Eat Teach Blog

So, all this talk about UniCamp. What is it? And what makes it different (read: better) than your typical summer camp?

UniCamp is UCLA’s official charity (<—- not just pulling that out of my butt. It’s been around for over 75 years). We take nearly 1500 children from low-income families out of Los Angeles and up into the mountains. I can get into the nitty-gritty details of how it was developed over time. But I’ll spare you the details and explain why it continues to be successful year after year.

UniCamp offers its campers the typical summer camp experience – they’ve got swimming, recreation, archery, dance, drama, fishing (<– when I started camp, fishing was just a couple sticks, some wire, and a piece of cheese. We’ve upgraded since then). In the past few years, Unicamp has also invested in a ton of mountain bikes, a climbing tower, sailboats, canoes, etc. Clearly, I started camp in the dinosaur age.

But what makes it different – what makes it stand out above and beyond anything else I’ve been involved with – are the outcome-based programs that the volunteers create and implement during the week. With few and limited resources. Whether the focus of a program is on self-development, teamwork, or community – everything has been methodically planned out by the volunteers. Every activity, every debrief, every conversation has the overall outcome in mind.

Think: lesson planning…for camp. As teachers, we have a standard that we hope our students master by the end of the year. We develop lessons, objectives, and goals that allow students to grasp the content and to ultimately achieve mastery of the standard. Similarly, when developing programs for our campers, we are programming backwards. We have the session outcome in mind and branch off that to create our programs. I know you’re probably thinking that it sounds like work. That the kids already spend the entire school year working, collaborating, learning…..and that we should allow them a few weeks of simple, pure FUN…

But that’s the thing about camp. It’s kinda like a ninja. The kids are having fun. They are playing games, singing songs, participating in activities. And then we sneak up on them, when they don’t even expect it, and debrief the GAME in such a way that they learn something valuable. We play games. We have fun. Yet we still manage to walk away from each moment – a little smarter, a little wiser, a little more aware.

The thing I love most about UniCamp – the people you meet through the program (volunteers and campers alike) will remain in your heart forever. The lessons I’ve learned, the memories I’ve made, and the experiences shared are irreplaceable. There’s nothing quite like that Woodsey magic. That feeling of being completely yourself. That feeling of being so emotionally safe – knowing that no matter what shit is happening down the mountain, camp is your escape. But, in some sense, it’s reality. It’s what makes me come alive. I become the ideal version of myself.  Freshman year, I joined this organization thinking that I would be a positive role model for my future campers…that I’d be a mentor, someone they can learn from. Little did I know how much they’d end up teaching me…

In Case You Missed The Previous Recaps: 

The Development of the BEAV

First Year of Training 

Okay, now let me preface this post with explaining the “Freshman Divya.” Prior to freshman year of college, I had no idea what the words “roughing it” meant. I had never been camping and the only overnight trip I had been on was Outdoor Science Camp in 5th grade  (<—-we slept in enclosed cabins with fully functioning toilets and sinks. I barely participated in any of the group activities. And came back with nothing but extremely-chapped lips and an aversion to the outdoors).

So when I set foot onto Camp RiverGlen – UniCamp’s campsite – I wanted to turn and run the other way. It was not at all what I had expected. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting – but it wasn’t this. Not only did we make the 45-minute trek from the bottom of the mountain to some parking lot entrance. But we had to continue from that entrance down a 3-mile unpaved trail to reach our campsite. Those 3-miles took nearly 20 minutes because we couldn’t move faster than 5 mph for fear that our tires would blow.

Right after crossing over the bridge. Everywhere you look – trees, dirt, bugs. This sheltered girl was NOT used to this….

When we got out of the car, a gust of warm wind hit me in the face. There was dirt all around me. I was surrounded by trees and the mosquitos had already taken a liking to my skin. We crossed over the bridge and entered into camp. I saw a recreation area to my left (and by “rec area,” I mean a raised net blocked off by logs) and a big barn-like structure in front of me, which I later found out was the Lodge. To my right was a trail that led to the cabins. We started heading in that direction. I took one look at the cabins and that’s when the fear started to hit – the panic and anxiety that I wouldn’t be able to hack it. They were open-air cabins - meaning they had no doors or windows. Insects and bugs (more specifically, those damn mosquitoes) could come and go as they pleased. Don’t even get me started on the other animals that could easily just crawl into our cabin in the middle of the night (bats? baby bears? MOUNTAIN LIONS?).

My mind was racing with all these crazy thoughts. And it continued to race for the remainder of orientation. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep much that night – I tugged my hood tight, dug deep into my sleeping bag, and prayed that no rat or bug could reach me. But every time my hair brushed across my face, I imagined a bug was crawling on me and I spazzed out, jumped out of bed and repeated this process at least ten times before my body was physically exhausted and passed out.

I managed to get myself through orientation, but for the two weeks leading up to camp, I kept going back and forth about whether I really wanted to put myself through that again. How could they expect me to be responsible for 10 kids when I couldn’t even be responsible for myself? 

I was {this close} to calling up my Head Counselor and telling her I developed some sort of a stomach flu. I had actually dialed 9 of the 10 digits. But then, I quickly hung up – I was scared to bail…I would have felt like the biggest flake ever. So I hung up. And decided to go through with it. And I am so glad I did.