes a week. It has crossed my mind recently that it may be worth toning things down slightly, so we have one episode a week just the Tuesdays. I’m not sure if it’s maybe putting out too much content too soon sort of thing so let me know how you feel about that.

In this episode, there is actually no updates on the coronavirus since Tuesday, you’ll be happy to hear so be cracking on straight with the episode of how much you get paid while volunteering with summer camp agencies, and let me begin with this: camp America call this pocket money. And the reason they call is pocket money is so they can bend the rules of what employment is or the volunteers that come over to America.

So you’re not technically an employee or a volunteer, and you’re getting paid in pocket money which is like a goodwill package, rather than a wage, so to speak, so we’ll touch upon that later but that’s something I learned straight away camp America. They definitely call this pocket money and I think the other agencies have their own names for it as well they don’t exactly call it a wage.

From my research of looking at all of the agencies that offer summer camp experience, there are always two different options, which I didn’t personally think was a thing. Basically, whether you would like to take up a flights package yourself as in booking the flight yourself, or whether you would like the agency to do it. When I first applied to Camp America in my first summer, I just went for the default package, where Camp America hand-hold me through the whole process. You just fill in the forms, make sure you have all the correct documents and that you keep paying that money required and going to the orientation day. Now I think of it, there’s a whole list of things that you need to do to get into a programme like Camp America. But one of the things that I just left to them was the flights, but this can actually be booked by you if you really want to.

And this is somewhat of a gamble because there’s like a different wage/pocket money for those that would like to book their own flights compared to those that would just like Camp America to sort it out for them. I remember when I first applied to come to America, I was 21. And when I did this, I didn’t have any personal experience with travelling abroad by myself so I didn’t want to have that extra stress of having to also book my flights and be stressed around the money that was coming out my bank accounts and that sort of thing. But it is an option if you want it. And that’s something that all the agencies seem to do.

So let me just start this all off with specifically for the Brits because of course I’m a Brit myself and I know that plenty of people volunteer for Camp America from Great Britain. And I have personal experience with this but I’ll try and keep it short and sweet for those that are listening from abroad. So for Brits, Camp America pay for your flights, the same for Camp Leaders, and any other programme Camp Leaders either do it from either your camp, or from New York City, whereas Camp America tend to always booked for flights from the departure of New York City. So just keep that in mind, which agency to go for. Just keep that in mind whether you want to travel in and out of New York or whether you would like to travel in and out of your own camp airport.

For EU people that are playing Camp Leaders flights are not included, and neither are Camp America’s. Both recommend only booking your flights after your visa has been approved. Now, on to the different options that these all offer and I know it’s gonna be a lot of numbers here so we’re going to try and keep this really condensed. I’m going to keep this to the main three as I’d like to say, but there are other options out there. So, Camp America let’s start off with those.

So for camp America for people that are brand new to the programme and want to volunteer over there. You get the option to see you get to fly over there for $750 a week flights included, so that’ll be your pocket money $750, the flights are included, you just pay all the fees to get there which roughly works out about just making shy of £1000. So when you think about it, you’re actually getting a very close deal of actually somewhat breaking even and you have to think that, you’re getting a three month holiday to go make some memories of a lifetime and you’re breaking even like it’s a win win.

If you don’t want to come to America to book your own flights though you have the option, and that would mean that you get a $600 bonus in your pocket money instead. And that equates to $1350, if it’s your first time over there. For Camp Leaders surprisingly enough, actually give you a higher pocket money across the board. So, if you would like flights in your first summer over to camp summer camp. You get $950 compared to the Camp Americas $750. And if you would like to book your own flights to get $1,550 pocket money compared to Camp America’s $1350.

The last one that I would like to address here is BUNAC. But there are other options available from Americamp,  ccUSA, Interexchange and USA summer camp. They’re not particularly names that I particularly know very well. So, if you would like to know more about that, feel free to get in touch and I can send you the link I got all this information from.

BUNAC also offer $950 the same as Camp Leaders. If you would like to go, while you are between the ages of 18, and 20, and it’s your first time over in Summer Camp. You’ll get $950 we have flights included and the same as Camp Leaders again, $1550, with no flights so that’d be up to you to book flights. If you are over the age of 21 things change slightly. For instance if you are going with Camp America, and you would like the flights to be included. you would get $950 compared to $750 that you would get under the age of 21. No flights option also pumps you up to a $1550 compared to the $1350.

So, I think that pretty much sums up a general overview without diving into all of the numbers. It’s worth actually doing your homework on which summer camp agency you would like to volunteer through. I chose Camp America just because that’s the standout name of all of these I’ve never heard of company does, you know, or any of the others but I had heard of Camp America thousands upon thousands of times before. So I volunteered personally through them but if money is a significant factor then I’d recommend researching those more. I definitely recommend having a search of which ones offer the most money, as a general overview of this page, it seems to be those programmes such as Camp Leaders seem to be somewhat a little better paid than Camp America, but you have to remember also that this is only going to come in stages, across your volunteering at summer camp so you have to weigh up. not only the cost and the salaries that you’re going to be paid because that’s somewhat minor factor into all of this.

You also want to know that you’ve got the support of these programmes and if anything goes wrong, you know who to contact and they’re really supportive and they can basically handhold you through a lot of these things, especially for those that haven’t really done any solo travelling before like I had. I just wanted the easiest and the biggest name; something that you could put on a CV and be really proud of. And I still have Camp America listed on a CV of course I do. Yeah I’m writing a bloody book about it I should really make a big point of it!

So I went for Camp America but it’s all down to personal preference, and you have to also remember if you do go for the no flights options, then you have to also consider that you’re going to be buying these flights. Because of the way the payment works at summer camp, each different in how they pay their staff. You’re not going to be paid back for that extra outlay that you made for those flights, until some way into camp. Its not like you’re gonna be paid this pocket money in advance so it’s all up to personal preference if you’d rather take that risk with your bank account. The risk you are taking is that you get the most extra value for money possible. In some cases, yeah maybe it’d be worth to get in the no flights option, but then you’re playing the gamble of whether the flights that you can find are going to make up the difference and you can walk away with a little profit. Which of course is all up in the air at the moment, especially nowadays with the coronavirus.

So typically something also I found out about the wages that you get paid volunteering at summer camp is the spread of the wage that you could get. And surprisingly, there’s a bit local window that you can get for your pocket money. So, based on your country of application, your skill level and your experience, you could get anything between $600 and $1,200. The numbers that I mentioned earlier are just like a wild finger in the air, sort of similar numbers to what I’ve experienced while I was volunteered at a summer camp in my first summer I got $750 so I believe these figures are somewhat accurate. But the window that you could get for pocket money is between $600-$1200 dollars, and from all the research I did for this episode I could not find anywhere where the skill level and experience is defined and how they choose, who is worth more and who is worth less. I don’t know whether it’s down to certifications, or your years of experience.

How you get paid is different depending on the camp too, because for me it was twice over the 3 months at camp. And we had to sign up for a debit card, or like a traveller’s card while working in camp, so they could have the funds to pay into that card. On my first pay day, which was around the middle of camp, we got the card, and then we got half of the funds of our pocket money on that card. So you don’t have to worry a great deal around how you get paid, that’s gonna be something that will be addressed within your first couple of weeks at summer camp. I think one of the things that surprised me when I first volunteer that summer camp was how many things you had to go through and steps of like an induction process because there’s so many questions that you haven’t even pondered yet. Only at camp will they have all the answers to questions that you didn’t even know you had. So, just let camp sort out, that sort of thing.

I would recommend taking your own travellers card though as I remember Camp America at least back when I volunteered, recommended a certain card which was the Caxton card. And that was a real godsend. I loved having it I had no problems using my money abroad and it was all in the dollars currencies I wasn’t being charged travellers rates on withdrawals ATMs. Nor did I have any payment issues with restaurants or anything like that so I recommend taking a travellers card just to make sure you don’t have those charges applied when you try and take any sort of money out. Nowadays I probably recommend a card like Monzo. I use that daily in day to day life and they have some real good rates on using cards abroad and that sort of thing but with regard to the payment from Camp themselves, leave that all to your summer camp. Don’t worry too much as long as you’ve got your place sorted at some account, you’re probably going to get paid let’s face the facts.

So in my research around how much some accounts pay actually found some new things out, and I hope this is new to some of you out there as well, especially those of you that may be applying this year, or going forward. Especially those actually that have applied in the past because maybe some of these things might have gone under your radar.

“Due to recent changes to tax laws in the US, all J1 participants will now have taxes deducted from their pocket money and be required to complete a US tax return form, after they return to their home country. Please keep hold of your payslips, and you can read some more information from Camp America and the other summer camp agencies, about being taxed while in the US.”

This was something I never had to do while working at summer camp and it seems to me that maybe the US has started to latch on to all the summer camp agencies and probably a lot more industries as well we’re taking advantage of this little loophole. It’s where they call it pocket money, rather than summer wage and I do see how it could be a pocket money sort of situation because it’s not particularly like a wage type of role. You can’t really expect to be, you know, paid minimum wage to thousands upon thousands of volunteers that are going there to actually volunteer at summer camps. I could imagine going forward in the future if it gets real clamped down and they’re just going to say like look you can’t have this pocket money thing classification anymore. It has to be minimum wage or nothing. I could imagine going forward in the future there would be a massive question around whether you get paid going to volunteer at summer camp at all. Again, that’s just me chatting absolute shit so don’t take that for word for word. I think that’s my two cents on it is the way things go in the world you never know how things could turn out so that would be my recommendation is, obviously go ahead, apply and make sure you’re aware of this tax return form.

Now, I’m not sure how much of an impact it would have on the wages that you take because obviously it is very minimal sort of wage numbers you’re getting. And if you actually sit down to work it out like I did while working at summer camp, you actually get a little bit narked off is probably the time that you’re getting paid less, much less than, say, $5, an hour, even less than like £3 in some cases, when you think about how long you’re spending at the summer camp and how much you’re getting paid. But like I’ve said at the start of this episode, going to volunteer at summer camp is not about the wage so I wouldn’t really stress too much about that.

Now I wanted to touch upon the returners of summer camps as well because not all people that go to summer camp are new, and the returners, you always have to pay for your own flights. From all the research that I found through the main summer camp agencies, you pay for your own flights and this was the case when I volunteered for my second summer at my summer camp. You pay for your own flights, but you end up going through a hell of a lot less process and interview stages. That’s because your summer camp knows who you are, your summer camp agency knows who you are and they know you can be trusted because the summer camp have asked you to come back to return so there’s a lot less red tape to go through. One of the real benefits of being a returner is that you get paid so much more than you would in your first summer. I remember when I volunteered for summer camp, the first time around about $750 and the flight was included so I didn’t have to worry about booking. The second summer I went, I think I got paid something absolutely ridiculous like $2,700, something ridiculous. And I was like, holy fucking shit you’re paying me like an actual wage out here, I wish I could do this all the time. But then again, part of that was spent on the flight.

So, I think that pretty much closes, all of the stuff around wages, volunteering at summer camps because not a lot of people actually realise at least in the very early days of my application I don’t think I even realised that you do actually get paid while working at summer camp. Obviously you pay those costs to come to America to make sure your profile gets through, and your application gets through to the summer camp to completion. But I never actually realized that you actually get paid while out there as well by your camp, just to say thanks for volunteering with us. It’s been a great summer sort of thing.

So in review of this episode. Different camp agencies pay different rates. You can choose whether you would like the flights included or not. Personally I would say go for the flights option because it makes it a hell of a lot easier not making that gamble, that you could get cheaper flights. I would also say in closing, that the taxes, around volunteering now are a thing, I just make sure you’re aware of those, you get paid by your camp you don’t get paid by Camp America so everything to do with pay and the cards that you need and that sort of thing will be handled by your camp especially when you get to camp before that’s when they would tell you more about that.

The flight situation, each agency is different so if someone like Camp Leaders would be open to booking your flight to and from your coming in and out of your summer camp airport if that makes sense. Whereas Camp America tend to have a preference to have it just go in and out of New York. So it’s all up to personal preference which one you would prefer. When you’re travelling around the US after your time in some accounts, has come to an end, you have to think about where makes sense for you personally to finish your travels. I found New York to be so much easier than having it go from, say, Atlanta where my camp was because in the first summer that I did summer camp, I travelled to Florida, then to Washington DC, and then to New York and from New York I came home. In my second summer I did, Florida. And I think that was it. It was just Florida and I did like Orlando and that sort of thing. It was really cool. Florida, and then straight from New York.

You have to kind of have some sort of idea of where you want to be so if you’re going to be in the middle of the US where nothing really is I know I’m offending a shit tonne of people just by saying that. Say your dream has always been to go to the east coast of America, you can go along the Miami coast and then do you, do you really want to go back to your summer camps airport to then fly back to home? I don’t know, a lot of people would say that the New York option makes more sense because it’s closer, anyway to where you want to be which is obviously the UK and Europe depending on where you’re listening from.

I’ve enjoyed that episode it was very insightful in maybe learn a lot of things about the new things around pay and that’s always gonna be changing with the tax returns and that sort of thing. And how different agencies pay different rates, and the pros and cons of having your flights included as well. I hope that’s educated you as well because yeah like I say it’s quite an in-depth episode on how much people pay but I can say at the start this episode I don’t think pay should matter a great deal but then again it’s all a personal circumstance.

So, I hope you enjoyed this episode if you did please rate on your podcast platform of choice, it really helps promote the podcast if you like the podcast please give us five stars or wherever you’re listening from. Enjoy this bank holiday weekend guys I know it is a bank holiday Monday at least in the UK, it feels a little bit strange having bank holidays and I think we’ve had maybe two or three now where I’m just like sick of bank holidays, I’d rather be at work, so to speak. Like, not to go too in into my personal life. I’m currently working from home or work in IT, and it’s a little bit strange when you have a bank holiday during a lockdown because you know you can’t go out, you can’t really go see anyone. And it’s a little bit strange so hopefully, they bring in that updates to the calendar where they have another bank holiday in October, just to address all these bank holidays that we’ve missed this year because holy shit, 2020 seems like been a total shit show and you’d never have thought.

Okay, so I’ll see you on the other side with the long bank holiday you know I’m going to be doing a bank holiday Monday, making another podcast, you can be sure about that. I’ll see you on Tuesday, where we’re going to be talking about how to make the best s’more, so we’re going to be winding things down once again. If you have any podcast recommendations, as I’ve said before, go to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp, you can check us out. You can send in the forms, you can sponsor the podcast as well you can ask for specific episodes to be recorded that you would like to see. You can even ask to be interviewed as well. On the old another subject of plugs, please follow Instagram as well as the place like so we can try and amp that up soon as well. So, yeah, see you Tuesday guys have a good one. Bye.

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We take a look at the best cheap things to buy while volunteering out in America in this episode. If you think I’ve missed any, hit me up!

Hello and welcome to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. I’m your host, Andrew Waterhouse. And in today’s episode, we’re taking a look at what visa do you need to apply for summer camp? So, come into our tent and I’ll spill those juicy beans.

Q U E S T he’s on a quest, he’s on a quest. He’s on the, no, I’m not. I’m just answering questions.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. I don’t know why I said juicy beans at the start of that intro, because this one’s probably the least juicy of the all. In this episode, we’re taking a look at the visa requirement for volunteering over with summer camps through any sort of program. Now, I did some homework on this one because I was always under the impression that I took a certain visa over when I volunteered at summer camp and everyone else was telling me otherwise so I don’t know if I’ve had some sort of Mandela effect where the effect where when he passed away Nelson Mandela, everyone was like, “I thought it was already dead.” And then there was like half of the world that was like, “I’m sure I’ve seen this news before.”

And there was like this whole trippy thing about parallel dimensions and stuff. I think I might have tripped into a parallel dimension here because I’m 100% sure I had this certain type of visa, but we’ll get onto that. First as with every podcast episode nowadays, we need to do a coronavirus update, and fortunately for you guys, there’s no real update from Tuesday’s episode where we discussed opening up the country and how that affects summer camps and that sort of thing. Again, I’m still very pessimistic on this one.

If you are volunteering for summer camp this year and you’ve had any updates yourselves, feel free to get in touch but yeah, if you go on any of the summer camp websites at the moment, they’re all saying the same thing. That they’re pretty much going ahead as if they are going to be open but this is the prime sort of time that people do get flown over there so it’ll be very interesting to hear how much of a percentage of the normal capacity are flying over at the moment, because I, for one, know that the skies are very clear at the moment. There’re hardly any planes compared to normal and I doubt that people are flying over there in their thousands. So, only the register of this episode, then I did tease it at the start that I thought I was under a certain visa. Now, this visa that I always thought I was under, and I’m sure when I was volunteering through camp America, I’m sure I was told that this was a J -2 visa. Now, for those that don’t know about visa types, some certain different numbers and letters get associated with different types of visas which give you different kind of rights and access to countries when you go and volunteer.

The American, I think there’s J and I think there’s F from looking into it. The J1s are the ones that you want to be concerned about. They’re the ones that you’re going to be applying for go over to the exchange thing in the middle of London. Let me just talk about the J-2 visa though, because that’s the one I thought I was on and I’ve my passport right here. And I’ve had to dig this out because I was like I’m sure I had the J-2 visa. So let me just explain what it is direct from the US government website. The J2 visa is a non-immigrant visa issued by a counselor official at the US embassy or consulate for spouses and independent and dependence which are unmarried children under the age of 21 of the J1 exchange visitors who accompany or later joined the J1 holder in the United States.

So that wasn’t what I was. I wasn’t a dependent, I don’t think I was under 21 when I volunteered at camp America and I wasn’t a spouse. So I was like, I’m a hundred percent sure that this was the visa that I got. I’ve got my passport here, both summers that I went, I got a J1 visa. So I don’t know where down the line like caught wind that this was a J2, but a bit strange. I was probably embarrassing myself on quite a few occasions where I was introducing myself and saying, “Oh, the process to get is I write pain in the bulls and all this sort of shit”, and my camper probably like, “Oh, he’s this weirdo, he’s fucking got a J1 visa like, who’s he married to sort of thing”, but no the visa says I’ve got two J1 visas.

You get like an imprint into your passport, and they, yeah, show that you can go over to the US to volunteer for a summer. So I’ve learned something this episode I had a J1 Visa. Let me get onto the J1 visa now for that is what the episode is all about. So when you first volunteer for summer camp, you hear a lot of lingo, a lot of official terms for paperwork, which can be a bit daunting. I know for one that all the numbers and the letters are kind of like camp America just deal with it and that’s probably the best way of dealing with things. And we’ll touch upon that later after this little segment here.

To work in the USA, you need to have the right visa for the amount of time that you are in the United States and for the type of work that you’re performing and every type of work, and every visit type is categorized with certain letters and numbers, and the visa for camp counselors or specialists is the J1 visa. There you go. That’s pretty much the long and short of it if you want to just know the certain number for this visa, it’s the J1, but what is it? The J1 visa is a cultural exchange visa that supports, visitors or volunteers who are promoting and participating in cultural exchange, and in our case, this is summer camp.

The cultural exchange is like an official term for this sort of thing, with visas and governments and stuff. It’s just so they have like a proper relationship and they know what tourists are coming over and what travelers are coming over for what reasons and it gives them better insight into who’s coming over basically. The cultural exchange sounds official, but broken down is pretty much a relationship between two countries, potentially sharing ideas, creating friendships, and forming a mutual understanding. So, it pretty much makes sense that the J1 visa fits perfectly into this position because those that are going over to volunteer at a summer camp are going there for these sorts of reasons. They’re going over for a bit of a cultural, deep dive into what working in camp America is all about. So, yeah, that’s pretty much just a fancy way of saying you’re coming over to volunteer for summer camp. Of course, other people could be using the J1 visa, should they come over?

So the J1 visa has a few requirements, and if you’re going through a summer camp program, it’s very easy to pass all these. So let me give you a quick overview of what these are.

The first is to have an interview with the sponsor.

The sponsor, in this case, will be your summer camp program as in camp America, camp leaders, those sorts of companies that’s specialize in getting people over there and having the best some of their lives. So, you have an interview that’s part of the application process for pretty much of these places. It ticks off that you are who you say you are pretty much, and you are not a psycho, and you’re doing it for the right reasons that you’re over 18, that you are good at English. Someone has to check that out face to face. That interview also checks off the J1 visa requirement as well because it means that camp America or whoever you go through have checked that you are a real person and that sort of thing, and the sponsor can take full responsibility for making sure you get through the J1 visa program.

The next requirement for this is to have some insurance and the medical insurance comes as part of the package when you apply through this program as well, you don’t have to worry about that at all.

Another requirement of the J1 visa is to have an orientation day, which is a day by these companies. I keep saying companies, I don’t think that’s the right word. We’ll call them summer camp agencies. So these summer camp agencies love to have a really over the top fun, I guess, “fun” day, where you’re invited to an orientation day where there are loads of icebreakers and making sure you are in the mood for summer camp and giving you tips and answer any questions in front of a massive crowd of people, and it’s like a really fun day. I remember that I went to this orientation day in London, and it was a real, like, I was really scared to go ahead with the orientation. I guess we’re going on a different tangent here, and this probably be a different episode, but let me put it this way.

You have to go to the orientation day to be able to get this visa. There are other forms that need to come along with your visa as well. When you go and apply through the embassy. One of these forms is the DS 2019, which is the certificate of eligibility for exchange visitor J1status. It’s a really important part of the visa so don’t go losing it. One thing that I recommend is having some sort of folder or binder, or somewhere to put all your paperwork because there’s going to be quite a lot of paperwork that you’re going to have to take with you, not only to the embassy, but actually over to camp as well, and it’s better if it’s all in one place and you don’t have to worry about where all these sheets are. This DS 2019 form forms part of the visa so you don’t want to be losing it, and the better that your documents are all in one place, the better that you can just like whip out this document folder in front of someone and just give them what they ask for.

A summer camp agency will provide the DS 2019 for you, and one of the main reasons to go with any agency rather than doing it yourself, it proves that this is a temporary state and that you’re going to be returning home. So as much as everyone wants to go over to camp and stay in the US forever, the US embassy needs proof that you’re going to be coming home. So evidence around this could be that you’re going back to uni or that you have a job sorted for when you come back.

The final requirement of the J-1 visa is monitoring.

That pretty much entails that your summer camp agency is going to be checking in with your camp every month just to see how you’re getting on. They’re going to be available 24 hours a day, just in case you need them as well so you have like an emergency contact book, and in a previous episode, I discussed where camp America is in New York. In that episode, we discussed the new what the fuck it’s called? The America Branch so that’s always available as well. It forms part of the J1 visa requirement so the maximum length of any J1 visa is four months, and this pretty much lasts for the length of your summer camp contract. As long as you are employed by your camp, your visa is active, but then what happens when you actually travel over to America and you don’t instantly touch down and start your job, you normally have like a week or two before camp starts.

That’s fine. The J1 visa was designed to give you the best taste of America because travel is a huge part of what this whole visa entails. It lets you see the sites, taste the food, and get to know the cultures, and there’s a whole grace period around this as well. Your visa only starts when your contract at camp starts so probably more than likely around the first day of camp. Once that visa is over, which could be up to four months, you have 30 days grace period to take up after your camp comes to an end. You don’t have to request this grace period. You just have 30 days by default, and it means that you can travel around America for 30 days totally like scotch-free. You just need to leave the US within 30 days and you mustn’t work once your contract has finished.

So there’s no way that you could go and work at camp America and then finish your visa and then go and work somewhere else for another few months. That would be a whole other kettle fish, and that would be something for your summer camp agency to discuss if you want that. I don’t think that’s something they provide, to be honest. So applying for a J1visa is pretty tricky I guess, but the summer camp agencies are all there to help you handhold your way through and all of their online portals and profile areas allow you to just log in, go step by step through the process and figure out what you need to do to get to the next stage. The stage for the J1 visa primarily is the interview at the embassy is only in London. If you are from anywhere else in the UK, you have to travel to London specifically to have this interview on a certain day.

This interview typically lasts around 30 minutes in my opinion, and there are normally at least in camp America’s case, they have representatives outside who will check your paperwork, and make sure you’re all up to date. In my case, I was missing something. I can’t remember specifically what it was. I think I was missing that DS 2019 form if I’m honest and they helped point out that I was missing this form just like an hour before my interview was scheduled so you can imagine what I was like, and they pointed me in the direction of a nearby internet cafe. So I ran over there, went into this internet café, put these coins into the computer in like real, like a throwback kind of moment of old technology I guess, and logged into my camp America profile, downloaded that form, printed it off, ran back to the embassy and then queued up and got seen to.

When you’re actually in the embassy, another thing as well is it reminded me of like an old school post office. You walk in and you take a little slip like a number off the machine, and then there’re loads of people sat down on chairs, looking at screens, looking on their phones and that sort of thing- bored. And you take one of these slips and you just wait for your number to be called. Once your number gets called, you go and stand next to a counter similar to like a post office. There’s someone behind a glass window and you’d hand over all of those papers that I was telling you about earlier. Just have them all in one place and they’ll be able to pick out what they need then you’d hand over your passport and they would keep your passport to print this new visa and grant you the visa based on the interview that you have.

Typical questions are like: what going over there where are you going? Who are you? Where are you from? Just to make sure you are saying who you are. So it takes about two weeks for your visa to be printed and it can take up to four to six weeks. So make sure you book your appointment in the embassy well before your travel date, This was something that I was close to missing myself. I’ve discussed it before, where I was close to missing out on summer camp, and that was because of this. I think they cut it so fine that I was literally about one week before I had to shoot off when they had my visa ready. I did want it to get delivered straight to my door but because of the one-week situation, I had to go and drive into the middle of London and collect it instead just to make sure I was going to camp that summer.

So that’s pretty much it, that’s pretty much the visa that you need J1 visa which is designed for you to work at summer camp as part of a cultural exchange program. The appointment costs $160. It’s put into your passport, which is supported by other documents like the DS 2019, and it’s valid for up to four months or your contract length.

I hope that’s pretty much answered all the questions around the visa situation. I know it can be very daunting but that’s part of the great thing about volunteering through a program like camp leaders or camp America. Now, should you not want to do this through camp leaders or camp America, there’s a whole load more paperwork that you need to do and a whole load more testing. It’s not worth the hassle guys looking into this.

The whole point of having a sponsor is that they can put their name to you and make sure you are easily whisked through the application process of getting these visas but if you’re doing it yourself, you’re not going to have that interview, you’re not going to have all the things in the background to make sure that you’re going to be okay out there and that you’re going to make it back. So I would highly recommend, there’s like a hundred percent recommendation that you go through an agency for this. It’s not worth the bother of trying to do it, not through an agency. Because one of the things that if you were going to go and do it directly with your camp and cut out the middle man of camp America, it’s a lot more hassle than it’s worth. The summer camp themselves have to put their name to a lot of things and support you and be in touch with the embassies and yeah, it’s a right headache so I 100% recommend going through a summer camp agency. So there we have it.

Another end of another episode of a Friday episode of There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. I hope I put that intro in the start, Jesus Christ, the number of times that I forget that the questions intro exists, but my God is it brilliant. In the next episode guys on Tuesday, we are discussing the top things to buy in the USA for cheap because I, for one, know that America is a whole land of opportunity, the American dream and those prices man, those Walmart prices, there’s something to behold. So, I hope you enjoy this episode, guys. I shall see you on Tuesday.

Make sure you go follow us on Instagram. There’s No Place Like Summer Camp and I’ll see you on Tuesday. Bye.

Campers ask all sorts of questions. those that niggle the back of your head, those that make you pull the hair off your head and those that make you laugh. In this podcast, we go through all the common questions you can expect while working at summer camp.

A popular question is what age do you have to be to volunteer for Camp America? In this podcast episode, we discuss this topic and address the issue of age when applying to volunteer at summer camp.

People are fired from summer camps every year. In this episode, we discuss the most common reasons that summer camp counsellors are given the boot – and what you can do to keep yourself safe!

Hello and welcome to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. I’m your host, Andrew Waterhouse, and in today’s episode, we’re taking a look at the most common reasons that counselors are fired. So come on into our tent, and I’ll spill the beans.

Hello, everyone, welcome to the 41st episode of There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. This is the most common reasons that counselors are fired. A bit of a change of tune from the last week’s episode. So if you haven’t checked out already, that was the episode that was talking about where is Camp America in New York.

However, let’s crack on with the rest of this episode.

I have some breaking news in regards to updates since the last episode, which are very interesting, indeed. My camp personal camp that I went to for two summers, Camp Coleman has closed for 2020, which blows my mind. And if I’m honest, the people I’ve been speaking to, it was probably in the works and probably the most likely scenario for this camp. There was a decision made by the U R.J, which is the Union of Reformed Judaism. I think something along those lines, it’s the greater powers of the Jewish summer camps. And they’ve closed a number of summer camps for 2020. Basically, they made a decision that obviously the Coronavirus was too serious and too much of a risk for their camps to continue for this summer.

As far as I’m aware, this is only the second time that my camp personally has closed for summer. I forget off the top of my head the exact reason why it closed once before but I do remember at my camp, previous counselors speaking about it. And I think it was something similar to this actually where there was some sort of pandemic. Pandemic-ish, obviously wouldn’t be to the scale of the Coronavirus crisis, because it’s a global event. And I certainly don’t remember anything like this happening in my lifetime at least. But I do remember that. At one time in the past, Coleman has it has closed its doors. And yeah, here we are with them closed again. It lives long in the camps memories. It lives long in the directors and the counsellors, like for camp for so many people is their bread and butter is what gets them up in the morning or so they it’s what they dream about when they go to sleep. And it’s who they stay in touch with for the rest of their lives. Obviously in my case, it means that you make a podcast about it, it means you make a book about it. Some of your best friends may be from camp. So when you hear that your camp is closed, even if you’re not going to it yourself. It somewhat deflates you.

So I just like to start the episode off just mentioning that it’s a very sad time for all camps really, because I’m sure even those that are open. They’re going to be feeling the effects of the Coronavirus crisis. To some extent, I’m sure there are plenty of parents that don’t particularly want to send their kids to an enclosed summer camp where there’s a lot of contact between people. And the whole science behind the Coronavirus is still up in the air to some extent.

I know that schools are still closed, but there was a time at least in the UK where people were confused whether kids could even contract the disease and then that creates all sorts of confusion. So I’m sure some parents have been have been pulling their kids out of camp, even if their camps are open for this summer. But at least in my case, Camp Coleman is closed.

Now, you may have noticed in previous episode with the interview that I had with Alex, a fan of the show that I briefly skimmed over the idea of potentially postponing a few episodes of There’s No Place Like Summer Camp should all camps in Camp America close and cease to exist for 2020. It’s something that I definitely have to think about personally, as you are all well aware that this podcast is a work of passion and it’s a pet project that I love to try and inject some of that soul that summer camp brings to you through the through the medium of audio. And it’s worth me thinking about whether it’s actually worth still continuing with episodes and content because it does take a lot of time to create these but I do really enjoy it. And I had a discussion with a couple of people about potentially postponing the podcast should that happen.

So just so you’re all aware, you’re all in the loop. That could still happen if Camp America decides, you know what it’s too much risk for us to send out all of our volunteers and potentially contract something and then where to Camp America lie in all of this, authorizing the go-ahead of 1000s of volunteers flying over to America.

But at the time of recording, there’s been no real update from Camp America in regards to whether they’re going to be closing for the summer, they’re still going ahead with the idea that camps are still going to be going ahead for 2020. However, there is an update from Camp Leaders. So let me give you a bit of insight into that if you are applying through there, or you just want to keep abreast on top of all these summer camp updates.

So on the 28th of April, Camp Leaders provided an update on the Coronavirus crisis and how they’re having a heavily reduced staff force at the moment where they’re all social distancing working from home, they’re trying to do their best. Basically what they’re working on at the moment is a system to allow participants to defer their applications for the summer of 2020 over to 2021 or 2022.

If volunteers do not yet have a place at camp or are now unable to travel. So probably does is not suspending the program. The majority of the camps that Camp Leaders work with are gearing up for an incredible summer, they’re just adjusting their operations may be moving some dates around. But nonetheless, they’re excited to welcome campers and international staff. So they do encourage that everyone stays on the program at this point if you can. But of course, safety is a priority. And will not facilitate summer camp travel, if it is unsafe to do.

So it will obviously be reviewed on a regular basis, following the advisories from the US visa sponsors, national government authorities and public health services. That’s pretty much the update from Camp Leaders, they have actually got that system in place now as of the first of May. If you do want to defer your application, you think you know what, it’s too much of a risk.

But I’d love to still do summer camp and volunteer over there, so I’d recommend going into campleaders.com. It’s accessible through the desktop, you can’t do this through the app, by the way, it has to be done through the normal website through campleaders.com, where you’ll be able to defer your application to a later year.

So back to the discussion of potentially pushing back some episodes or maybe trimming down or having some sort of break until maybe September or later in the year. It’s still all in the air, I’d really welcome some feedback. So if I think the majority of the listeners would prefer to carry on with the content because it provides you with a summer camp spark that may be lacking in these weird and strange times. If you have any feedback as to whether you would like to like for this to continue, please hit me up I’m available at There’s No Place Like Summer Camp.com You can send me a little message through there. All your support is welcome this time. And until otherwise, until official word from Camp Leaders or Camp America officially cancelling all camps, I think I’m gonna still continue but it’d be nice to get your feedback on this. Okay, so with all those updates out of the way, guys, let’s carry on with the rest of this episode. I’m sorry, there was such a long introduction for this one. But I think it’s really good to get an overview of where I’m currently at where summer camps are currently at. And a bit around the podcast as well for update news.

So in this episode, we’re taking a look at the most common reasons counsellors are fired. And trust me every year, every camp, someone gets fired. So let’s hop straight into it.

Okay, so we’re gonna start this off with the big boy, which is alcohol. Every year without fail, someone will get fired, because they come back to camp drunk, or they get caught with alcohol on their person. Camps are very stringent on these sorts of things. They can’t be having staff members coming back and then supporting their kids or looking after kids or looking after an activity even if they’re coming back to camp intoxicated, it pretty much makes sense.

Before I start properly with this list, every camp has their own rules and their way of dealing with things so it’s not all-encompassing this episode. There are just the most common reasons that counsellors are fired rather than every single one and I’ll Get into the terms and conditions of actually applying through Camp America as to potential reasons that you could be fired and all that jazz. We’ll come to that at the end of the episode.

Alcohol, though, is a massive one. Because in case you didn’t know that minimum, yeah, the minimum legal age of drinking in America is 21. So if you’re going over to America to have a really good time get wasted, make some good friends make some really cool memories. Don’t expect to be going into a shop at 19 or 20, being able to buy alcohol. Suddenly, no you can’t, it’s a strange thing. Because in the UK, obviously, it’s 18. You can just walk into a shop, flash your ID, and there you go, you’re served. But when you’re in America, it’s 21. So if you do end up potentially being served, you’re obviously breaking the law.

Even if you come back to camp slightly tipsy and they could smell alcohol on you, you could be fired just for that because you’ve broken their law, and therefore you’ve broken the visa terms as well. So camps are really tight on these sorts of things.

The next one in particular, which is drugs, really ties into this one as well. If you’re going to be having drugs and weed and, you know, as a whole umbrella of drugs that this could fall under, then they’re obviously going to revoke their hire. Camp are going to take back those contract papers, they’re going to make sure that you get out of the country as soon as possible. Because at the end of the day, the camps are there for the kids, they’re not there for people to have a massive piss up and get off.

Camp is there for the campers and parents to be 100% trusting that this place will take care of their kids, making sure that kids will have an absolute blast, and grow their kids into something new. I think that is something that’s so addictive about going to summer camp is that it transforms you and it makes you learn and makes you grow into a proper person, rather than a child. I think that’s something that’s maybe missing a lot in normal society because summer camps are their own enclosed bubble. And this probably ties into scouts and cubs as well, which is my background of how I got into Camp America in the first place. When you have such a tight knit community, you’re going to grow and you’re going to make some really good friends and have some incredible memories. So they don’t want some twit from the UK to come over, pissed off their head because they think they’re 20 years old, and they can just drink and have a good time. And then try and smuggle drugs into camp, it’s not gonna happen, you’re gonna get the boot. And you’re going to be heading on the next right back to the UK or wherever you’re from.

The third one that will tie into this most common reasons that counsellors are fired is smoking because there are loads of camps that actually have non-smoking policies in place no matter that the camp is outside and away from, you know, the normal hobble and bubble of daily activity. There are there will be quiet places that you can go to in camps and sneak off maybe have a smoke. But some camps are really tight on this. And they don’t want their counsellors to be smelling of smoke.

They don’t want them to give off an impression to the campers that this isn’t the most premium place in the world. So obviously, again, this ties into specific camps. Some camps are more lax on this, they actually encourage you to put the detail into your Camp America profile that you do like to have a smoke. I’ve actually covered this in a previous episode. If you haven’t already, go check out the older episodes that I’ve recorded. Interesting one, and I learned a lot myself.

But if you do get caught smoking on a camp that has a zero-tolerance policy, you could get the boot as well.

The penultimate one on this list is sexual intercourse. Sexual intercourse, guys… sexual intercourse.

Put it this way. If you are caught having sex, then you’re not really doing your job of being a volunteer. You’re not looking after the kids you’re looking after yourself. So I think that pretty much makes sense. Let’s move on with the last one.

The last one really encompasses all of the little bits that I’ve missed off. Because at the end of the day, these four subjects alcohol, drugs, smoking and sex, sexual intercourse all fall under the same header, which is that you’re compromising camp’s safety and standards. You would have had this from a previous podcast with Alex. Because at his camp, he had someone that was fired because they compromised camps safety. They were treating campers differently.

They were giving preferential treatment to some campers and not others. And it was just a little bit weird. That’s a compromise of other campers, you know, experiences. So I had an actual experience of this too. Not personally, of course, I wasn’t fired from my summer camp. But I saw a camp counsellor who was fired because they treated the kid in the wrong way. In a really difficult situation. Sometimes it’s not as black and white as you may think, like, getting fired from a camp sounds like okay, just don’t be an idiot. Don’t just for a couple of months, avoid alcohol, drugs, smoking sex, and just be, you know, nice to the kids.

But this particular situation at my camp was a really tricky one. And I’ll give you a little preview into it. And you can read more about it in the book, which comes out hopefully later this year is out now. So put yourself in this situation…

A counsellor has a cabin full of kids, 10 kids, and one of the kids has found out about a surprise that’s about to come around the corner for all of the camp. This is a top-secret surprise.

Only the staff know about it. But, this camper has taken a look into this counsellor’s bag saw a note and gone “Oh my God, look what’s happening tomorrow. Look what’s happening. Guys, guys, look!”

The counsellor then goes, “Boy, right? Stop. You can’t be doing that. What you’re doing is ruining camp!” So then the camper goes, “Ah, it’s real! Oh, my God, look, guys, look.” Then the counsellor brings the camper to one side and tells him to calm down.

“Tell the group that it’s wrong… make up some sort of excuse that this piece of paper doesn’t actually reveal anything. You need to stop, stop acting over the top. Calm down, you’re going to ruin camp for everyone. If you tell everyone this surprise, it’s ruined.”

The camper doesn’t take any notice of this goes back in and starts going “oh my god, surprise tomorrow, surprise tomorrow!”

Oh. And then the next thing you know, the counsellor has got so incensed by this that he picks up a camper drags him outside and goes “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You can’t be doing this, this surprise is the biggest surprise of camp, what you’re doing!” The camper starts crying.

And next thing you know, the counsellor is booted out the door.

In that situation, it’s really tricky to see. You can see from both sides of view. And it was one that really divided camp, I think, at least at the time it happened. You could see the point of view of the camper because they’re really excited about the surprise and that he’s just a kid at the end of the day. But at the same time, you can see totally see the side of the counsellor.

The counsellor tried to spot something that’s gonna ruin camp for all these kids. He’s tried to stop this kid that’s trying to you know, spoil the surprise. And then, because the camper is not listening, he’s got so incensed and annoyed that he’s dragged him out. No real physical abuse, apart from maybe a drag. But it’s a slip of standard. And at the end of the day, I could see how he could do got fired personally. Looking back, it’s always a shock that someone does get fired. It’s not always so clear, grey like this was.

So if you compromise on camper safety or campus standards, then you can expect to get the boot. They try to teach you these things in staff week. Well, I don’t know if staff week is referred to the same thing in all camps, as staff week. For me was a week before camp when all staff were in and we were getting trained all day, seven days a week, where we just basically be taught about what to expect for camp coming up, how camp runs, how it operates, what things need to get sorted in time and all that good stuff because there’s a lot to bed in. But staff week was really the foundation for all of this it sets the standards, it sets you how you can treat kids and how you can be the best counsellor or be the best specialist, be the best director or unit head… There’s so many different roles at camp.

So expect staff week to set the standard of what your camp is used to. And if you break these rules then expect to get punished.

So as we start to close up this episode, I thought it’d be interesting to actually take a look at the Camp America terms and conditions but because I think these are really interesting points for anyone that thinks it’s a fun idea to get fired, it’s really not.

So if you are fired, it is your responsibility to make your own flight reservations. And all costs incurred are your responsibility.

That is interesting straightaway, in case you didn’t know, if you’re fired, you have to collect the next flight back to your home country, doesn’t matter that you haven’t got the money, you have to buy it. And you’re going to be taken to the airport by a security member or a lead member of leadership. And then we’ll wait with you until you catch the next flight.

It’s actually illegal for them to keep you at camp or in the country. As soon as they fired you for something because it makes the visa that you’re on potentially a J1 or J2 visa invalid. So just a heads up, you really don’t want to be fired.

Another interesting point that I found in the terms and conditions of this was, you can be fired from camp for any reason. It’s entirely up to the camp, where the lines are, it’s not particularly Camp America’s strongest suits have the support that you’ve been fired from a camp and you don’t think it was justified. There might be some litigation process where you can go through and be like, look, the camps got it wrong. But this is my case, I want to put forward to Camp America, there might be a support mechanism in place. But I am slightly doubtful that that potentially exists because at the end of the day, the camp that you’re hired by is how you got the visa, it’s not Camp America.

If you are fired from camp, resign or leave camp due to homesickness, or if you engage in conduct, that in the opinion of Camp America is deemed detrimental, our sponsorship will be revoked, you will forfeit your pocket money, application payments, airport tax contribution, insurance payment and all other payments. You will be financially responsible for your costs to fly home and subject to the terms of program reimbursements stipulated in item 28. In such cases, you’re required to contact Camp America immediately on the 24-hour number, which actually posted in the previous podcast go check it out.

So I think that in general sums up reasons why you don’t want to be fired from campus. Not a good look. You are really fucked from a financial point of view, or what are the costs that you put into applying to camp have gone all the application fees or the visa fees, although they are gone already, the biggest thing is the flight back because you have to buy the next flight. And that’s entirely on you. Any support that Camp America can provide will be limited. It’s not going to be financial, and you’re going to have to sort out yourself, if you don’t have the money on you, that’s your problem.

Because you won’t have pocket money, then you’re going to have to get in contact with people from back home, there might be a time delay with the time difference. You might have to wait at the airport like eight hours until they wake up. It’s a real shit show.

But you really are forced out of the country. I can’t stress that enough.

Right. As we’ve come to the end of the episode, I thought I’d brighten it up. And I think it would be actually hilarious to get in touch with someone that potentially has been fired from camp. Maybe you want to chat about it. Hey, I’m no agony aunt but it could be a real fun podcast fun interview, so get in touch. Because we all want to know about it.

It’d be really cool to hear about how rumours are spread, and what people have learned since so if you have been fired from a camp and you do want to chat, get in touch. In the next episode, we’re taking a look at what age you can do Camp America. And you would know this if you followed our Instagram page. I post a preview of the upcoming content.

I hope you enjoyed this episode and I shall see you on Friday. Keep surviving and thriving.

There’s No Place Like Summer Camp, the diary kept in my first summer of Camp America is available now on Amazon. Go check it out!

This episode tackles a question that comes up more than you’d think: where is Camp America in New York?

The short answer is that Camp America’s support office for the US is based in New York, and this is relevant to volunteers in a very specific situation — if something goes wrong during your placement and you need direct support from the agency, New York is where you’re ultimately directing that.

Camp America is a UK-based organisation that places international volunteers at summer camps across the United States. Its operational infrastructure in the US runs through New York. If you’re on a J-1 visa through Camp America and you encounter a serious problem at camp — a dispute with a director, a welfare issue, a placement you need to leave — Camp America’s US support is accessed through that New York operation.

This isn’t something most volunteers ever need to think about, because most camps are excellent and most summers go smoothly. But knowing it exists is useful. If you need help mid-placement, you’re not just stuck with whoever runs your camp. There is a layer of agency support above the camp level, and for UK volunteers specifically, Camp America provides a 24-hour emergency line.

A separate reason people ask about New York is simply: are there summer camps near New York that I could be placed at?

Yes — and quite a few excellent ones. New York State, particularly the Catskills region and the Adirondacks, is one of the most dense concentrations of residential summer camps in the entire United States. These tend to be private, well-resourced camps with long histories. The Catskills in particular have a strong tradition of Jewish summer camps going back decades, which was the world Andrew stumbled into for two summers (albeit at a camp in Georgia rather than New York).

Being placed near New York has the practical advantage of making post-camp travel extremely convenient. Flying home from JFK or Newark is straightforward, and you can spend your travel weeks exploring New York City before you go — which is, frankly, not a bad way to end a summer.

If you do end up with free time in New York — either at the end of summer or during any days off near the city — the usual suspects are worth your time. Times Square gets the coverage but the High Line, Central Park, Brooklyn, and a genuine New York bagel will serve you better than the tourist centre.

A running joke in the episode is that the “New York” connection to Camp America is more bureaucratic than glamorous. You’re probably going to be in the woods somewhere, not the city. But as post-camp destinations go, New York is hard to beat.