Many students have fond memories of elementary school science camp, where they participated in activities in the wilderness away from school and their families, as some of their fondest memories from childhood. Many juniors and seniors volunteer a week of their time to serve as science camp counselors for local elementary schools.
Senior Jesse Villahermosa attended Camp Loma Mar in elementary school and decided to go back during his junior year to serve as a counselor, he said. He went to science camp with students from Rose Elementary and two private schools from San Jose.
“The elementary school kids talk a lot, and they’re really stubborn,” Villahermosa said. “If you start off being kind of strict and hard on them, they start to understand that you’re not just playing around, and by the middle of the week it gets way easier.”
Senior Mia Rodriguez was also a science camp counselor last year and remembers the long list of tasks and responsibilities she was given, she said.
“You get them ready for breakfast, activities, lunch after their activities, dinner, and at the end of the day you get them ready for bed,” Rodriguez said.
Villahermosa said his favorite memory from being a counselor at science camp was meeting and spending time with the other counselors.
“During breaks, when we weren’t involved with the kids, the counselors would just sit in a circle on the benches a little further away from camp,” Villahermosa said. “We would just sit there and talk because that would be the main time for us to talk to each other.”
Rodriguez said her favorite memory was with her group of students on the last day of science camp.
“I let them pillow fight each other before bed,” Rodriguez said. “We got caught and ended up getting in trouble, but it’s okay. I enjoyed my time with them.”
The hours spent taking care of others can be rewarding, Villahermosa said. MHS capped the number of community service hours a student can receive for being a counselor at 100 hours in recent years, he added.
“They give you a review sheet so that you understand how well you did, but if your trail group leader thinks that you didn’t do that good of a job, the amount gets reduced,” Villahermosa said.
The application process to be a science camp counselor is also relatively straightforward, making it an easy way for students to earn community service hours.
“You just have to fill out a form to apply to both the school and the website of the camp you want to go to,” Villahermosa said. “There’s paperwork, including shots and updating any other health information or stuff they would have to worry about.”
Although the high school students are responsible for monitoring the younger students during their activities, they are also allowed individual time during the day to complete their independent work for school.
“They’re really limited in terms of using technology. You have to use their computers to complete any work, and most of them are restricted to school-related websites,” Villahermosa said. “I didn’t really have to do my homework because my teachers didn’t assign that much. If you have paper assignments, then you should be fine. You just need to find the time to do it.”