Join Our Staff
Unirondack is a Unitarian Universalist children’s summer camp located on Beaver Lake in the forever wild western Adirondacks. If you are hard-working, creative, self-reflective, accepting of differences, and committed to creating a better world through living your values, Unirondack may be the place for you.
All jobs start the last week of June, beginning with our staff training week, and end the last week in August (for a total of 10 weeks). Approximately 65 campers and 35 staff members live at camp each week. Our campers range in age from 8-18, with our youngest camper session starting at the beginning of July and our High School aged sessions and our Family Camp taking place in August.
Being a staff member at Unirondack is an intense experience. Many past staff members say it was the most powerful and rewarding undertaking of their young adulthoods. They also say that working at Unirondack was some of the most fun they ever had.
What Makes Working Here So Extraordinary?
Community
Building a non-competitive, inclusive community is challenging work. You have to want to grow. You have to be willing to rethink habitual ways of relating to others and yourself. Harder still, you have to put new ways of relating into practice. The commitment required is considerable. And the reward can be immense.
Training
In a rarely paralleled training experience, staff members spend a week learning together before the summer begins. Long days are spent preparing to create an exceptional growth experience for the young people we serve. During training week, staff members develop close bonds, shaping themselves into a highly capable team through workshops on inclusion, consensus building, conflict resolution, and programming for different age groups. And training doesn’t stop after training week. It continues throughout the summer during weekend and evening staff meetings and during ongoing small group sessions with leadership staff. Through this process, staff members grow in ways they never knew were possible. They also make intimate friendships that last their entire lives.
Campers
Our campers tell us their perception of themselves and their place in the world is forever changed by their experiences at camp. Program staff spends almost every waking and sleeping hour with campers, five exhausting and exhilarating days a week.
Who Makes A Good Staff Member?
• You must be dedicated to the growth and happiness of children
• You must be committed to contributing whole-heartedly to an inclusive community and living your ideals
• You must be interested in learning and growing personally
• You must celebrate individuality and seek value in everyone’s unique contribution
• You must be resilient and hard-working
Applying To Be On Staff
Each year many campers who have recently graduated from Ballou (our High School session) inquire about working at camp. We are always pleased that so many of our campers look forward to giving back to the Unirondack community. We also receive many applications from young adults who have never been to Unirondack before but have heard about us and are moved by the work we do.
Generally you must be 18 to be a camp counselor and at least 17 to work on our maintenance or kitchen crew. Any extra skills like lifeguarding are always a plus. Our Program Directors, Kitchen Manager, Maintenance Crew Chief, Art Shop Director, Waterfront Director, Cooks and Driver are generally older.
The application process easy and it’s online. Once we receive your application and reflective essay (described on the application) we will then get in touch with you to schedule an interview.
You can call us any time to talk in more detail about what it means to be a staff member at Unirondack. We look forward to hearing from you.
