Teamwork and Communication

By Nikki Reiff, Outdoor Center Program Director

Greetings from me, Nikki, Camp Mason’s new Outdoor Center Program Director!

One year ago I drove up to Camp Mason for the first time. I was fresh out of Rutgers and couldn’t have predicted that I would find my passion here—that I would fall in love with everything that Camp Mason has to offer, that this place would become home.

Neither a degree in ecology and natural resources, nor New York City ‘street smarts’ could prepare me for what I would learn in the following year at Camp Mason.

I learned how to belay…
I learned how to tie a double figure eight knot on a bite…
I learned how to use the learning cycle to engage children in their surroundings…
I learned how to teach an hour long astronomy hike, indoors in the rain…
I learned how to use field initiatives to evaluate a groups’ dynamics…
I learned that a simple word of encouragement can go a long way…
I learned that the sounds of cicadas were far more comforting than those of a busy road…
I learned how to push past my comfort zone…
I learned never to wear nice clothes at a campfire…
I learned to ask questions even if I was self-conscious…
I learned that the smell of the woods never gets old…
I learned that the smell of bear cans gets old really, really fast…
I learned how to work with people that I am not friends with…
I learned how to work with people that I love…
I learned how to love the people that I work with…
I learned the difference between rules and guidelines…
I learned to appreciate the diversity and background that every single person; staff, student, camper, chaperone, visitor that’s passed through here…
I learned that life is all about the interactions we have—with each other and our environment…

I still have not learned the summer camp hand stomp.

One year later, all this experience and camp wisdom has taught me what I think to be the key to being a successful outdoor center program director here at Mason; teamwork and communication.