5 Great Reasons To Work At A Summer School
Summer should be about having fun and getting away from the stresses of day to day life, but with increasingly competitive job markets more and more people are using their summer to build up their resume.
The great thing about working at a summer school or camp is that you really do get the best of both worlds. Here’s why there’s a lot to gain both personally and professionally by applying to work at a summer school:
1. Transferrable Skills
As a counselor you will be responsible for keeping your allocated group of students organised, happy and motivated, as well as helping to set up and run the daily activities and trips that they take part in. You don’t get many better opportunities to develop your leadership skills than that, and your problem-solving abilities get called in to play too when you have to start looking for ever more creative ways to get your students out of bed!
Teachers at summer programs will often be given much more responsibility for developing their own lesson plans, and many who have go on to be quickly promoted within their full-time role because of the additional skills they gained over the summer. It’s a great chance to develop your teaching style and try out your own ideas that you might not have the chance to do in a more rigid school system.
Whatever role you choose to apply for, the skills you can gain from working at a summer school are hugely sought after. Many of the roles can also be taken on as Student Leadership Internships which can only help to boost your CV even more.
" Education works both ways. I went to ISSOS to teach and ended up learning lots. My prejudices were challenged and the kids there blew my mind with the themes they were ready to tackle in their films and the maturity with which they did. Of course the staff, management and general family-feel made the whole experience more like a holiday than like a job, but as we sat in the theatre watching the students' finished films I knew we had done something special that would follow these young people into their future.
Tommy Sheridan, ISSOS Film Teacher
2. Experience New Cultures
Summer programs are a great way to immerse yourself in a new culture and get outside of your comfort zone. With summer schools and camps running all over the world there are opportunities available pretty much world-wide.
Not only that but international summer schools bring together a huge mix of students from every corner of the world, meaning that even if you choose not to leave your home country to work you will still get a real international experience. It’s more important now than it ever has been for us all to step up to our social responsibilities and work together to create a greater understanding of people from every race, religion, culture and country.
3. Fun, Friends and Memories
Summer programs are not just about the students having fun! The world is a stressful place at times so what better way to spend your summer than by letting your inner big kid out, at the same time as making new friends, helping young people and spending time experiencing a new culture with a group of like-minded peers who all want the same thing.
Counselors and teachers plan and go along on the same trips and activities as their groups of students do and get to experience a lot of the same things. Whether that’s the chance to play golf in St Andrews or spend the day taking in the sights of New York City, it can’t be a bad day at work!
" The staff team are always passionate, optimistic and beyond enthusiastic. The students are always from incredibly varied backgrounds, from all corners of the world, are extremely intelligent and ridiculously talented. When you combine the two forces, magic is just bound to happen. The happy vibes are contagious and the laughter is inevitable. I look back fondly on 5 incredible summers with ISSOS, and am so fortunate to have met and made some friends that turned into flatmates, pen-pals, and travel companions. Thanks for the memories, and the experience of a lifetime!
Kaylee Templeton, ISSOS summer PA
4. Holiday While You Earn
There aren’t many jobs you can take on that pay you to travel. The vast majority of summer schools pay for your room and board while you’re working for them, meaning that the money you earn is yours to spend on travelling some more when you finish or saving for something special.
5. The Chance To Make a Difference in a Young Person’s Life
Absolutely nothing compares to the feelgood factor. Ask anyone who has worked at a summer school or camp and the chances are the number one reason they will give as to why they loved it so much will be that they had a chance to give back and make a difference.
Feeling like you’re a truly important part of something much bigger than yourself is not something that comes along every day. As the summer ends, knowing that you have had a huge impact on a young person’s life and helped them to make memories and friendships that will last a lifetime is a memory that you personally will be able to treasure forever.
So the only questions left are where do you want to go, and what are you waiting for?!
