By Holly Luttrell | Reporter
The Baylor Office for Career and Professional Development (CPD) held a summer camp job fair to introduce students the multiple local camps hiring for the upcoming summer season.
The job fair took place on Wednesday afternoon in the Barfield Drawing Room in the Student Union Building. According to CPD Career Events and Program Coordinator Haley Davis, this is the first summer camp fair to take place during the fall semester to match up with the recruiting season for local summer camps.
Each summer camp at the fair set up a booth where students could read about the program, speak with camp representatives and learn how to get involved. There were religious, outdoor adventure, ministry-oriented, sports and family camps represented. Students also had the choice to look into all-girl or all-boy programs, as well as long-term or day camps. The job fair gave students the opportunity to explore all of their options at one event.
“There are so many Baylor students who work summer camps,” Davis said. “So, we started researching what other different schools were doing and we realized different schools in Texas have these camp fairs where all the camps come. We realized it’s a great time for students to come all at once and go camp to camp to camp to find out what they may be interested in.”
The turnout for the job fair was positive, with several of the camp representatives speaking to two or three students at once. Several students showed an interest in working for a summer camp, and representatives reciprocated this.
Andy Stem, director of Forest Glen Camps. Forest Glen is a Christian camp and retreat located in Huntsville, said college students are their target demographic for camp leaders.
“College students bring a maturity to camp life that you don’t get in high school students, obviously. Generally, they’re looking for jobs for the summer anyway so the camping environment provides what we feel like is the best opportunity for a job,” Stem said.
Along with job fairs like the summer camp fair, CPD gives students resources to explore potential careers, obtain internships, perfect their resumes and cover letters and apply for jobs. They exist to help students ease through the transition between college and the professional world.
