One of the challenges of working at a summer camp is communicating to the outside world what it means to work at a summer camp. When we were young camp counselors, my dear friend Brienne carefully taped this common quote on the inside wall of her cabin: “From the outside looking in, you can never understand it. From the inside looking out, you can never explain it.” Brienne, melancholy with the thought of leaving camp for the year, was probably thinking about returning to college and boring her roommates with camp stories that did not make sense to anyone who wasn’t there. Just as noncamp friends never seem to understand what is special about our summers at camp, many employers and admissions officers do not understand what is so special about a person who has worked at camp. As camp staff seek jobs or educational experiences outside of the camp world, they could be lucky enough to have someone who has been on the “inside looking out” review their application. It is more likely, however, that the person reviewing their application is on the “outside looking in” and needs help understanding why camp has prepared this individual to take on the challenge at hand. It is up to staff to prepare resumes and applications that fully describe all of their skills and traits. It is our duty as camp directors to ensure the letters of recommendation they include with their applications fully help translate their camp skills to the outside world. If you can use a letter of recommendation to endorse a staff member’s hard work at camp and help translate it for someone on the outside to understand, it is one of the greatest services you can give to your staff member. While this article focuses on writing reference letters for staff, consider these techniques for camper references as well, should a camper ever request one for college admissions, an award, or a scholarship application. Next time you are asked to write a recommendation letter for a member of your staff, refer to the following steps to give the staff member the boost that he or she deserves: 1. Gather all of the information you need for the letter. What is the job or educational program? Deadline? To whom should it be addressed? Visit the program or school’s Web site to give your letter context. Avoid using “To Whom It May Concern,” says Janine Fugate, the vice president of marketing and communications at Scholarship America, the nation’s largest nonprofit, private-sector scholarship and educational support organization (J. Fugate, personal communication, March 5, 2013). For scholarship programs, she says, it helps to address the letter to the specific committee. 2. Talk with the person you are recommending. What does he or she think you should highlight? Why does he or she want to be in this particular program or take this particular job? What does he or she identify as some of the biggest things he or she learned at camp? Biggest contributions to the camp program? 3. Make sure you are in a good mood. No one deserves a grumpy recommendation-letter writer. Get your coffee, silence your phone, put on some music. Don’t wait until the last minute because then you will definitely be grumpy. 4. At t he sa me t i me, be honest. In fact, let ters of recommendation are now commonly referred to as “letters of reference” to remove the bias that the letter is entirely positive. It is OK to mention any areas of improvement. 5. Read the person’s staff file. This is to refresh your memory but also to gather specific examples. Jot down a few notes on his or her past positions — highlights and areas of improvement. How has the person grown over time? Progressed? Make note of specific triumphs or challenges. Your hard work on end-of-summer evaluations really pays off here. Bonus: Pull any direct quotes you have in past evaluations from direct supervisors or coworkers. 6. Write your introduction. Keep it simple. You do not need to Google “letter of recommendation examples.” Say the person’s name, state the capacity in which you know that person (his or her job at camp), and then say you give him or her your highest recommendation. Also, be sure to translate the camp job for the reader — here’s an example for a leaders-in-training director: In 2011, Hannah was the codirector of our Leadersin Training program, which served more than ninety high school students throughout the summer. In this capacity, Hannah planned three to four hours of daily curriculum for the campers to help them increase their leadership skills, teamwork abilities, and overall self-confidence. 7. Fill in the body of the letter. You might want to outline it first, but remember you can go back and edit it later. Steps eight through ten outline ideas for rich, meaningful content you can add to your letter. Essay-style is the most conventional, but Fugate says bullet points are OK as long as they are substantive. 8. Assess how the camp job relates to the new opportunity. “What helps me when I’m reading letters of reference is when the letter directly relates to whatever the person is applying for,” says Daniel Remick, the former dean of admissions at the University of Michigan Medical School (D. Remick, personal communication, March 6, 2013). Remick, currently the chair of and a professor of pathology at Boston University, has read thousands of letters of reference throughout his career. “Writing a good letter of reference takes some time,” he says. “You want to CAMPING magazine • November/December 2013 33
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