Camps provide educational, athletic, or cultural development for children while teaching new skills in a safe and nurturing environment. As a camp director, you'll get to build many wonderful memories for these children by putting their needs ahead of yours during the summer months or during other specialized training camps. In this role, you'll oversee the planning and day-to-day administration of recreation programs that are specifically tailored to the participants' needs. Some of your responsibilities will include designing camp activities, overseeing camp employees and campers, and overseeing budgeting and expenses.
Your main goal will be to provide a fun, safe, and exciting environment for all participants. Another important task that you'll need to fulfill as a camp director is to establish emergency rules and safety procedures for both campers and staff. You'll need to be prepared to handle any issues that arise, including camper behavior issues, parent complaints, and any safety and health-related issues.
To become a camp director, you'll typically need to have a Bachelor's degree in the areas of recreation, youth development, or liberal arts education. Additional training in camp administration is also helpful.
How to Become a Camp Director
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a camp director. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.47 an hour? That's $38,425 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 33,800 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Camp Director Do
There are certain skills that many camp directors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, flexibility and leadership skills.
How To Become a Camp Director
If you're interested in becoming a camp director, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 73.1% of camp directors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 12.1% of camp directors have master's degrees. Even though most camp directors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a camp director. When we researched the most common majors for a camp director, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on camp director resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a camp director. In fact, many camp director jobs require experience in a role such as camp counselor. Meanwhile, many camp directors also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or teacher.
Camp Director Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of director you might progress to a role such as vice president eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title vice president.
Average Salary for a Camp Director
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Camp Directors
1. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
2. SUNY at Binghamton
Vestal, NY • Private
3. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
4. SUNY Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY • Private
5. New York University
New York, NY • Private
6. Duke University
Durham, NC • Private
7. Howard University
Washington, DC • Private
8. SUNY at Albany
Albany, NY • Private
9. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
10. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
Top Skills For a Camp Director
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 15.5% of camp directors listed cpr on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and flexibility are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Camp Director Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Camp Director templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Camp Director resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Camp Director Demographics
Camp Director Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among camp directors, 54.0% of them are women, while 46.0% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among camp directors is White, which makes up 64.1% of all camp directors.
- The most common foreign language among camp directors is Spanish at 62.8%.
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Best States For a Camp Director
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a camp director. The best states for people in this position are California, North Dakota, New York, and Wyoming. Camp directors make the most in California with an average salary of $47,547. Whereas in North Dakota and New York, they would average $43,264 and $42,569, respectively. While camp directors would only make an average of $40,843 in Wyoming, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. California
$47,547
Avg. Salary
2. New York
$42,569
Avg. Salary
3. Wyoming
$40,843
Avg. Salary
How Do Camp Director Rate Their Jobs?
Top Camp Director Employers
Most Common Employers For Camp Director
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Girl Scouts of the USA | $52,835 | $25.40 | 29 |
| 2 | Boys & Girls Clubs of America | $47,031 | $22.61 | 11 |
| 3 | Camp Adventure Child and Youth Services | $41,584 | $19.99 | 8 |
| 4 | iD Tech Camps | $38,655 | $18.58 | 8 |
| 5 | Tucson Country Day School | $38,425 | $18.47 | 33 |
| 6 | Kidventure | $38,425 | $18.47 | 8 |
| 7 | Hockomock Area YMCA | $38,425 | $18.47 | 7 |
| 8 | NJY Camps | $38,425 | $18.47 | 6 |
| 9 | ID TECH Products | $38,425 | $18.47 | 6 |
| 10 | Fairfax Water - Official | $38,114 | $18.32 | 14 |
Camp Director Videos
