Categories Good SOIL Jim Vitale February 7, 2025

Why Overnight Camp | Pt. 8: Camp Cultivates Leadership Skills

By Jim Vitale

This article is part of our “Why you should send your child to overnight camp” series. The series introduction explored the current research on outcomes for overnight campers and offered a list of the most important outcomes. Here, we go more in depth with one of those outcomes.  

“The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born—that there is a genetic factor to leadership. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.” So says leadership guru Warren Bennis. And here at Camp Mount Luther, we couldn’t agree more.

Leadership development is one of our core values and an experience of overnight camp is a great place to begin. In the last seven parts of this series, we’ve talked about all the values that an overnight camp experience can cultivate in youth: creative thinking, independence, sabbath, social skills, bravery, affinity for nature. All of these things lay a good foundation for great leadership. If leaders are indeed not born but made, then a week at overnight camp might just be the best way to start making a leader.

In their research, Sacred Playgrounds discovered that, “Among those [pastors] who attended camp at least once [in their youth]…over a third (39%) said it was very or extremely important to their call to ministry.” And those pastors who, as youth, went on to serve on camp summer staff, “about three-quarters [said] it was very or extremely important to their call to ministry (74%)”. We’re not saying that sending your kid to camp will automatically turn them into a pastor—simply that camp has a tendency to create leaders, not just in the church, but in all areas of life.

There are at least three ways we learn to instill leadership values in our campers: first, by watching their cabin leaders in action, second by trying on a little leadership themselves, and finally through our SALT (service and leadership training) program.

 

Watching leaders in action

For anyone who is interested in becoming a leader, the best place to start is by watching competent leaders at work. All of our summer staff members come to camp two weeks early to undergo rigorous leadership training. Our summer staff spend hours learning everything they need to know about camp: safety and first aid, what trails to use, how to manage bed time routines, how to help homesick campers, the best games for rainy days, over a hundred different camp songs, how to pray and leader worship, the summer camp curriculum, what to do in case of a natural disaster, and so much more.

By the time your camper shows up for camp, our summer staff are already expert leaders. Your camper will spend the week watching their cabin leader (and all the other summer staff) navigate the fun, busy, sometimes complicated routines that are summer camp. And don’t be surprised if, by the end of the week, your camper has found a role model in their cabin leader. So many of our campers leave camp raving about how much fun they had with their cabin leader.

The first step to becoming a leader is coming to admire a good leader. One of the questions we ask when interviewing prospective summer staff members is, “why do you want to serve on summer staff?” So many applicants respond by saying that they had a positive experience with a summer staff member when they were younger and they want to be that same positive role model for other kids.

 

Trying out leadership

No one becomes a leader only by watching someone lead. Next, they need to try it out for themselves. There are lots of little ways an overnight camper might try out their leadership skills throughout the week. One way might be in helping their cabinmates figure out what skit they all want to perform at Thursday night’s campfire. Anyone who has ever participated in a group project knows that one person needs to step forward and serve as moderator, manager, and leader of the project. The same can be said for planning nightly cabin worship and deciding what special activities the cabin wants to do during the week.

There are lots of opportunities during GROW time (bible study) for campers to share their thoughts and feelings. The ability to speak up and share one’s thoughts is a key part of leadership, as is the ability to sit quietly and listen intently. Campers will also find that they have lots of opportunities to advocate for their fellow cabinmates, whether it’s settling a dispute between two of their friends, encouraging a fellow camper who is homesick, or acting as a liaison to the cabin leader.

Campers can also cultivate their leadership skills on the weekly overnight camping trip. Spending the night out in the woods requires some extra effort. The group needs to carry supplies, collect firewood, help with cooking, set up tents or hammocks, etc. While the cabin leaders manage all of these tasks, they might ask a camper or two to oversee the collection of firewood or assembly of mountain pies and s’mores.

 

SALT

For those campers who get particularly excited about leadership, we have a special program we offer each summer called SALT (service and leadership training). This program is often attended by campers who are interested in becoming summer staff members, but it is also great for campers who simply want to learn more about leadership.

At SALT camp, senior higher campers spend half a week learning about and discussing different tenants of leadership. SALT leaders are given a binder full of information and assignments to cultivate leadership. They discuss time management, working as a team, leadership types, good teaching skills, program planning, and more. Then, for the second half of the week, they serve as “junior cabin leaders,” working side-by-side with the summer staff. As SALT campers shadow summer staff, they learn the ropes through hands-on leadership experience.

 

Few places are better at cultivating leadership skills than camp. Leadership training is in our DNA. But don’t just take our word for it! Send your kid to overnight camp and see for yourself!

 

Read more entries in this series