Unicamp

In July, I worked as a volunteer counselor for UCLA’s official charity Unicamp. Altogether, it was an incredible experience. The campers were amazing, and all the counselors bonded tremendously over the course of the week. Unicamp works primarily with intercity Los Angeles kids. My position at Unicamp, along with my co-counselors Bliss and Barefoot, was the Alpine Tower specialist. This meant that we trained the campers to climb the tower as well as the rock wall. We also belayed them as they climbed the tower. It was a great work out. I had legs of steel after that week at camp!

It was also an incredibly rewarding experience. In general, through working with these kids and learning about their hopes and dreams, although the experience could sometimes be stressful and overwhelming, I feel that we all learned a lot about ourselves as well.

Being the Alpine specialist was also rewarding in and of itself. With every group of kids we worked with some were scared, some excited, and some had given up before they even started. But even some those that were completely doubtful that they could even make it part way, were actually able to make it to the top. Cheering them on and seeing how proud they were for challenging themselves basically stuck a smile on my face for the entire day. Even those that didn’t make it to the top still pushed themselves and tried extremely hard, and that is the entire point of the activity. It meant for a really scared kid to even attempt the tower than it did for a brave, strong kid to easily clamber up to the top, although both were impressive!

At camp we talk a lot about highs and lows, both to help our campers through any problems they may have, but also to check in with other counselors and ensure our emotional well-being. I didn’t have very lows this week, except for occasionally being tired or in a bad mood, but my high was definitely all of Friday. We were already coming off of the high of our super awesome talent show the night before, in which all of us specialists put painted handprints on our faces and did a very special Jai Ho dance that our very own Bandersnatch, the dance specialist.

Friday actually seemed at first like it was going to be a low. We were assigned two additional Alpine Tower rotations added to the four we already had. Now I wouldn’t complain, but belaying became pretty exhausting at times. But in fact, the day turned out to be amazing! After our fourth rotation, I decided to climb the tower. It was so cool! It’s totally psychological, because it was not so difficult this time around, even though I had struggled during training. I was so happy when I got to the top. The view was beautiful, and the breeze felt really nice.

After that, I was just really excited and happy for the rest of the day and had a big smile on my face . That night was the dance, and I think the counselors had more fun than the campers, who of course at that age are more likely than not shy and awkward about these things. Well, the counselors danced crazily at least and did our job shining our flashlights and making sure all the kids were making room for the Woodsey Spirit. After the dance, we had counselor/specialist campfire and stuffed our faces with junk food as usual. I will just always remember, at some point I had one hand filled with Cheetos and oreos and the other filled with Chips Ahoy and reaching into a bag for something else.