Why American summer camps want more New Zealand counsellors

It's not what you think

Every winter, hundreds of American summer camps sit down before the season starts and ask the same question: who is actually going to run the waterfront, the ropes course, or the cabin full of eight year olds this year.

More often than you'd think, the answer they're hoping for is a New Zealander.

If you've been putting off applying because you're not sure you're "camp material," it's worth knowing that camps aren't doing you a favour by considering you.

They're short on good people, and they've been looking to New Zealand to help fix that for a long time.

The timing works in your favour

American high school and university students are still in class when camp season kicks off in June.

New Zealand's winter runs from June to August, which means Kiwi counsellors are free at exactly the moment US camps need staff the most.

It's one of the simplest reasons camps look overseas every season, and it has nothing to do with how impressive your CV is.

Camps have a genuine staffing gap

American camping bodies have talked openly for years about domestic staffing not keeping pace with demand, and camps leaning on international counsellors to close the gap. That's not a line dreamed up to make you feel better about applying. It's the reason the J1 Exchange Visitor Visa exists at all, a formal, government-recognised pathway built so a camp counsellor NZ applicant can legally work at a summer camp in America for a season.

New Zealanders already have a lot of what camps are chasing

A good chunk of camps are after specific skills: sailing, waterskiing, climbing, horse riding, coaching, music, outdoor education. Plenty of young New Zealanders pick up two or three of these growing up without ever thinking of them as "qualifications." That puts a lot of Kiwi applicants ahead of the pack before they've even had their interview.

Lois Ann, who worked a season through the programme, put it simply: "I had such a great summer at AmeriCamp working as a councillor. The team are amazing and always happy to help. The process was so easy and straight forward, everything was explained well and I couldn't recommend a company enough."

Getting picked still comes down to the interview

None of this means placement is automatic, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. Every applicant still goes through the AmeriCamp Interview, a relaxed 20-minute conversation rather than a test, and camps still choose who they want on their team for the season.

What the demand does mean is that you're not walking in as an afterthought. Camps genuinely need reliable, capable people, and if you can hold a conversation, turn up on time, and bring a skill or two to the table, you're already closer than you think.

James Bell, who went through AmeriCamp, said: "I had the absolute best summer of my life going through AmeriCamp and the friendly and incredible staff made it so easy. I would 100% recommend."

What this means for your winter

Standard counsellors are guaranteed a minimum of $2,250 USD for the season, with premium counsellors on specialist skills guaranteed a minimum of $2,350 USD, and food and accommodation sorted by the camp either way. Background checks can take up to ten weeks to clear, and the J1 visa is processed first-come, first-served, so applying early matters more than polishing every line of your application.

A summer camp in America isn't a favour camps are doing New Zealanders.

It's a working holiday USA option that pays properly, and one that a genuine number of camps are actively trying to fill with people exactly like you.

AmeriCamp NZ is run out of Auckland by the NZ AmeriCamp team - International Working Holidays. We're backed by over 24 years of placing New Zealanders at summer camps across the USA. The application is free to start and our NZ team is with you every step of the way.

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