I’ve posted before about our great camp staff and our intensive staff training, but a question I find myself answering a lot is, “What do we look for in a camp counselor?” Since the beginning of January, the resident camp supervisor, Brittany, and I have been interviewing a long list of applicants to join our teams this summer. Last I checked the list was at well over a hundred.
So what do we look for? Two key ingredients:
First, a love for working with children. When parents send their kids to camp, whether its day camp or resident camp, or just to spend one night at the Jack Hanna Sleepover, they are entrusting their child’s life to us. We want someone who enjoys being with kids. Whether it’s the first week of camp, or the last week of camp, our counselors should enjoy being with these kids and should provide the same experience to each of the over 6,000 campers that experience our programs.
Along with this, is the realization of the responsibility they hold as a camp counselor. As much as camp is about having fun, making friends and learning about animals, counselors should realize that above all else, the safety of that child is their priority. We are in loco parentis (in place of a parent) during camp. It’s a huge responsibility, but for the right people, it is a responsibility they understand and never compromise.
Second, they have to love animals. Not all of our counselors are animal experts when they apply; some of them have never been to SeaWorld. That’s one of the key parts of our two weeks of training. I’ve often said I’d rather hire someone that knows kids and I teach them about animals than have to hire an animal lover and teach them to work with children. But they all enjoy teaching about the amazing animals we have at SeaWorld and spreading our message of awareness and conservation to all of our campers.
Besides that, we’ll interview anyone that meets the qualifications. We talk to outgoing people and some quiet people, some biology students and some education majors, former campers and some who have never heard of us before now. It’s a wide variety of applicants and it’s always a challenge to put together a team of individuals who make a difference in the lives of our campers. But it’s a challenge we look forward to every year.
