The Next Engineers: Engineering Camp Counselor Experience: A Summer Not to Be Forgotten
By Andres, Oke, Shyam, Sree, Ugonna, Joseph, Siddharth, and Aseem
As camp counselors, we are asked two questions about our experiences, "How does being a camp counselor enable aspiring engineering students to build their knowledge of the engineering design process?" and "How does being a camp counselor enable aspiring engineering students to learn about the application of engineering in the real world?"
To help answer these questions, we must look back on the activities we've done with the campers. Most of the activities during the week were project-based and full of team-building activities, all working to solve a given problem collectively and efficiently. Of all the planned activities, Comfy Cardboard and Hydraulic Arm allowed the campers to work collectively and collaboratively. Sharing different ideas and designing effective prototypes enabled them to be successful in most areas of the projects.
Time seemed to be the only issue when it came to completing the activities, as some of the projects took longer than anticipated for some of the groups. We were able to be flexible with the campers on how much time they were allotted by scheduling activities we could leave off or reschedule. Although it is very difficult to accurately estimate how much time each group would take, all activities besides the Hydraulic Arm went as scheduled.
In the end, it felt great to be able to answer campers' questions on what engineering is like both at a college level and in the real world, allowing us to shape their perspectives and let them to explore. Being able to help them take their next steps in finding out who they want to be and what they want to do in the future made us feel a sense of accomplishment.
For any students thinking about joining the Next Engineers program, be ready to go outside of your comfort zone. Allow yourself to have an open mind and learn by failing—don't worry, you won't fail alone! You will make lasting friendships and learn with others along the way!
