| Serving as a summer camp counselor is a common experience for
many college students, yet for three recreation and leisure
studies majors in UGA’s College of Education the experience
was anything but ordinary.
As participants in UGA’s first study abroad program
to Russia, John Paul McNeal of Marietta, Ashley Jackson of
Crawfordville, and Jenna Sutheimer of Chamblee, served as
English language and culture counselors at two Russian youth
camps this summer. They attended a class developed by Gwynn
Powell, an assistant professor of recreation and leisure
studies in the College of Education’s department of
counseling and human development services.
The UGA students and their professor left for the Republic
of Mari-El in Russia in mid-June and spent the next five
weeks working with Russian children at either Camp Forest
Fairytale or Camp Cooperator. The students also assisted
Russian camp directors in developing experiences that the
camps provided their campers.
“With the fall of communism, the Pioneer Youth Camp
structure in the former Soviet Union was displaced. There
was rapid conversion of state-run summer camps to private
and corporate ownership,” said Powell. “The summer
camps have continued to operate, but at varying levels of
quality and with a challenge to find a new purpose and program
focus.”
Powell collaborated with Camp Counselor USA (CCUSA) and
Camp Counselor Russia (CCRussia) to create UGA’s study
abroad opportunity to address the problems with Russia’s
summer camps. She received an International Development Education
Award (IDEAS) grant from UGA’s Office of the Vice President
for Public Service and Outreach to help run the pilot program.
CCRussia has placed Americans in Russian recreational youth
camps for 12 years, but sought a higher education partner
to deepen the quality of technical assistance for their camps
and increased learning experience for the student counselors.
Participants do not need Russian language fluency but must
desire to learn more about the language and culture and assist
in teaching English as a second language. The partnership
with CCUSA allowed the study abroad participants to access
group rates for airfare, a guided tour of Moscow and support
from the education ministry of Russia.
Powell has worked with CCUSA since 1989 as a summer camp
professional hosting international counselors in U.S. camps
and collaborated with the CCRussia program coordinator through
projects with the American Camp Association (ACA) and the
International Camp Fellowship (ICF).
The Pioneer Youth camps were formerly used as Soviet propaganda
tool to educate the country’s youth, a testament to
the power associated with a camp experience. The current
opportunity is multilayered with benefits associated at the
administrative level, UGA participant level and the youth
participants. The program provided UGA faculty with unique
training opportunities to work with Russian camp administrators
and to learn about the struggles of entrepreneurial organizations
within a newly formed government structure.
Building the New Learning Environment
The new learning environment is an academic and intellectual
community on the campus of the University of Georgia humming
with the vibrancy of the true college experience—bright
and talented students working with brilliant faculty formally
in the classroom and informally over a cup of coffee or lounging
in the greenspace which stretches from one end of campus to
the other. It is a place which recognizes that new information
technologies are transforming traditional academic disciplines
and embraces those opportunities. |
Gwynn
Powell, an assistant professor of recreation and leisure studies
in UGA’s department of counseling and human development services
in the College of Education leads students in a game she calls “Pioneer
Ball.”
