Guest Post: Lessons From a Former Summer Staff

 

This is a guest post from former summer staff, Jeremy Adcock. Jeremy served as a program coordinator for us in the summer of 2013. In this post he reflects on the lessons that he learnt during that time. These are helpful lessons for all of our staff to learn, and an interesting peak behind the curtain at what it takes to be on staff at YouthWorks! 

 

Last summer I worked with an amazing organization called YouthWorks. I met some incredible people, worked with some amazing youth, and learned a few things from the experience.

 

1) You’re going to have to be creative

 

You’re going to make a space your own for the summer. Be creative with it. The Program Coordinator is, within reason, the one in charge of the Club Room. Make it a space you would like coming to, if you were in the same situation as the students.

 

Or the food won’t be ready when the students start to arrive. If you’re in charge of meal prep, go out and greet the students. Break out UNO or some other quick fun game. In short, be creative with the things in your path. I did it, and I’m not a very spatially creative person.

 

2) Trust your team

 

Your team is there for you, just like you should be for them. If you have a solution to something, respectfully voice it. Emphasis on respect, because you will be working with these people for an entire summer. In the same way, ask your team for help. They will have a different perspective than you will, which means that they might be able to solve a problem that you’ve been wrestling with. Don’t be afraid to lean on each other, because you absolutely cannot do YouthWorks by yourself.

 

 

3) Plan ahead

 

You’re going to want to eat that pasta, not just stare at it as the students arrive. Start the meal a little earlier than you might think is absolutely necessary, just to make sure that the food is ready on time. Plan ahead, because if you get up there and have no idea what you’re going to say, neither the students nor the adults are going to get much out of your talk. Plan ahead. That Club Curve you hear about at RAMP is actually important and helpful, so use it. Don’t get the student’s all jazzed up with a fast song then say “Ok, let’s sit down and read the Word.” They probably won’t respond well. I don’t think I’ve said this enough yet, but plan ahead. Do it. You won’t regret it.

 

4) Roll with it

 

Just because Murphy and his law are quite popular on YW sites doesn’t mean that there isn’t an alternative. Our guitarist didn’t know all the chords for the songs we sang because he had just learned how to play a few weeks before. Rather than let that stop us from praise and worship, we did acapella and let some of the students and Adult Leaders pitch in. The students loved it, because they were able to interact with the praise and worship rather than just standing there. It turned out awesome.

 

5) Disagree with respect and courtesy

 

You’re going to disagree. It’s going to happen. The fact that your team is different from you can be a good thing (see #2) but it can also mean that you’ll not have the same opinion. Don’t just scream and yell at that person for being a dummy dumb head. That didn’t work in high school, and it won’t work here. Instead, think about the differences in beliefs. Find some common ground elsewhere. For example, there was a community member who we saw every week that was an atheist. Did I agree with his religious beliefs? Not at all. Does he need Jesus’ love just as much I do? Definitely. And that was the common ground I was able to find with him.

 

At the end of the day, I hope you are stretched by your experiences. I hope that they make you grow in God, on a social level, and as a person. You’re about to go on one of the most fantastic experiences ever. Enjoy, and don’t forget to be awesome in God!