4-H Camp Counselor

The Best Summer Experience You Will Ever Have!

One of the greatest summer opportunities – 4-H camp counselor! A fun, leadership-building experience, for a few days each summer, you take responsibility for the care of someone’s child. Together with adult staff, as a counselor, you help achieve the 4-H camp mission of helping each individual camper achieve a strong self-concept, self-responsibility, and an ability to get along with their peers.

Becoming a volunteer camp counselor offers invaluable skill building, leadership training, and personal enrichment that can’t be found anywhere else. The camp experiences allow you to learn and develop skills that will enhance your marketability for future jobs and opportunities.

Calling all teens! You are encouraged to take on this important role to build your experience and work ethic, as well as to enrich the lives of 4-H members in our state program. As a camp counselor, you become a role model for 4-H youth, as well as for your peers. 

During counselor training, you will learn roles and responsibilities, the camp mission, and goals and expectations. You will also learn appropriate crisis and emergency response, safety, safe touch and safe talk with youth, and mandated reporting. Throughout training and as a counselor, you will build on your communication, decision making, and planning skills.

Each camp program operates uniquely and all offer counselor training opportunities. To become a Counselor in Training (CIT), you need to complete an application, participate in an interview, and fulfill at least 16 hours of training. Each of these steps is building on your skills for the future. Check with your county Extension Office about counseling opportunities in January. Don’t miss out—we know you will have a great experience as a 4-H camp counselor!

Goals for Camp Counselors:

• Develop leadership abilities
• Improve skills in planning
• Learn time management best practices
• Increase knowledge of child development
• Identify health, wellness, and risk management issues
• Become self-directed and career-oriented individuals