The Piedmont Highlander

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The Piedmont Highlander

The Piedmont Highlander

Former Camp Augusta campers assume leadership roles

Former+Camp+Augusta+campers+assume+leadership+roles

“Ca-chunk.” The chainsaw sputters to life. A figure wearing a clown mask raises the purring machine above their head, letting out a shout. In a cacophony of screams and laughter, a gaggle of girls jumps out of their bunks, dashes out the cabin door and exits into the cool air of the summer morning.

In the summer of 2015, when junior Kayla Lim participated in Camp Augusta’s annual CIRCLE program, coming up with unique ways to wake up her campers each morning was just one of her many responsibilities.

Augusta’s CIRCLE program, which stands for Communication, Independence, and Responsibility: Compassionate Leadership Empowerment, is a leadership program that focuses on instilling personal development and leadership qualities in its teenage participants, according to Camp Augusta’s website.  Each year, campers aged 16 and up apply to the program in October, do pre-camp course work from January to June and then spend three weeks at Camp Augusta during the summer.

The program provides an alternative for people who have grown past the eight to 16 age requirement for attending a normal session of summer camp to still spend time at Camp Augusta.CampAugustaCircle

“It’s a really good experience for transitioning from a camper to a counselor,” four-year camper Lim said. “You still have a lot of the camper-type things since you’re still at camp, but you learn more leadership roles and a lot about growing and the different aspects about camp that you would have never realised.”

The application process entails a series of self-reflective, written responses to questions about the applicant, 2014 CIRCLE attendee Jaeger Moes said. After the pre-camp phase, the on-site three week program consists of two weeks of psychology training activities and one week of being paired with an adult counselor and a cabin of campers.

“There are a lot of team-building exercises to start with so we all get to know each other,” said PHS class of 2015, 2014 CIRCLE attendee Eric Mura.

For example, in one exercise, Mura’s group of about 15 teenagers had to work together to climb up and over a wall.

“The twist was we all had different handicaps,” Mura said. “Some people could only use one arm, some couldn’t talk and some were blindfolded.”

Both Lim and Mura’s sessions had only two Piedmont campers, which allowed them to meet new high schoolers from Sacramento, Los Angeles and even Ireland.

Another aspect of the two-week training portion is learning Camp Augusta’s fundamental approach to child psychology, which involves nonviolent and clean communication, Lim said.

“Nonviolent and clean communication are when you go up to someone and communicate with words that express your feelings rather than with body language or exclusion,” Lim said.

While working on strategies for implementing this psychology, each group also goes on a three-day backpacking trip in the Nevada City area.

“We got to go out and explore nature, but we also had three to four hours of solitude where we were just alone in nature just sitting and contemplating life,” Moes said.

Moes said this time was helpful for learning to understand the philosophies being taught and to apply them to his life.

“It really helped with dealing with people in general,” Mura said. “We learned the philosophies and practiced them on younger kids, but they’re things we can easily use with people in our everyday lives.”

Once the first two weeks are completed, the “CIRCLErs” co-counsel cabins of five kids for one week alone with an adult. During this time, they run clinics, write parents letters of evaluation and use new psychology strategies to mediate any conflicts that may arise among the campers.

Mura said this period of co-counseling is similar to being an actual counselor, only that age prevents you from doing many of the things a normal counselor would do.

“You’re a counselor, but you’re just doing it in tandem with somebody else,” Mura said.

Mura plans on returning as a junior counselor.

“Usually the turnover rate is like one or two of the circlers will go on to become a Junior Counselor and then after that a counselor,” Mura said.

Moes, who will be a second-year junior counselor this summer, said that being a JC differs greatly from being a CIRCLEr.

“As a CIRCLEr you’re still treated more as a camper by the other staff,” Moes said. “Once you’re a JC you kind of breach that gap and are more on the side of being a staff member.”

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