“Camp is kind of like a sibling”: Summer staff learning experiences during emerging adulthood at a Christian summer camp

This qualitative study focuses on the educative process of Christian summer camp experiences in relation to human becoming. Using ethnographic and arts-based methods, this research explored how summer staff in different roles experience the educative space of a Christian summer camp with varied tensions, expectations, and demands. I focused on staff meaning-making of their educative experiences as the summer unfolded and as they reflected on their employment many years later. I utilized ethnographic methods such as participant observation at camp throughout the summer, “commoning” (Ingold, 2018, p. 4) with staff, and noticing the educative messages the camp and staff community communicated. I interviewed 25 staff during the summer of 2022 as they talked about their in-process learning, six several months after the summer as they continued their camp processing in their everyday lives, and eight many years after their employment, reflecting on their experiences and camp’s effect on their “human becoming” (Ingold, 2018, p. 17) throughout emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000). As an educative space, camp taught staff what to value and how to behave, demanding high energy staff performances despite burnout. Staff framed all of camp life through the lens of deep and meaningful spiritual work that has eternal effects, often calling on God or relying on Him to support and sustain them. They described camp as a “pressure cooker” where their spiritual, emotional, and physical growth, and their relationships were intensified. Alumni staff indicated that camp was a core experience in their own becoming during their emerging adulthood as they figured out who they were and wanted to be. This study expands research on summer camps and Christian summer camps by conceptualizing them as educative spaces, using arts-based ethnographic methods that allowed insights into camp life as it was happening, focusing on diverse staff perspectives (support and counseling staff) that sustain camp labor, and providing insights into the varied navigations emerging adults experience in camp life of rest and labor, gendered messaging, and community.