Have you ever noticed who our kids watch most intently?

These days, it’s not even “real” people they know — their attention is often captured by influencers whose content they consume through a screen.

One might call these “parasocial relationships” — one-sided connections where your child feels they know someone who has zero awareness of them.

At camp, we give children the chance to have a much more powerful type of relationship. Not only do they get to build friendships in person, they get to meet real life mentors who are just a few years ahead on life’s journey.

We call them “near-peer role models.”

The Power of “Just a Few Steps Ahead”

When a 12-year-old looks at their parents (fully formed adults with bills, a job, and an inexplicable interest in lawn care or current mortgage rates), they might love and respect you deeply, but there’s definitely a Grand Canyon-sized gap in relatability.

If a tween or teenager thinks “Mom and Dad just don’t get it”, they’re probably at least partially right. Their world is dramatically different from what we experienced when we were their age.

But a 19 or 20-year-old counselor? That’s a different story.

These young adults, the kind of rockstars we hire at camp, are close enough in age to be relevant and cool, yet far enough ahead to represent something aspirational.

When a counselor says, “I know exactly how that feels,” kids actually believe them. They speak the same language. They get the jokes, the group chat rules, the ever-changing slang.

This is where a near-peer role model is someone who bridges the gap between childhood and adulthood in a way that we fully formed adults from the previous century simply can’t.

Not Just Any 19-Year-Olds

I understand the hesitation some parents feel about camp. Sending your child to live for a couple of weeks with young adults you’ve never met requires tremendous trust. It’s the single biggest hurdle to clear when sending a kid away to camp. We get it.

At Champions, there are some extra things we do to make sure we’re hiring extraordinary young people (not your average college students).

Our counselors are young adults who have:

• Chosen to spend their summer making an impact, even though many had their pick of internships or other summer jobs. But they chose cabins over cubicles and campfires over coffee runs.
• Committed to a zero-alcohol summer when many of their peers are doing… well, quite the opposite
• Completed two full weeks of immersive training (the longest of any camp we know of)
• Passed a rigorous vetting and background check process, and shown us the kind of heart and character we’d want around our own kids

What They’re Really Modeling

Watch our counselors closely during the summer, and you’ll see them modeling precisely the durable skills we talked about a few weeks ago.

Every single second of every single day, they’re “showing off” things like:

• Presence — singing themselves hoarse at a torchlight ceremony because they’re fully engaged in the moment, not half-distracted by notifications
• Digital restraint — it’s not just that campers go without phones for weeks; it’s the people they admire most doing the same
• Creativity — Remember the Progressive Relay from a couple of weeks ago? That’s just one of many examples of a staff member taking an idea from vision to reality
• Resilience — Keeping the energy high on Day 13 of summer heat, still dancing at lunch, still singing at flag raising, still sitting with the camper who needs a friend

When a counselor gets two bunkmates laughing again after a squabble over who won Gaga, they’re not just solving a conflict — they’re showing kids how to lead with empathy.

And when they coax a nervous camper up the climbing wall with a goofy cheer and a high-five at the top, they’re modeling bravery, encouragement, and the joy of trying something new.

The Third Voice

Your child’s counselor isn’t perfect (no role model is), but they’re present, invested, and committed to your child’s growth and happiness. They’re showing up each day ready to demonstrate what it means to be kind, responsible, and joyful - and also shine a light on those existing qualities in your child.

I’m going to write more about this in a few weeks, but for now, the concept of the Third Voice is important here. On a base level, the three voices in a child’s life are:

1st Voice (By a lot): Parents

2nd Voice: Trusted adults like teachers, extended family, grandparents

3rd Voice: Everything else, culture, media, peers

Camp intentionally inserts itself as a positive third voice for all the reasons above.

In a world where kids are increasingly influenced by people they’ll never meet, there’s profound value in spending time with young adults who know their name, celebrate their successes, and help them believe that they can be spectacular.

That’s the power of the near-peer role model, and it might just be the most meaningful part of camp.

Happy Friday,

Erec Sir