About Me
As previously mentioned, my name is Logan Dechter, and I am a Psychology and Spanish major in the University of Maryland's Honors Humanities program. I have been a camp counselor at Camp Sonshine for the past two summers and will be returning to Camp Sonshine in June for my third summer as a counselor and my fifteenth summer overall.
I started attending Camp Sonshine as a camper when I was four years old and have been going back ever since. There is something so special about summer camp, especially Camp Sonshine, that makes it hard to go just once and never return. Throughout my years at Camp Sonshine, I progressed through the ranks, becoming a volunteer Leader in Training when I was thirteen years old and eventually becoming a counselor for the first time when I was seventeen. When I was eighteen, I went with Camp Sonshine International to the Dominican Republic, where we brought the typical Camp Sonshine experience to children's schools and churches in the poverty-stricken town of Oviedo, Dominican Republic.
As a counselor, I work in the Wilderness Adventure Speciality Camp (WASC), which combines traditional camp activities (archery, go-karts, canoeing, and climbing) with a special focus on nature and the outdoors. WASC is a smaller program within Camp Sonshine as a whole, which allows children to have more open spaces and fewer restrictions, so they can just be kids. In my first two summers as a counselor, I worked with third and fourth grade boys, and this upcoming summer, I plan to move up into the next age group (fifth and sixth grade) with many of my original boys, who I have grown to love so much over the past two summers.
All of this experience as a camp counselor helped me to discover early on that I want to work with children for the rest of my life. Although I would love to work at a summer camp as a full-time job, summer only takes up a little over two months of the year. I figure the next best thing to camp counseling is school counseling, which I intend to pursue as a career (after completing Graduate School, of course).
Overall, I am a very social person and my hobbies are usually whatever the hobbies of my friends are because I can't stand to be without them. Even though I love socializing, I also know when to buckle down and work hard on whatever is in front of me, as I intend to do with this blog. I have been wanting to create a blog for such a long time, and I am very excited to begin blogging about my number one passion: working with children.
I thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I enjoy writing it!
***If you are interested in checking out Camp Sonshine, you can do so at www.CampSonshine.org and if you would like more information on Camp Sonshine International, you can go to www.CampSonshineInternational.org.***
I started attending Camp Sonshine as a camper when I was four years old and have been going back ever since. There is something so special about summer camp, especially Camp Sonshine, that makes it hard to go just once and never return. Throughout my years at Camp Sonshine, I progressed through the ranks, becoming a volunteer Leader in Training when I was thirteen years old and eventually becoming a counselor for the first time when I was seventeen. When I was eighteen, I went with Camp Sonshine International to the Dominican Republic, where we brought the typical Camp Sonshine experience to children's schools and churches in the poverty-stricken town of Oviedo, Dominican Republic.
As a counselor, I work in the Wilderness Adventure Speciality Camp (WASC), which combines traditional camp activities (archery, go-karts, canoeing, and climbing) with a special focus on nature and the outdoors. WASC is a smaller program within Camp Sonshine as a whole, which allows children to have more open spaces and fewer restrictions, so they can just be kids. In my first two summers as a counselor, I worked with third and fourth grade boys, and this upcoming summer, I plan to move up into the next age group (fifth and sixth grade) with many of my original boys, who I have grown to love so much over the past two summers.
All of this experience as a camp counselor helped me to discover early on that I want to work with children for the rest of my life. Although I would love to work at a summer camp as a full-time job, summer only takes up a little over two months of the year. I figure the next best thing to camp counseling is school counseling, which I intend to pursue as a career (after completing Graduate School, of course).
Overall, I am a very social person and my hobbies are usually whatever the hobbies of my friends are because I can't stand to be without them. Even though I love socializing, I also know when to buckle down and work hard on whatever is in front of me, as I intend to do with this blog. I have been wanting to create a blog for such a long time, and I am very excited to begin blogging about my number one passion: working with children.
I thank you so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy this blog as much as I enjoy writing it!
***If you are interested in checking out Camp Sonshine, you can do so at www.CampSonshine.org and if you would like more information on Camp Sonshine International, you can go to www.CampSonshineInternational.org.***
About This Blog
This blog serves as my three-semster cumulative Keystone project for my Honors Humanities program at the University of Maryland. The Keystone project is an individualized, self-paced, and self-led project in which each student pursues something they are passionate about. The project as a whole helps students develop research skills and creativity, and it helps students shape their own ideas and present them in ways that they choose. In a large sense, the Keystone helps students discover who they are and what they are passionate about, which are central ideas to Honors Humanities students.
Throughout this blog, I will combine social, behavioral, and developmental psychological research with my own personal experiences as well as the experiences of others in the field in order to discover how I can become a better camp counselor. Along the way, I hope to share what I have learned with others interested in camp counseling or working with children in general in order to help them to potentially discover and develop a passion for working with children, just as I have.
***If you are interested in learning more about the Honors Humanities program at the University of Maryland, go to HonorsHumanities.UMD.edu.
Throughout this blog, I will combine social, behavioral, and developmental psychological research with my own personal experiences as well as the experiences of others in the field in order to discover how I can become a better camp counselor. Along the way, I hope to share what I have learned with others interested in camp counseling or working with children in general in order to help them to potentially discover and develop a passion for working with children, just as I have.
***If you are interested in learning more about the Honors Humanities program at the University of Maryland, go to HonorsHumanities.UMD.edu.