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!)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

-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.

-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.

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.