Mid-October Update: It's College Application Time

It is almost the end of October…which means college application season is in full swing.

Over the years, we have received dozens upon dozens of Common App submitted essays sharing the triumphs, travails and transformations that have occurred at camp. Perhaps it was seeing every color imaginable during a sunrise from the top of a first 14er or discovering a deeper sense of self when surrounded by a supportive, non-judgmental community or realizing that thunderstorms, horses and lightning position can bring out the best in your 13 year old self or discovering the power of a space that appreciates individuals who come from so many different places, ideologies, identities and values and that builds vibrant, functional and always fun micro- and macro-communities within it every single summer.

This time of year, we all write a lot of recommendation letters: for college admittance; for grad school; for jobs; for internships; for scholarships, grants and fellowships like the Fulbright, Rhodes Scholarship, and Rotary Peace awards and for the equally important sophomore National Honor Society applications and babysitting jobs. Regardless of the request, we take the responsibility very seriously.

For some of our campers, especially those who have been coming to camp since they were Sanborn Junior campers, they have spent almost 9 full months at camp. This is equivalent to 279 days…and almost 6700 hours with us. In the state of Colorado, students are required to have 1080 instructional hours during every school year–usually equating to around 160 days of in person learning. For a high school student, that means they spend roughly 160 hours with each teacher…and all of the rest of the students in that class. In each year beyond elementary school, students have many different teachers, mentors and coaches with a variety of interactions and time with each.

While reflecting on the intensity of the days at camp, we realized that our JCs and Outbackers–the oldest campers in our programs–most likely experience the same 160 hours with their counselors in the first 10 days to two weeks of their time in Colorado. Multiply that by years and one realizes we know campers in a far deeper way than this year’s ninth grade Biology teacher (and we also really love biology!). We have seen our campers move across developmental stages in their lives: from more egocentric young elementary students to socially growing middle school students to community minded leaders as older campers to the selfless, approachable staff mentors they admired as campers and now seek to become themselves. But it doesn’t only happen for kids who have been here for years…it happens for everyone who spends a summer with us.

Our camp parents appreciate receiving letters from counselors during the summer about their campers because our staff members have the opportunity to truly see and know their children in a unique and special way. At camp, their children share the character of who they are and who they are becoming outside of their family of origin and home environment. Counselors are always excited to share the character growth and new strength discovery they have seen in “their” campers over the two weeks or a month. Many, if not all, keep these letters long beyond the summer as they reflect back to them the work they have done raising incredible humans…and because it feels so good to know someone else appreciates your kid as much as you do.

When we magnify and multiply these learnings and lessons over multiple summers, suddenly you have a much broader group of adults who have witnessed and experienced growth in your children across their lifetimes. We, like you, get to watch your kids grow up, struggle, overcome challenges, try again, have missteps, make amends, laugh, cry and begin to define their future trajectories.

We are humbled to be able to watch your kids grow during the summer but also to watch them grow up over the years. We are so excited to follow their future trajectories and to see how they continue to learn and grow. We will keep writing these letters, often quoting the words of the counselors who knew them best, while synthesizing those incredible character traits that make them remarkable, rare and completely themselves. And even though they may not get into the “stretch” school or into their first choice or even decide to go to college at all, they will have grown through the process and should be proud of their efforts.

So, don’t sweat the small stuff and celebrate the accomplishments. You have great kids…and we bet you still have the letters that prove it.