At Camp Tevya we strive to produce the best leaders that we can. Our Bogrim and Bogrot, the campers that are entering 9th and 10th grade, are given a period a week to further enhance their leadership skills that they will be able to apply to their future, either here at Tevya or wherever their career takes them. The three pillars of the curriculum are communication, collaboration and community building, with activities focusing on a weekly theme such as active listening, and reading beyond the obvious. For each theme, we perform different activities and through a follow up debrief, the campers are able to come to a full understanding of the relevance of the activity and how to apply the skills that they are developing into both their camp and home lives.
This past week we performed an activity to enhance the 10th graders’ communication skills. In teams of three, each camper was a different “body part:” one was the “eyes” and they were only able to see and not speak or move, the second was the “mouth” and they could speak but not see or move, and the third was the “body” and they could move but not see or talk. The goal was for the “eyes” and the “mouth” to guide the “body” to an object by using different communication styles such as movement of eyes, specificity of directions, and actively listening. Through the debrief, the campers were able to reveal the underlying meaning and importance of this activity. They spoke about how everyone infers directions differently and thus they need to adapt to the situation so that all everyone involved with a specific job or goal is on the same page to reach their final goal successfully.
As a fourth year counselor, I have enjoyed being a part of this program and helping our campers learn and gain important leadership skills. I have learned so much at Camp Tevya, and I know our Bog Leadership Training will continue to create our future leaders.
Max Seidman