Director Jud's Blog

5 Important Life Lessons You Can Learn at an Overnight Summer Camp For Teens

Camping is a favorite pastime among Americans with statistics indicating that 14% of the population or 40 million aged 6 and above camped in 2013 (2014 American Camper Report). There are many reasons that camping is so popular, but a love of the outdoors and spending time with family or friends are often the main goals. For parents, signing up kids for overnight summer camps may be an important decision considering the benefits that camping provides in terms of education, social, physical and psychological development. There are in fact valuable life lessons that kids, tweens, teens and campers can learn when attending an overnight summer camp. These skills grow up with them and are useful into adulthood.

Self-Reliance and Independence

A child or individual in a 2 week overnight summer camp setting is forced to push limitations to the maximum to cope with the demands of the tasks and activities on hand. It encourages the participant to be self-reliant and independent. The NICP Case Studies on Camper Growth reveals that 59% of parents judged their children to have improved the most on self-reliance.

Social Skills

A fun summer camp for teens experience buoys up self-confidence and self-perception.  It also boosts social skills because partakers meet new people, socialize and work with them. An experience at an overnight summer camps for teens can create a positive impact on social skills and well-being (Monke, 2015).

Coping Mechanism

Going into the unknown is a daunting experience for children and parents, too. Stepping out of comfort zones, sleeping in tents outdoors, cooking meals, cleaning up and many other activities are new experiences. For children attending teen overnight summer camps, there is no doubt that it requires courage and bravery to survive being in new surroundings and to engage in activities that were never tried before. Coping skills are developed which are useful as participants grow up. Learning to adapt to prevailing conditions is a useful skill that is acquired.

Emotional Intelligence

Camping is a fun and creative way to develop emotions. Robert Ditter, a clinical psychologist in child and adolescent treatment stated that an experience at a sleepaway summer camp for teens assists in the development of emotional and social competencies. A 2008 study also relates the intelligence of freshman students to a summer camp experience.  Those who had a camp experience have higher ‘emotional intelligence quotients’ (Nam, 2008).

Leadership Skills

One of the inadequacies of the educational system is the lack of preparation for students to cope with the real world. They are not prepared to function in the workforce. A summer camps for teens setting is a viable environment for teens to thrive. It is a place to develop and practice cognitive skills and transfer these in future work and community life (Digby, 2007). It is also a way to develop leadership skills in addition to communication skills, team work, discipline, critical thinking and problem-solving capability (Lim et al, 2016).