Bring activities to life.
Lead games, projects, challenges, specialty activities, and transitions with enough energy and preparation to keep campers engaged.
Summer Camp · Seasonal Youth Leadership
Summer Camp Counselor
Lead. Encourage. Make Camp Awesome.
Help create the kind of summer kids remember. Lead activities, keep campers safe, build confidence, and bring the energy that turns a busy camp day into an incredible experience.
Age16+
Hours20-40 / week
TypeSeasonal / Temporary
ScheduleVariable · Monday-Friday
LocationRansomville, NY
Be the person campers remember.
A great camp counselor changes the whole day.
Campers remember the counselors who knew their names, helped them try something new, made them laugh, noticed when they were having a hard time, and made them feel like they belonged.
At Autumn's Gate, counselors help lead an active farm-based camp filled with games, projects, outdoor experiences, horses, animals, special activities, and a lot of moving pieces. Your job is to help make all of that feel safe, organized, welcoming, and genuinely fun for the kids in your care.
We want people who can bring energy without losing judgment, lead without becoming controlling, and have fun while still understanding that camper supervision and wellbeing always come first.
Your mission
Keep campers safe, engaged, and excited to come back tomorrow.
Know where your campers are.
Actively supervise, reinforce rules, recognize unsafe behavior, and respond quickly when a child or situation needs more attention.
Help every camper belong.
Build rapport, encourage participation, handle conflict with maturity, and help shy, nervous, frustrated, or homesick campers find their place.
What you'll own
Your responsibilities may include:
- Leading and actively supervising groups of campers, generally ranging from early elementary through young teens.
- Leading specific activities, projects, games, challenges, or specialty experiences based on your skills and the camp schedule.
- Helping organize activities, materials, equipment, transitions, meals, gathering times, and other daily camp routines.
- Ensuring campers use safe behavior and follow Autumn's Gate Barn Rules around horses, farm animals, equipment, and program areas.
- Monitoring camper behavior, participation, mood, inclusion, and general wellbeing throughout the day.
- Building rapport and camaraderie with your campers, fellow counselors, instructors, activity leaders, and camp leadership.
- Helping children work through homesickness, frustration, nervousness, disagreements, disappointment, or difficulty joining an activity.
- Managing minor camper conflict calmly and involving camp leadership when a situation requires additional support or intervention.
- Giving clear instructions and maintaining group control without losing the fun, encouragement, or respect that makes camp feel special.
- Adjusting an activity when weather, group energy, camper needs, timing, equipment, or another part of the day changes the original plan.
- Supporting horseback riding, horsemanship, farm-animal, nature, craft, STEM, athletic, and other activities within your training and assigned responsibilities.
- Helping with setup, cleanup, supplies, sanitation, organization, and the less-glamorous work required to keep camp running well.
- Following camp supervision standards, emergency procedures, health and safety expectations, and directions from camp leadership.
- Communicating promptly when you notice a safety concern, injury, behavioral issue, camper disclosure, missing camper, animal concern, or other situation leadership needs to know about.
- Maintaining a positive, upbeat, and engaged presence even during long, hot, rainy, muddy, busy, or challenging camp days.
- Helping make sure every camper has the opportunity to leave with a positive Autumn's Gate camp experience.
Experience & readiness
We care more about the person than the perfect camp résumé.
Previous camp experience is useful, but it is not the only way to prove you can be great with kids. Babysitting, coaching, teaching, theater, sports, clubs, volunteering, youth programs, horse experience, creative hobbies, and leadership responsibilities can all matter.
Important for this role
- You are at least 16 years old.
- You genuinely enjoy working with, mentoring, and encouraging kids.
- You can bring a fun, energetic, customer-service-focused attitude to camp.
- You can work as part of a team and help create real camaraderie.
- You have reliable transportation and strong time-management habits.
- You can stay active outdoors and participate in a physically busy camp day.
- You can follow safety expectations, take direction, and ask for help when a situation is beyond your responsibility.
Great experience to bring
- Camp counseling, childcare, babysitting, coaching, teaching, recreation, or other youth experience.
- Specialty skills such as crafts, athletics, music, theater, STEM, nature, games, outdoor skills, or another activity you can share with campers.
- Experience riding, handling horses, or working with farm animals.
- CPR, First Aid, lifeguarding, coaching, childcare, or other relevant certifications.
- Leadership experience in school, clubs, teams, volunteering, employment, or community programs.
Before you apply
We're hiring the person, not just the résumé.
Life is pretty awesome.
Camp moves fast. Plans change. Kids have big feelings. Weather happens. Somebody spills something. The strongest counselors can stay useful, positive, responsible, and coachable when the day stops being perfect.
Skills can be taught. Experience can be built. The right person can grow with us.
- You understand that being fun and being responsible are not opposites.
- You want to be a role model, not just another person standing near the kids.
- You notice when a camper is left out, overwhelmed, nervous, or needs additional support.
- You can take feedback without turning it into drama.
- You help your teammates instead of waiting for someone to assign every small task.
- You bring energy without sacrificing camper safety or good judgment.
- You take pride in making the experience better for campers, families, and your fellow staff members.
- You want to help kids build confidence, empowerment, responsibility, and a sense of accomplishment.
Is this you?
The work should feel right on both sides.
You may love this role if...
- You naturally connect with kids and enjoy helping them try things they were unsure they could do.
- You like leading games, projects, challenges, or activities rather than watching from the side.
- You can be silly when the moment calls for it and serious when safety requires it.
- You are comfortable spending the day outside, moving, helping, and switching between different responsibilities.
- You enjoy being part of a close team where everyone contributes.
- You have a hobby, specialty, sport, creative skill, or interest you would be excited to share with campers.
This may not be the role for you if...
- You mainly want a summer paycheck and are not especially interested in working with children.
- You prefer a job where you can sit back and wait to be told what to do next.
- You struggle to stay patient when kids are loud, emotional, distracted, or need instructions repeated.
- You are uncomfortable enforcing rules or bringing safety concerns to a supervisor.
- You do not want to help with cleanup, transitions, supplies, setup, or other behind-the-scenes camp work.
- You have difficulty receiving coaching or adjusting when the day's plan changes.
Where this can lead
Camp can be the start of something bigger.
Strong counselors can grow as they demonstrate leadership, judgment, creativity, reliability, child-development awareness, and the ability to make programs better for both campers and teammates.
Camp Leadership
Grow into greater responsibility for camper groups, counselor support, activity coordination, and daily camp operations.
Activity Specialist
Develop ownership of crafts, sports, STEM, nature, games, performing arts, or another specialty area you can bring to camp.
Youth Programming
Build experience that can lead into clubs, events, after-school programs, camp development, and other youth-focused opportunities.
Autumn's Gate Growth
Exceptional team members may find opportunities across other Autumn's Gate programs as their skills, availability, and interests develop.
The application process
Simple, conversational, and human.
Review the role
Make sure the camper-supervision, activity, schedule, teamwork, outdoor, and safety expectations sound right for you.
Submit the application
Tell us about your experience, availability, interests, special skills, education, and why you want to work with campers.
Interview with Bit
Bit reviews your submitted application and conducts a tailored initial interview based on your experience and answers.
Human review
Qualified applications and Bit's interview summary move to the appropriate Autumn's Gate camp leader.
Apply for the position
Ready to help make camp awesome?
Complete the Summer Camp Counselor application here. Once it is submitted successfully, you will continue to the Bit interview page. Bit will use what you shared in the application to personalize the initial interview, so you should not need to repeat information unnecessarily.
Bit helps organize and evaluate the initial conversation. Qualified applicants are then sent to the appropriate Autumn's Gate camp leader for human review. Bit does not make the final hiring decision.