How To Become A Summer Camp Counselor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a summer camp counselor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

The most critical of all Camp Counselor tasks is to keep campers safe at all times. You'll be in charge of tracking their actions and making sure they don't get distracted or injured. A Summer Camp Counselor's tasks include organizing summer camp activities, teaching children and adolescents, and setting up camp.

The summer camp counselor acts as a role model, companion, instructor, and guide for our campers. Each counselor is in charge of a cabin community, and they live, eat, laugh, encourage, and plan events for them.

They work hard to foster partnerships, organize special cabin events, and is responsible for their campers' spiritual care, protection, and well-being. A Camp Counselor must be dependable and capable of establishing healthy relationships with youngsters.

It will help if you are familiar with outdoor sports such as camping, canoeing, and caving. Employers can provide you a pay rise if you're patient, enthusiastic, and firm when necessary. Usually, you can expect your salary to be around $58,000 a year as a Summer Camp counselor.

ScoreSummer Camp CounselorUS Average

Salary

2.0

Avg. Salary $25,617

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.1

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

10.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.67%

Asian 4.99%

Black or African American 13.73%

Hispanic or Latino 14.47%

Unknown 5.56%

White 60.59%

Gender

female 58.79%

male 41.21%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

9.1

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.9

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a summer camp counselor

Explore summer camp counselor education requirements

Most common summer camp counselor degrees

Bachelor's

63.1 %

High School Diploma

17.7 %

Associate

11.9 %

Start to develop specific summer camp counselor skills

Skills	Percentages
Child Care	21.73%
Kids	21.56%
CPR	12.14%
Customer Service	9.63%
Work Ethic	8.07%

Complete relevant summer camp counselor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New summer camp counselors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a summer camp counselor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real summer camp counselor resumes.

Gain additional summer camp counselor certifications

Summer camp counselor certifications can show employers you have a baseline of knowledge expected for the position. Certifications can also make you a more competitive candidate. Even if employers don't require a specific summer camp counselor certification, having one may help you stand out relative to other applicants.

The most common certifications for summer camp counselors include First Aid, CPR and AED Instructor and OSHA Safety Certificate .

More About Certifications

Research summer camp counselor duties and responsibilities

Lead kids through daily activities and encourage their creativity
Create activities for children k-5.
Create PowerPoint games to enhance social skills.
Assist after school children pre-k through 5th grade with homework or school projects.

Prepare your summer camp counselor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your summer camp counselor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a summer camp counselor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable summer camp counselor resume templates

Build a professional summer camp counselor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your summer camp counselor resume.