Summer Camp: Part 1, Why and Who?

Welcome back to 'Boy in a Big World'

So when I started this blog I said I was going to be talking about my experience applying to be a summer camp counsellor in the USA. And so that is what today's post is going to be about.

I decided that I want this to be as in depth as possible and after some consideration I have decided that the best way to do this would be to split it into sections from the start of the process to where I am today and then as and when things happen I will post about those too.

So todays post is going to be about why I wanted to be a camp counsellor and which agency I chose to go with and why?


Why I wanted to go to Camp?
So when I was around 14 one of my next door neighbours went away to be a counsellor and came back with all these amazing stories of how good it was and all the places he had seen.
From that point on I was hooked.
Sure, it slipped from my mind at times but I always came back to idea of spending a summer in America.
I have always loved working with children and have been involved in the Scouting movement from a very young age and being outdoors is also something I love. I can sail, I enjoy hiking and have often built fires and done other adventure sports.
When I looked into it further I realised I could do all this in America and get paid for it so I thought why the hell not.
I understand the idea doesn't appeal to everyone but to me, it seemed like a dream.

Which Agency?
Now there are a fair few agencies out there for people in the UK wanting to go to work at Camp, and you can find extensive comparisons out there (like this one).
I chose to go with a company called Americamp for a number of reasons.  I can't speak for all the other companies because I haven't dealt with them but from what I have read online and from talking to friends that have gone with other agencies they are all much the same. (I may ask them for guest posts later in the series).
Before I chose what agency to go with I did a lot of research into all of them, looking at things like cost, reliability and the percentage of applicants that end up with a job for the summer.
As I said earlier they all promise the same and when you add up the final cost there isn't much difference. So for me I kind of just went on the 'vibe' I got from them as companies.

So onto the reasons I chose Americamp!
I noticed these guys last year when they replied to a tweet I put about wanting to do Camp America and they seemed ultra keen for me to go with them so I looked into them further and found that they have been named the number 1 agency for the last 4 years. If that's not good then I don't know what is. They also seemed uber helpful. Every time I tweeted or emailed them asking a question they always responded within 24 hours and where so honest and in depth.
The main thing that drew me to them was their costing and salaries. When you go with Americamp you book and pay for your own flight, giving you more flexibility and that worked for me because I don't live near the big London airports, where some agencies that include your flights, make you fly from.
Because you book your own flights your agency fee's are less so it means that I can be more flexible with my larger payments like my flights. And I don't know if this directly affects it but for some reason their salaries are a lot higher as well.

The link I posted earlier has a handy little chart with all the cost break down. I found it very useful.

This post has got very lengthy and so I am going to stop now before it gets out of hand and you get bored.

The next post in this series I think will be about the application form and the interview, unless I think of a better order but that seems logical.

Hope you all had an amazing Christmas and there will be a post about mine soon.

Wishes,
Jack