Since February is the month of “Love”.  I decided to tell you all the things we love about being your summer advisor.

We love meeting you and your children and hearing about what you “love” and want to do this summer.

We love hearing your feedback, even before you choose a sleep away camp.  What was your initial impression of the dvd/brochure?  What type of conversation did you have with the director?  How was  your site visit?

We love introducing you to other families that already have children at the camps you are considering.  Who knows –maybe a lifelong friendship could be in the works.

We love being able to provide you with a free camp fair in order to meet directors and see all the choices of traditional summer camps as well as specialty camps.

We love seeing you temporarily transformed to being a kid again as you get excited to go on that first sleep away camp shopping trip.

We love giving you great tips for visiting day.

We love seeing that smile on your child’s face after the summer, when they recall the memories of the friends they made and the exciting things they did.

We love maintaining the relationship with your family, so we can help you when your camper is ready to move onto a teen program.  You won’t believe the choices – travel, adventure, community service,  language immersion, academic and so much more.

Most of all, we love that we can give our advice for FREE!

What do you “love” about your camp advisor or the process – Please let us know

Which turns into, ” I have to go back- EVERYONE is going back. I will do anything. I know you have to pay for my CIT year.”

Followed by,  ”This is the last year I can go back before I need to start work!”

Summer searches start out innocently by trying to find that perfect summer program for your child. What you may not realize or project is that the summer environment has the potential to have life long influences.

The culture of any summer environment, regardless of its location (camp, on a mountain top or college campus), is dictated by the values and style of the director. It trickles from the top down: from director to staff to support staff to the children. The experience just doesn’t happen. Any program takes months and years to get it right. To massage it and fine tweak it, takes, time, energy, passion and commitment.

I have lived by the values of my camp director. I am privileged to have had wonderful parents with great ethics – he was just a bonus with tremendous impact! He taught us how to communicate with children differently – not through commands, but through reason and discussion. “That towel is making it difficult to walk through the bunk – someone may trip and get hurt.”  As opposed to” Pick up the @#*_ towel! ”  He taught us how to be open to learning and self-growth. He taught us that there are second chances when you own up to mistakes and are humble. He taught us that kindness and positive energy go a lot farther than negativity and being inconsiderate. .  Our motto- Values =choices=consequences.  I could go on, but my point is that the culture and expectations he created for staff, was in turn, created for the children . YOUR children, who take those values home, to school. to college, to work  and to their families.

Take the time to speak with the camp director of the program you are considering. Know what they represent.  Make your own connection and don’t rely on the opinion or hearsay of others.

This March I will travel to celebrate my director’s 70^th birthday. I value his wisdom and friendship, my choice,  is to attend his celebration, and the consequence will be a great time with my camp family.

Ann Kramer Fuchs – A camper at heart, Ann  has been a consultant with Tips on Trips and Camps in Westchester County, NY for the past eleven years. She has been involved in the camping industry for 41 years as a Camp Director, Athletic Director, Wilderness Trip Leader and counselor.

Tips on Trips and Camps host camp fairs, but we are much more than a Camp Fair….It’s only the beginning!  Have you ever been to a camp fair, felt overwhelmed with all the great options, and even more overwhelmed after going through tons of brochures?!

Tips on Trips advisors can help you sort through the options and help guide you to choose the program that is best for your child. We can help you make an educated decision. We give you the tools to make the decision easier!

• GET FREE EXPERT ADVICE-Our knowledgeable advisors have researched the options.
• SAVE TIME-We listen to the child’s needs and interests and guide parents to the best choice.
• RECEIVE WEBSITE LINKS, DVD’s AND BROCHURES- A quick and easy way to access over 600 carefully screened and selected programs.
• LEARN THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROGRAMS- We have much more information than can be found on the internet or in a brochure.
• SELECT THE BEST EXPERIENCE FOR EACH CHILD- Take advantage of our years of experience visiting programs to be assured of making the right decision.

Co-owner Eve Eifler just announced that Ellen Blum will join the Tips on Trips and Camps team this year as an advisor in Boston.  Eifler said, “Ellen Blum comes to us as a camp lover through and through. She has two camp age children and was a camper herself in Maine for many years.  Her enthusiasm is infectious and she cannot wait to help the families of Boston find the highest quality summer programs for their kids.” 

Co-owner Carey Rivers of Washington, D.C. says, “In the last two years, we have added 7 new consultants and expanded our reach into Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Boston, and Barcelona, Spain. We are proud of the service we provide to families all over the United States and abroad.”

Tips on Trips and Camps, Inc. (“Tips”) was started by two moms in Baltimore in 1971 who wanted a better way to research camps and teen programs for their own children. Today, Tips serves families throughout the United States and abroad via the internet and maintains area offices in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New York City and Westchester County, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Southern Florida, Connecticut, St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas, New Jersey, Paris (France) and Barcelona (Spain).

Parents call one of their local Tips consultants or register on the Tips website www.TipsonTripsandCamps.com and get instant, FREE access to hundreds of carefully screened and selected camps and teen programs. Rivers said, “We provide clients with the information they need to make an educated decision on summer programs for their child – from questions for directors, to references to call, to on-site visit reports. We are better than Google!”

With all this success, however, Tips on Trips is a relatively unknown resource to many parents. Eifler agrees, “We are not a big budget operation, but our service is invaluable to the parents who know to use it. Our business is mainly word-of-mouth and we keep our clients happy! Of the hundreds of placements we made to camps and teen programs in 2011, 96% of families rated our matches as EXCELLENT or GOOD. We are happy to bring this excellent client service to Boston!”

Community service programs have risen in popularity, chiefly in response to high school requirements for community service hours. As a teen summer trip advisor, I am often asked, “Will doing a community service project help me get into college?” This is an important question and one that is not easily answered.

No one activity will help get a student into college – not participating in a sport, taking an AP course, or doing community service. The admissions process is a complicated blend of criteria. They are looking for students who have diverse talents. Therefore, any summer experience is, in and of itself, not a vehicle for admission. No summer program is guaranteed to WOW admissions officers. They know that many students simply cannot afford these kinds of trips and it would be unfair to reject a candidate based on economic criteria.

However, while it is not guaranteed admission, in no way does a community service experience detract from a candidate’s profile. More critical is the personal growth that is realized from participating in meaningful community service. Students who participate in cross-cultural expeditions bring a rich understanding of different societies – differences that cannot be comprehended if they never leave their neighborhoods. Often these trips are life-altering experiences in a student’s life. If this is gained, a community service experience can be the stuff that great college essays are made of.

Schools look for students who want to be an active part of building a better community. They are looking for students who are socially responsible and willing to give back. They want students with good interpersonal skills and who care and are sensitive to others. Campuses are an enormous blend of students from around the world – all of whom bring different traditions, beliefs and spectrums of experiences.

Most importantly, students should participate in these programs to find out more about themselves – to explore new or existing interests and challenge themselves to move outside their comfort zone. These experiences offer opportunities that allow a student to begin to question opinions and values in ways that just can’t happen at home. The more you understand about yourself, the more you can understand and begin to accept others.

If you are looking for a return on your “investment” from your teen’s summer experience, a well-organized community service program may just be the best investment you could make. Service may not be an admission ticket to college but it certainly will help develop the importance of community participation. Cooperation, tolerance, determination, and experiencing the unknown are at the core of many summer programs. These are the same traits that ultimately make a person a success in college – and in every day life.

Tips on Trips and Camps is one of the oldest and largest camp advisory services. Established in 1971, “Tips” has advisors in 16 cities, relationships with over 600 sleep away camps and programs, and each year provides advice and guidance to thousands of families. The service is provided by phone, email and the website, which makes it available to anyone virtually anywhere. For more information and advice, to request brochures and DVDs, or to speak to a knowledgeable consultant, visit www.TipsonTripsandCamps.com.

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Jenny Wolkowitz is the Midwest consultant for Tips on Trips and Camps and can be reached at (314) 432-8642 or jenny@TipsonTripsandCamps.com. Wolkowitz is married and the mother of 3 children. In her earlier years, she was a day camper, an overnight camper, a counselor, a teen tour participant and a teen tour leader. She studied abroad in college and has traveled extensively throughout the world. She serves on the boards of Nishmah, Solomon Schechter Day School and the Jewish Light

Hundreds of summer opportunities exist for teens to break from the rigor of the school year and explore a passion. There are programs for language, community service, campus study, adventure/wilderness trips, sports specialties, and the arts, just to name a few. When a parent hears about the option of a sailing expedition, their first reaction is “that kind of money for my teen to live on a boat in the middle of the Caribbean? I don’t think so!” They are surprised to learn that the experience is much more substantive and can have a transformative effect on their burgeoning teen.

Most sailing programs operate in the British Virgin, Leeward and Windward Islands. The weather couldn’t be better – sunny and around 85 degrees each day – with constant cooling winds. But even these most ideal sailing conditions provide a backdrop for intensive learning opportunities. While some kids have experience sailing aboard small boats, most have never been on – much less skippered – a 50 foot boat. With heavy emphasis on instruction, the students become their own independent crew and learn how to handle almost any situation. Of course, there are always 2-3 experienced staff members to guide, instruct, and supervise this new teen crew!

So what is a sailing expedition anyway? It is a small group (usually around 8-10 teens of similar age) living on a boat, sailing from point to point, and usually participating in scuba diving and water sports. It seems like a simplistic formula, but lessons learned on board a boat can be as meaningful as those learned at school. Think leadership, teamwork, problem-solving and decision-making. Check – all there. These skills are put to test every day aboard a sailing adventure, as each participant rotates through a series of onboard jobs each requiring a different skill. The participants are responsible for everything from navigating to cooking to cleaning to maintaining an organized boat. Through rigorous navigation exercises and communal living, teens return home from this experience with new leadership skills, confidence, and the important ability to compromise.

On shore, the groups participate in a variety of activities, including exploring the islands, scuba diving, snorkeling, and other water sports. Some sailing programs offer community service hours gained through ecological projects, such as turtle tagging, maintaining coral reefs, or monitoring coastal areas to prevent erosion. Other programs offer people-to-people service like youth outreach or teaching island children to swim. Some programs specialize in the marine sciences, offering “floating classrooms” that teach scientific specialties in areas such as coral reef evolution or sea life. All of the expeditions offer scuba diving experience for those who wish to receive certification or advanced certification.

Tamar Fernandez, St. Louis mother, said, “My son, Louis, went on more extensive sailing programs each summer for three consecutive years during high school. I couldn’t get him off the computer, until he spent his first summer on a boat. He was hooked!”

Parents might consider whether a fleet experience or a single boat experience would better suit their teen. The fleet option gives the kids a small and large group experience – the small boat experience for sailing, eating, and living and the larger onshore group experience for water sports and social activities. Moreover, some instructors believe that fleet sailing better teaches some skills, like right-of-way rules and racing tactics.

The single boat model allows for an extended period of smaller group bonding. Without the social pressures sometimes found in larger groups, these small groups can liberate teens and allow them to really be themselves. The boats operate as self-sufficient units and, therefore, keep their dive equipment on board. Some instructors believe that this arrangement allows for increased flexibility and spontaneity.

Teens develop leadership as they take their turn as Captain of the day, confidence as they read the maps and knot the lines, and stretch their limits as they negotiate life in confined quarters or learn to dive. Like the more well-known adventure trips on land, these well-run experiential adventure programs at sea put a significant emphasis on personal growth, teamwork, leadership and initiative. Sailing adventures give teens the hard skills that can help them “navigate” through their year-round “land” reality.

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St. Louis “Camp Lady” Jenny Wolkowitz is the Midwest area consultant for Tips on Trips and Camps, the oldest camp referral business in the country. In her earlier years, she was a day camper, an overnight camper, a counselor, a teen tour participant and a teen tour leader. She studied abroad in college and has traveled extensively throughout the world. She serves on the boards of many St. Louis community organizations. She is married and has three wonderfully unique daughters. She can be reached at 314.432.8642 or jenny@TipsonTripaandCamps.com

Typically, the kind of child who would seek out an academic program in the summer is a little more cerebral than most and may not like the idea of sleeping in a bunk or perfecting their outdoor living skills. Parents should know, however, that there are options for kids, outside of traditional camping experiences.

Enrichment programs. For many years, there have been pre-college programs for high school kids, but more recently there has been a rise in enrichment programs for younger kids. Starting in 4th grade, a child could spend 1 – 6 weeks in an enrichment program where they would live at a boarding school or college campus in a dorm room, eat in a community dining hall, take classes of special interest, participate in recreational activities and take part in organized field trips. While there are one-week tech programs right here in St. Louis, you have to travel out of state to find these broad-based academic experiences for grade-school or middle-school age children.

You might think that such cerebral kids might need a break from academics for the summer. However, the program directors will tell you that the type of “academics” the kids are exposed to in an enrichment program is far different: how often does an AP track kid get to take dream interpretation or African drumming? These programs can give kids a break from the pressure cooker of competitive school environments and allow them to find a passion. I observed an improvisation class where kids were totally immersed in their silent acting. Perhaps, for some, a summer program surrounded by like-minded kids might be a welcome change from their year-round environment. I heard the story of a young man getting up in front of hundreds of kids to “perform” a complicated algebra problem at the end-of-session talent show to the delight and applause of his peers.

Kids tend to be over-structured during the year, so these types of program relish in the ordinary, like capture the flag or a game of risk. So often, today, kids do not have the neighborhood peer group to strike up a game of capture the flag or, in some urban areas, they do not have the green space. In this type of residential living, there is always a peer group for a board game or group pick-up game.

Pre-College Programs. For high-school age kids, there tends to be a broad-range of participants, from foreign students who want a taste of American culture to American students who want a taste of college. These programs give high school students the flavor of what it’s like to live on a college campus. In addition to academic study, each program offers SAT Prep (including essay writing), college visits, internship programs, leadership programs, community service options, a range of sports programs, visits to
local attractions, as well as weekend excursions to nearby cities. Most of these programs are offered in large, urban centers with access to multiple universities. The directors of these programs are always looking to provide unusual course offerings. Course studies range from Crime Scene Investigation (made popular by the reality-based CSI programs) to driver’s education, from medicine to acting for the camera. Rest assured, if you are looking for straight-up academics, those courses are there too.

Supervision and Academics. Though this age-group is more mature, they probably need more supervision, not less. Many universities offer coursework for high school aged kids, but only a few programs offer the type of residential supervision that would make the parent of a high schooler feel comfortable to send their child to live on a college campus. The other big piece is academics. Are you looking for a program where your child might take a calculus course for credit from a university professor, or are you looking for a break from the school-year rigor? Some programs have college students or graduate students passionate about their field teach the courses, while others have university professors teach.

When exploring a pre-college program, a parent should consider the following:

Many parents are not aware of enrichment programs as a summer option for their child. If your child wants to go away, but is not interested in a traditional camp experience, this may be the way to go. If your child has outgrown his/her overnight camp experience and is looking for something new, this might be the option for you. If your child has never been away from home before and there is a looming fear of independence, this might be the perfect step into the college waters.

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Jenny Wolkowitz is the Midwest consultant for Tips on Trips and Camps and can be reached at (314) 432-8642 or jenny@TipsonTripsandCamps.com. Wolkowitz is married and the mother of 3 children. In her earlier years, she was a day camper, an overnight camper, a counselor, a teen tour participant and a teen tour leader. She studied abroad in college and has traveled extensively throughout the world. She currently serves as Chairperson for a local day camp and on the boards of many community organizations.