Enter the J. Wendell and Ruth T. Howe Golden Le ns Awar d Photograph y Conte st You could win: • A $150 cash prize for first place • A commemorative plaque • Acknowledgement in Camping Magazine • Recognition at the 2014 ACA National Conference Send us your favorite photos that depict the camp experience and represent the best practices and accreditation standards in the field. Include with each submission: the photographer’s name, camp name, contact address, and phone number. We must receive an online photo release for each submission. Visit www.ACAcamps.org/release to access the photo release. • Photos sent electronically must be a TIFF or JPEG file and at least 300 dpi. • For cover design considerations, do not crop photos. Submission deadline: November 22, 2013 E-mail: magazine@ACAcamps.org Mail photos to: Camping Magazine American Camp Association 5000 State Road 67 North Martinsville, IN 46151-7902 30 CAMPING magazine • November/December 2013 Photo courtesy of AlpenGirl Camp, Bozeman, Montana. Girls and Leadership continued from page 29 you can see an ambition gap, a confidence gap, and a skills gap. What should we tell young girls? How do we give girls the confidence to express their leadership at a young age in camp? What I learned through all my years working in camp was that summer camp, in particular, offers many opportunities for girls to develop these skills early on. But part of that depends on the culture that the camp creates. The adults at the camp have to make a decision to promote and reward the girls who are not conventionally feminine or what I would call “good girls.” Counselors have to hold up and make special the girls who embody the leadership qualities that we want other girls to aspire to. I believe that girls’ friendships provide lots of opportunities to develop leadership skills, so helping girls become comfortable asserting themselves to each other is a big step. When girls can say, “I don’t like how you treated me today. I want to sit in the front of the boat. I want the top bunk for the second session,” they are building the skills that they will need to become leaders. But those opportunities are available in everyday relationships. So that can go hand in hand with being careful not to reinforce old gender stereotypes at camp, too. For example, allowing campers to pick what activities they’d like to do versus having “boy activities” and “girl activities.” Right. And at Girls Leadership Institute, we have activities like ropes courses that we use very intentionally. We tell the ropes course operators, “We are trying to build these skills in our girls: comfort taking risks, sticking up for yourself, working together in a group.” And then the ropes course operators can actually design a program that targets the development of those skills. So again, summer camp has very organic, everyday opportunities for girls to feel comfortable being authentic and assertive. But the camp has a major role in also being intentional about that. It’s probably also really important to model relationship-building behavior because the girls absorb everything their counselors do. Exactly. Counselors and camp staff will, of course, have favorites — it happens. There are just some kids that we gravitate toward more than others. But counselors need to be particularly mindful of that and at least be aware enough to know who they’re gravitating toward. It’s OK to be connected to certain kids more than others, but a lot of times we are drawn to the more “popular” girls because often they’re charismatic and know how to connect with adults a lot better. So who are the girls in your bunk or your group who are less popular but possess the qualities that you think other girls should have more of? Typically, the girls who are the most original and authentic Addi t ional R e s ou r c e s The Curse of the Good Girl, Rachel Simmons, 2009: www.rachelsimmons.com/ books-and-articles/curse-of-the-good-girl/ More books by Rachel Simmons: www.rachelsimmons.com/books-and-articles/ Girls Leadership Institute: www.girlsleadershipinstitute.org/ “Cyberbullying: Camp’s Role in Helping Girls Disengage from an Online World — An Interview with Rachel Simmons,” March/April 2012 Camping Magazine: www.ACAcamps.org/campmag/1203/ cyberbullying-camps-role-helping-girls “Putting Camp in the Childhood Equation: A Conversation with Rachel Simmons and Michael Thompson,” May/June 2010 Camping Magazine: www.ACAcamps.org/campmag/1005/putting-camp-childhood-equation Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg, 2013: http://leanin.org/book/
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