CCUSA (Camp Counselors USA)

...USA with an organisation called CCUSA which stands for Camp Counselors USA. CCUSA was established 16 years ago and is now a US government supported initiative. It is best described as an agency which sets up young people from all over the world with work and travel opportunities. CCUSA have a website at www.ccusa.com which gives lots of information about all their programmes. They do programmes not only to the USA, but also to Australia, New Zealand ...
...I chose to apply to CCUSA was firstly, because they pay a better wage than the other two companies, and secondly, a friend went to the USA with them and recommended them.

To work on a summer camp in the USA, you have to apply through one of these agencies, as they sort out your J-1 visa, insurance and all other arrangements.

A J-1 visa only permits you to work on a summer camp, but allows you to stay in the USA for ... more

Last summer was probably the best of my life so far. I spent 3 months in rural Southern California, living on a ranch, riding horses and going to the beach. I was also able to visit New York City, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas and Tijuana in Mexico. (There was also a bit of hard work involved!)

Not bad for a skint student from Birmingham, and an experience I will remember all my life.

I travelled to the USA with an organisation called CCUSA which stands for Camp Counselors USA. CCUSA was established 16 years ago and is now a US government supported initiative. It is best described as an agency which sets up young people from all over the world with work and travel opportunities. CCUSA have a website at www.ccusa.com which gives lots of information about all their programmes. They do programmes not only to the USA, but also to Australia, New Zealand and also Croatia and Russia. If you want to find out more about those programmes, you can check the website and order information packs. The programme I took part in was Camp Counselors USA.

There are a number of agencies which place young people in summer camps in the USA, the others being Camp America, probably the best known one, and BUNAC. The reason I chose to apply to CCUSA was firstly, because they pay a better wage than the other two companies, and secondly, a friend went to the USA with them and recommended them.

To work on a summer camp in the USA, you have to apply through one of these agencies, as they sort out your J-1 visa, insurance and all other arrangements.

A J-1 visa only permits you to work on a summer camp, but allows you to stay in the USA for several months after camp finishes so you can travel independently.

** Costs involved in applying to CCUSA

You do have to pay some money, but I found all of the money I paid out was returned with extra on top when I received my wages at the end of the summer.

In total you will pay £299 to CCUSA which includes your application fee, insurance, and return flights to the USA. The cost also includes one nights accommodation and breakfast in New York upon arrival in the USA. I also got a lovely free CCUSA T shirt and an international phone card with a few dollars on it.

All people requiring a visa unfortunately now need to go to the American Embassy in London for an interview (which is a formality and nothing to worry about) which will require further costs depending on where you live, and a visa fee of approximately £63. You also need to complete a medical examination, which cost me £20 with the university doctor, but other doctors may charge much more. You also need a complete police check, which costs between £10 and £20, however if you have a valid police check from recent work you can use the same one.

So in total you are looking at paying out around £400. The wages you get are called "pocket money" by CCUSA which gives you the impression that they are not much, which is true. You don't go and work on a summer camp in the hope of getting rich. If you want to earn money in your summer, go and work for an agency here in the UK. If you want to travel and have an amazing time, do what I did. You won't get rich financially, but I am sure you will gain more than any amount of money could give you.

The "pocket money" paid by CCUSA (which you receive at the end of your contract) varies depending on your age. For 9 weeks work, an 18 year old will earn $650, this goes up if you are older or have certain qualifications such as a lifeguard certificate.

The standard period of work on a summer camp is 9 weeks, but I worked for 11 weeks (including one week of training). I made about $1000. Remember, all your food and accommodation is taken care of while on camp so you can use all of that money to travel after camp if you want.

** Applying **

Applications for this summer have now closed. It is a good idea to apply as early as possible, as the process can be time consuming. I applied in February 2003.

The first step is to fill in an application pack which you can download from the website or have sent to your house. You also have to write an autobiographical essay which sounds daunting but is really just a way for camp directors to find out more about you. I just wrote about my interests, my work with children and where I had travelled to.

Then you have to have an "interview" with a local representative. It is called an interview but it is nothing to be nervous of. The representative will be someone who took part in the scheme previously and the interview basically consists of going through your application and asking you a few weird questions. I was a bit gazumped at some of the questions, eg..
-tell me about when you have experienced racism and what did you do?
-tell me about when you have made a laborious task fun and how you did it.

At the end of my "interview" (which took place in my university canteen!) I was told: "have a great summer", and then it was just a matter of waiting. It can take a long time to be formally accepted, as they check your references (you need to provide two written references) and sort out a date for your visa interview.

Once you are accepted, CCUSA send you a pack in the post full of information about what to do next and preparing for the summer. You still have to wait to be placed on a camp. You might be lucky and get placed early but I only knew where I was going a week before I flew out. You can't specify which state you want to go to, but you can ask to be placed with friends if you apply together. Personally, I don't see the point of going with a friend, surely the idea is to be independent and make new friends, but some people want to go together, so that is possible.

My next contact with CCUSA was my visa interview at the American Embassy. This took place in May and it was a bit of a palaver having to travel down there. This is a US requirement since 9/11 and CCUSA make it as easy as possible. We met in a group by the embassy and all went in together. A CCUSA leader type person showed us all the way and answered any questions we had.

I stayed in contact with CCUSA over the phone in the weeks leading up to the summer. They were very helpful and friendly in answering all my questions.

Once I was placed on a camp, I was told everything about my departure date and a meeting point at Heathrow Airport. CCUSA look after their participants and realise that for many, this is a scary thing to be doing and may be the first time they have worked abroad. They really make it easy for you. Everyone who works for them has previously worked on summer camps in the USA so they know exactly what it feels like and they are both professional and approachable.

In New York we were met by a bus and spent the night in halls of residence at Columbia University. The next morning we had ahuge breakfast, an orientation meeting and were then sent on our merry ways, to all corners of the USA. From that moment on, I was alone. Apart from getting lost on the New York subway and asking a rather nice policeman for help (the American ones seem to look a lot sexier than the English ones I must say!), and surviving American Airlines "food", I managed to make it to Southern California in one piece. It may have taken 2 coach trips, 3 flights, a subway and a long car drive, but I arrived at Rawhide Ranch alive, although exhausted and jet lagged.

I was one of 7 CCUSA participants on that camp, among a staff of about 40. Staff came from all over the world, including South Korea, Australia, the Czech Republic, the UK and the USA.

Once on camp you are mostly looked after by people on camp. However, CCUSA are always available to help you with a 24 hour helpline you can call if you need to. Towards the end of the summer we were visited by a CCUSA representative to see how we were getting on and to receive feedback about the camp.

I don't have any major complaints about CCUSA, I thought they were excellent and I was considering going to the USA with them again but decided against it as I want to travel to different countries. The only negative things I can say about CCUSA are:

-On the application form you are asked about your dietary requirements. I am a vegetarian and stated that on the form, yet was sent to a camp that did not cater for vegetarians. I ate bread and salad most of the time, or bought my own food, which was a bit annoying, but I coped.

-Another English girl came to the camp with CCUSA and chose to leave and go home. In that instance they are not very helpful and leave you to sort out your own travel arrangements. In CCUSA's defence, if you read all the small notes they provide you with, they do tell you all of that before you go. So if you choose to go, stick it out or it could prove to be very expensive.

-While CCUSA arrange for you to get TO your camp, they only provide you with a flight from New York to get back to England. That is fine if you are working on a camp in New York State, but I was 2000 miles away on the opposite coast. I had to pay for a flight to get from Las Vegas to New York City, which in fairness only cost me £100 (bargain). This didn't bother me that much, as I felt very lucky to have been placed in California as apparently that is where all applicants want to go, and it sure beat some girl scout camp in the middle of Wisconsin with nothing going on.

-I know I said you don't do CCUSA for the money. But the money *is* poor, especially when you compare your wages to what the American camp staff are earning (more than double). I don't see any way around this, but the poor pay may put less well off people from applying.

Just one point- don't apply to work with CCUSA if you are afraid of hard work and don't like children. It sounds obvious but some people just see working on a summer camp as a quick way to travel to the USA. It IS a lot of fun, but you also have to work 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, being responsible for children which is very tough. I also had to clean up goats shit and nurse crying children, so it is not all fun and games, but it is very rewarding. To be able to experience a different culture really improved me.

There is so much I have not said about my time at camp, I will write another opinion as this one is just about the role of CCUSA.

I have uploaded some photographs of my time on camp so you can see me, some of the great kids I worked with, and some of the animals! They say never work with kids or animals but I did both and survived.

I had an amazing time and managed to do so many things, such as travel, have fun with children, I was deputy editor of the camp newspaper, made lots of friends, and learnt a lot about myself. I would not recommend summer camp work to everyone, but if you do want to do it, I would recommend going with CCUSA. In fact, I would love to go back and work for them again in the future.
 

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