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Mastering Adventure Skills and Building Leaders
The most valuable part of overnight summer camp at Camp Jeanne d’Arc are the Senior Clubs. Camp Jeanne d’Arc has four active Senior Clubs: Senior Sailing Club, Senior Canoe Club, Senior Mountaineering Club, and Senior Riding Club. Why is it the most valuable? The senior club system provides campers with a high level of adventure skills in each activity. Acquiring these specialized skills is valuable in itself. But more importantly, the journey to become a senior club member at Camp Jeanne d’Arc builds worthwhile leadership skills.
How the Senior Club System Works
There are several steps to earning entrance into senior clubs at Camp Jeanne d’Arc.
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- Exposure to activity. Camp Jeanne d’Arc provides opportunities for all campers to participate in the senior club activities of sailing, canoeing, mountaineering, and riding. Even the youngest campers can be exposed to these adventure skills and begin to develop an interest or realize a talent.
- Attending a trip. The older campers who are working towards a senior club must plan a trip with a group of other campers and counselors. For example, the senior canoe club candidates may plan a canoe trip to the sandbar. Or senior mountaineering club members might plan a hike to Lyon Mountain. Campers interested in exploring club membership can attend these trips.
- Junior club membership. Campers who start to gravitate to a particular club can sign up to be a junior club candidate. When campers are junior club candidates, the program director will add the activity to their schedules and ensure that they are learning adventure skills and included in trips. At the end of each session, campers will take a written test and a practical test to demonstrate the required junior club skills.
- Senior club membership. If a camper is a member of the junior club, they are then eligible to go for the senior club. Senior club candidates work hard to master senior level adventure skills. They must study and practice their activity. All senior club members must plan and execute a trip and master safety measures. At the end of each session senior club candidates will take a written test, practical test, and answer verbal questions that tests problem solving and leadership.
The Bar is High for Admittance to Senior Clubs
Senior Club admittance requires a very high level of skill and leadership. Candidates must exhibit advanced knowledge in both the activity of choice and safety measures including: what to do in case of injury or illness, hazards in the natural world, basic first aid, fire safety and more. Most girls do not gain entrance into senior clubs on their first try. Some candidates even take three or four attempts.
But once girls are admitted into a senior club, they are considered an expert.
A Respected Status
One of the perks of gaining entrance into a senior club is recognition on a board in the Hearth, the central gathering spot and dining hall at Camp Jeanne d’Arc. The names of campers who have met the requirements for a senior club are displayed on the Hearth boards in perpetuity.
Senior Club members are also considered experts in their activity. Senior club members may serve as mentors to new candidates and campers who become counselors are often requested to become instructors of the activity. Camp Jeanne d’Arc places high value on members of the senior clubs.
Lifelong Skills
But it is not just Camp Jeanne d’Arc that values these adventure skills. Many senior club members take their expertise into their lives outside of camp. Some senior sailing club members go on to join university sailing teams. Some senior mountaineering club members take jobs as adventure leaders. Some senior riding club members are skilled enough to join riding clubs at home or teach riding to youth. And senior canoe members often are so confident in canoeing to lead family or community canoe trips.
Beyond the concrete skills, becoming a senior club member builds leadership skills and confidence that campers most definitely take into their adult lives.
Senior club membership is taken seriously at camp. But becoming an expert in these adventure activities has lifelong benefits!
See campers learning these adventure skills on our Instagram and Facebook pages!