It is no secret that our amazing staff are what set us apart. They are the reason kids beg to come back year after year. They are even the reason other staff return for another season.
But what may come as a surprise to you is that working at Calleva will do much more than fill your summers. Working at Calleva offers hard and soft skills that can take you wherever you want to go.
We asked some of our previous staff to share the impact Calleva had on them as people, on their careers and on the places they’ve gone since they worked here at Calleva. More Places You’ll Go posts here.
The following is from Molly O’Connell ⎯ a former Calleva Instructor and current mental health therapist.
Having just finished up my sophomore year of college back in 2007, my experience with Calleva started out as simply a way to spend the summer, make a little money, and have some fun experiences along the way. I had always been drawn to working with kids and so the role of counselor, where I started out, seemed appealing and like it would be a good fit for me.
What was originally intended as a one summer commitment, quickly turned into six summers, two fall and spring seasons, endless skills, and meeting my husband and lifelong friends.
In my current profession, working as a mental health therapist in private practice, I am able to see that my time at Calleva, although different in many ways from the work that I do now, gave me a strong foundation of skills and perspective that I am extraordinarily grateful for.
From a surface level vantage point, working at Calleva gave me experience in many outdoor skills. Over the course of my time there, I was able to move from counselor to instructor, working programs from Adventure Island, the ropes course, guiding rafts, and week long backpacking trips in Dolly Sods.
However, it wasn’t just about learning how to do certain activities better, but in building the confidence to feel like I was capable, trusted and could be responsible to lead others along the way.
I wasn’t someone who came into the job already super skilled in one particular activity. In fact, I can specifically recall moments of embarrassment that I experienced while in one of my first weeks at Calleva as a kayaking counselor just trying to keep up. I remember considering that maybe this wasn’t for me. However, the support that Calleva provided not only building my physical skills, but also helped me to feel valued, to discover where my passions were, and to build a layer of confidence. This became a large factor in the longevity of my experience at Calleva.
In working at Calleva, I also had endless opportunities to really hone soft skills that I am regularly using to this day. I learned to be a leader, to manage teams and how to communicate, both verbally and nonverbally, effectively with people of all ages, abilities, and demeanors. I learned how to look at the big picture and identify all the pieces that needed to fall into place to make a plan or idea work. I was able to walk people through moments where they felt challenged or scared and help them to feel that same sense of growth, confidence and pride in themselves that I had been supported to find for myself.
I learned the valuable skill of being able to assess a person or situation and adjust the plan as needed. As working at Calleva constantly keeps you on your toes, it requires important logistical and organizational skills, and a flexible attitude.
As a therapist, having these experiences has been invaluable. My time at Calleva helped me to realize how much I valued working with people, especially children and adolescents. It gave me the foundation to pursue the career path that I did. The decision to attend graduate school was what ultimately ended my time working at Calleva.
It’s not possible for a blog post to adequately sum up what Calleva has meant to me over the years and how much the decision to spend the summer working there back in 2007 did to impact my life. And this impact didn’t stop when I stopped working there. The relationships that you can build by working at Calleva are profound. People that truly see you for you and accept and embrace you.
Despite living out of state now, I am thrilled to be sending my almost 5 year old son to Calleva this summer for a week of camp, so that he too can start being exposed to the magical place that is Calleva.
If you are contemplating working at Calleva, give it a try! At the very least, you will have a fun summer, way more fun than sitting inside in an office building. But by saying yes to a summer at Calleva, you are opening up so many possibilities for your life and potentially setting yourself down a path of immense personal growth and opportunity.
Leave a Reply