Graduation Year:

What City/ State are you from? Colchester, CT

What City/ State to you currently live in? Deep River, CT

Current Career Title: Assistant Director of Incarnation Camp, Director of Pioneer Village, Expedition Leader for Steward School.

Business/ Organization you work for: Incarnation Center

What was your Major? Adventure Education Leadership (now A.B.E.E.)

What was your favorite thing about your time at Unity College? Did you have a favorite tradition? My favorite part about Unity was the access to so many instructors and resources. While I was there I got to go on some insane trips and l learned a ton of skills in and outside of classes. I’ve never found a place with so many people who are passionate about what they do and are happy to share it with you. Not to mention the OAC where I could rent anything I needed.

What advice would you give to current Unity College students? Network, network, network. And try all kinds of things while you’re there! The free programs and clubs are totally worth it and nothing is free in the “real world”.

Where did you complete your internship(s) and what types of experiences did you have? I completed my internship here at camp. It actually helped me move up in the ranks because in order for it to qualify I needed different responsibilities than I’d had in years past. I made stronger connections with leadership and was promoted as a result.  

Is your current job in your field of study, or did you end up going a different direction than you thought? Yes, my current job is in my field of study.

Tell us a little about your current job and what it entails: I am one of three full-time camp staff. During the summer I run the teen program, Pioneer Village, with a team of about 20 staff. We work with 80 co-ed campers and live in platform tents, cook our meals over fire twice daily, and go on several types of five-day wilderness trips. I cover a lot of the administrative work, trip coordinating, and staff management, but hang out with the campers as much as I can. They are from all over the world, but mostly New York City. We want to help them get in touch with nature, learn real skills they can use in daily life, and just enjoy being a kid!

In the off-season, I work on keeping up relationships with existing camp families, recruiting new campers, hiring seasonal staff for all programs (including an international hiring trip!), planning and executing winter events, maintaining our accreditation with the American Camp Association, coordinating Financial Aid, and lots of paperwork, haha. This year we also had the inaugural semester of the Steward School, our semester boarding school, where I was the Expedition Leader. For that program I planned and lead base camping, hiking, and canoeing trips as well as offered Experiential Outdoor Education classes.

Are you happy in your current career? Yes! I love the camping industry.

Did you feel Unity College prepared you for your career?  Yes. I think that having a practical knowledge of so many subjects in the field gave me plenty of options in my field for what is often not considered a “real major” by skeptics.

If you haven’t already, are you considering graduate school down the road? I would definitely consider Grad School eventually, although I think that I will likely be a non-traditional student by the time I do go. Right now I’m putting in the hours at work to build my career.