Every year, Elmira High School gives juniors and seniors the opportunity to be camp counselors at Outdoor School for Fern Ridge fifth-graders, where they learn games, songs, hands-on activities, and of course, science.
Camp counselors will head to Skycamp in Fall Creek, Oregon on Sunday to prepare for the fifth-grade campers’ arrival the following day. Campers will return the Thursday in the morning, and counselors will follow soon after, tidying up camp before they leave.
About 100 fifth-graders in total from Veneta Elementary and Elmira Elementary are full of anticipation for the trip. For the kids, this is a trip where they get to learn new things, make new friendships and, probably most important of all, miss school to have fun.
As the send off date approaches, counselors have one last camp training session to prepare for Outdoor School. The student-counselors have been receiving trainings since the beginning of March on the basics of how to teach children, talk to children, bond with children and carry out the different activities, along with other general team building skills.
Out of more than 50 students who applied to be Outdoor School counselors, 40 were accepted. Many of which will be returning counselors from the previous year.
Counselors are arranged in groups of two or three, where they will have four to six kids to watch over in a shared cabin. Each cabin is essentially a room located in the larger chalet, which is a building that includes three total cabins and a central area.
Campers often regroup and transition between activities and meals with their cabin group. Once it’s time for the educational lessons at Outdoor School however, the campers and counselors split up to join much larger groups.
These educational lessons are known as field studies, and the counselors that are leading them have been working together for weeks to create a full, fifth-grade level lesson plan that meets state education standards.
The field studies include Nature Walk, Micro-World, Rotten World, Water Study, Survival & Connections, and Squid & Other Animals. Every camper will go through each field study and build connections between them before they depart from camp.
Many counselors, both new and old, idolized their own counselors from when they were fifth-graders attending the camp.
“My counselors were the coolest people in the whole wide world and, now that I’m able to actually be one really excites me,” senior Katie Kilcullen told Falcon News.
Senior Brooke Davis shared the sentiment.
“I looked up to the counselors and they gave us such a good experience,” Davis said. “I want to share that same experience. I had so much fun last year with Outdoor School and it was such a rewarding experience.”
Many returning counselors are in agreeance about the joy in passing on their experiences to the new generation of campers, and hopefully, future counselors.
“I really wanted to do it cause I just want to give back to the community and give the kids the same experience I had,” senior Mele Turtura told Falcon News. “When I was a kid, Outdoor School was the time of my life. I loved it, and being able to give the same experience to the kids is great.”
Returning counselor senior Hannah Humphrey is overwhelmed with a sense of community at camp.
“I love it!” she said. “I’d do it a thousand times again, and a thousand more times after that!”
Other counselors are excited to be able to teach their field studies.
“I really love the group studies that we are given,” Mia Hernandez told Falcon News. “I think it’s a really good experience for the kids, especially when they’re younger. It gives them potential inspiration for what they could be when they’re older.”
Last year, a handful of teachers visited the camp for a day and gained some insight into the world of Outdoor School, seeing how its more than just a trip that allows high school students to skip a few days of school.
Staff got to see how stressful it was for high school students and recognized the need to have familiar adults be more involved in Outdoor School.
A recent improvement in the program is the larger involvement of EHS staff members. A new addition to the Outdoor School staff is EHS History and Theater Production teacher DesiRae Wright-Rendon, who is now serving the role of Outdoor School Student Coordinator. She assists in the management of student counselors’ well-being, as well as supervising and scheduling camp activities.
“I think staff kind of underestimates how stressful this is for students, especially the more introverted and reserved students who are in a whole new setting,” Wright-Rendon told Falcon News. “My favorite part about the fly-up was seeing the more quiet, keep-to-themselves kind of people get to be more extroverted and out of their comfort zones. Seeing those students dance around and sing with the kids was really great to see.”
The EHS Outdoor School program is praised statewide by other Outdoor School and Student Camp programs. Many directors from other programs have sat in on the counselor training meetings and visited the camp, and commended Fern Ridge on its great student performance and training.
Angie Pebworth, one of the Outdoor School directors, is extremely proud of the program.
“I feel like fifth-graders and high school counselors blossom and grow in important ways here,” she told Falcon News. “It ties our entire community together in an almost magical sense. Fifth-graders and high school students are pushed beyond their comfort zones a little bit and come out as stronger and better people. There’s a magic at outdoor school unlike any other.”
