Proceedings of International Social Sciences and Business Research Conference
4 - 5 December 2014, Hotel Himalaya, Kathmandu, Nepal, ISBN: 978-1-922069-65-8
Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It’s Off to Camp We Go: The
Developmental Impact of Teenage International
Leadership Camp
Patrick G. O’Malley, Leann Mischel, Stephen Wallace, Helene
Mattera, Gus Haracopas, Sarah Apedaile, Inna Kuvich and Judy Fox
Leadership training has shown to be a valuable resource for employers. There is
also evidence for leadership training for youths leading to improved developmental
outcomes. However, little is known about the impact of youth summer camp
experiences with leadership components on broader developmental constructs
important for life-long success.
We sought to assess the impact on multiple domains of development of a 7-week
selective, international leadership program for gifted boys and girls ages 14-16. The
experiential learning programs focus on leadership, diversity, and sensitivity to the
needs of others. Three different groups of students over a three year period (20112013) were asked to answer survey questions administered on the first and last days
of camp. While students are allowed to attend the camp for up to two years, each
year includes mostly new campers.
The developmental constructs of interest on the survey included: understanding of
leadership, expansion of artistic (music, art, drama) and intellectual horizons,
tolerance, sensitivity to the needs of others, trust, goal orientation, generosity, selfconfidence, global awareness, sustained interests, initiative, feedback handling
skills, hopefulness about the world, relationship skills, and values formation. For
each item, there were 3 Likert scales (1-5) addressing the camper’s knowledge,
experience, and confidence in the respective area. Paired t-tests were used to
assess for differences in ratings between the baseline survey and the end-of-camp
survey.
While the outcomes were different over the years, there were consistent and large
improvements in knowledge, experience, and confidence in almost all domains. The
most consistent increase was seen in campers’ artistic confidence and knowledge
(boys more than girls), and confidence in leadership (girls more than boys, largely
due to much lower ratings pre-camp among girls). The study indicates that
experiential learning about leadership, diversity, and sensitivity to the needs of
others resulted in important personal advances in expanding intellectual and artistic
horizons, tolerance, global awareness, self-confidence, sensitivity, relationships, and
development of life-long interests.
This study suggests important self-rated impact of a summer camp leadership
experience on teens at a formative stage of personal development. The elements of
this program that are mediating this effect may help guide the structure of youth
leadership camps. Further analyses are being performed on the data to examine
factors leading to important outcomes and other activities that should be included in
the training to yield significant success in our youth’s future.
Keywords: experiential learning, leadership camp, adolescents, leadership
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Dr. Leann Mischel, Department of Management, Susquehanna University, Pennsylvania,
United States.