Everything Summer Blog

Work Ethic You Want (When Young)

I work with kids, teens and young adults daily, from camps to careers. I try to help them develop their innate skills, and discover and nurture others. It's a great jump start to listen to what successful individuals have to say about behaviors and traits they seek out when hiring young people.

Some great insights can be gleaned from the NY Times article, A Work Ethic Shaped At An Early Age. The founder of TransPerfect, a translation service, shares the traits young people should have:

• Working from an extremely young age, and ideally not having stopped
• Work hard, gain experience to become self-sufficient
• That type of upbringing usually translates to becoming good employees
• Adversity, overcoming some sort of challenge is important
• People who play competitive sports, come from entrepreneurial families, tend to have a desire to succeed
• Being accountable and transparent
• Being able to "tell me about yourself;" this indicates if they are a logical thinker and an effective communicator
• Positive energy, proactive problem resolving
• Collaborative and good listening abilities
• Idea generation and detail orientation
• The desire to take risks
• Humility

Knowing this now should help teens - and kids - to work early on developing and mastering these essential work, and life, skills. Summer is a good time to take stock and nurture your strengths and weaknesses.

 

Campers Reunite Nearly 5 Decades Later

As a summer camp expert, advocate, and spokesperson, I seek out camp stories everywhere. They feed my passion! This one is close to my heart, as it includes my friend and the state where my own kids went to overnight camp, Maine.

I recently attended the reunion of 20+ camp friends in NYC where they waxed nostalgically and emotionally about their summers at Camp Eastwood in Maine. A core group has remained in touch, actually a girls bunk. Imagine that; four women who have lived their lives, raised their kids, reside in different areas, but find a common bond that is unbreakable - their childhood at overnight camp in Maine.

            

I loved what they had to share:

 "I think so much is about friendships, traditions, and acceptance you found in a setting as a child. The feeling you got from it. So much of their memories centered around the lake. And many of them chose to send their kids back to Maine because of what they had. " They were all so emotional, and rightfully so. I recall one even met her husband at camp.

How rare it is to find camp friends united decades later, yet it is not uncommon. For overnight camp forms an unbreakable bond that once made, it lasts forever.  

Here's to all the campers of yesteryear and all current campers to carry on the best friendships and camp traditions and memories!