How We Train Our Counselors
A huge part of the camp experience each year is our incredible staff. These counselors give up their entire summer to practice servant leadership, investing in relationships with campers as they teach classes, serve meals, and facilitate events.
Their impact on our campers is enormous, and we want them to feel fully prepared to do their jobs well, so we take staff training seriously! We’re sharing many details about our training today, but we’re always happy to share more. Have questions about what we cover or how we set up our staff for success? Just reach out!
Starting Early
Our training process truly begins back in the interview stages where we make sure to clearly explain our expectations for our counselors and who we are as a camp. After they’ve signed their contracts, staff start hearing from us regularly, and we send out monthly Staff Newsletters in the spring chock-full of helpful information, including our Staff Manual, which covers details about leadership, engaging with campers, devotions, Greystone culture, and so much more. All staff also complete Ministry Safe Sexual Abuse Training before they arrive.
Before our full staff Orientation begins, we hold specialized trainings for Group Leaders and Department Heads, making sure they are prepared and equipped for their leadership roles. A large portion of our staff arrives early for Pre-Orientation certification trainings like Lifeguarding, High Adventure certification, and horseback riding. This means that many of our staff receive up to 2 full weeks of training before they welcome campers for the first time!
The Heart
Our Head Staff team puts so much effort and intentionality into each moment of Orientation week for these counselors. We want to delight and inspire during this week, glorifying God together as a staff group so that we understand Greystone’s vision and are ready to put it into action with campers.
We want Orientation to feel like camp, so you can find us enjoying great meals, dancing to Zumba songs between sessions, playing games, and laughing like crazy at our “Evening Programs” each night. We know staff learn by doing and are more engaged the more they are connected with our community.
We also make sure our week is Christ-centered, starting each day together with praise and worship and a devotion from our Orientation-week minister. We encourage staff to pray for all aspects of the summer ahead throughout the week and give them time for quiet reflection with the Lord. Relying on Him fuels all of our work, and we want our staff to go into Opening Day feeling encouraged, inspired, and connected to the One who will give them daily bread in this job.
Our training is also camper-focused. There’s not an hour that goes by during that week that we’re not talking about our campers - how to love them well, how to take care of them, and how to show them Jesus through your actions. Our counselors come for the campers, and by Opening Day, they are so ready to jump into action and build relationships day by day with their new favorite people.
The How
Our Orientation calendar is jam-packed! We have a lot to cover, so we make each moment count, starting broad, and getting very specific and practical by the end of the week. We comply with all ACA (American Camping Association) standards for staff training and go above and beyond to make sure our staff are ready and know how to handle anything that could come their way throughout their time with us.
These are just a few of the topics we train on throughout that week:
- Greystone’s history and mission
- Connecting with campers and how to be a successful counselor
- How to provide a safe environment in the day-to-day of camp
- Appropriate interaction with campers and what appropriate discipline looks like
- Helping campers through hard moments with grace and love
- Bullying and how to identify it
- Risk management and handling any situation that could arise
- Working with other staff in classes and as co-counselors
- Teaching classes to focus on safety, learning, and fun
- Camp policies and procedures
- The Honor Code and our summer theme
- Feedback and communication
- Camp logistics and operations
- All things health at camp
- Working with different age groups
- And so much more!
One of the biggest highlights of our Orientation time is hearing from our guest speakers, experts in these topics who are specifically brought in to provide our staff the best possible coaching. Our guest speakers are already in the works for 2025, but we welcomed these professionals last year for Orientation:
- Katie Nicholson Wynn: a Greystone alumna who founded Dynamik Consulting with a commitment to be the spark in people’s lives towards greater self-awareness and more effective communication. She led our staff through a training on the Enneagram and how they can use it for self-awareness and working effectively with each other.
- Sissy Goff: a licensed counselor who has written many books and co-hosts the Raising Boys and Girls podcast, Sissy filmed a video specifically for our Greystone counselors, training them how to help girls through hard moments with grace and patience.
- Sandi Taylor: a licensed counselor, alumna, camp mom, and our Main Camp Bible teacher, Sandi leads multiple sessions for our staff on child development and helping girls flourish at camp.
- Greystone’s lawyer: our legal counsel (who also happens to be a camp mom!) leads a session for our staff on the do’s and don’ts of working with minors and how to handle tricky topics if they come up.
- Parent Panel: last but certainly not least, our panel of camp parents tops the charts for the favorite part of Orientation week for us and our staff! Counselors love hearing the parent perspective on why they send their girls, what they want from their daughter’s counselor, and what their daughter needs in her camp experience. It’s a tear-jerker!
We think training our staff is one of the most pivotal things we do each summer, and we put a lot of time and effort into making Orientation week better each year. Plans are already in place for our 2025 staff training, and we are counting down the days to get these counselors here so that we can serve our campers well and make this year the best one yet!