This has been a big transition year for the Cunningham family. Our oldest daughter, Sibyl, went off to Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. Did we do the right things to help her survive and hopefully even thrive at college? She has been doing her own laundry for a while and was quite proud to tell me she had to show someone how to fold pants! I know that academics are a priority, but would she be able to make friends, fit in, and feel comfortable away from home?

It turns out, having her attend summer camp at Kingsley Pines was the best thing we could do to help her adjust to her first year at college.

College, I have since been informed, “is like camp but longer and with home work!” Sibyl can’t stress enough how much camp helped her become the person she is today (here I thought it was my great parenting skills!). “Because of camp I have an easier time making friends and I know that I can work with a lot of different people. I’m willing to take risks. I’m more outgoing. Camp taught me to be myself no matter how afraid I might be that others might not like that person. When I came to college I felt like I could open up to people better, laugh and crack jokes, and just be myself. I know that if I hadn’t learned to do that at camp I wouldn’t have the kind of friends I have now at college that I can talk and connect with.”

I wondered if attending Kingsley Pines helped other former campers with their first year of college. I contacted several of them to see how their camp experience had impacted their success with college and this is what I discovered.

Meghan Summerson attended Kingsley Pines for five years and is a freshman at Holy Cross. Meghan told me “I probably had a little bit of an easier time adjusting to college because I had already been away from home whereas most of my new college friends had never experienced being away from home for an extended amount of time. At camp, I had learned how to make friends, change my own sheets, pick meals for myself, rely on my own instincts, and be more independent.”

“I owe the fact that my dorm room is not a chaotic war zone to my experience at camp! Kingsley Pines taught me to take care of myself and my belongings at a young age,” contributes Matt Bailey a college mate of Meghan’s. “Camp also taught me to deal with independence and to use freedom proactively. Instead of using free time to sit and watch TV, I find myself participating in intramurals, community service and other activities (along with hundreds of hours studying.)”

Not only did camp make Lauren Clapp’s transition to college easier, but she thinks it helped her get into the college of her choice. “All through my senior year in high school, I kept being reminded that activities and interests outside of school are increasingly more important factors on a college application. Hardly any of my friends in high school were able to include the experiences I had as a camper and junior counselor.” Lauren is a first year student at Elon College.

Julie Croll at McGill University wrote back "surprisingly the transition to college was easy as the ice breakers familiar from years of making new friends on the first day of camp gave me the confidence I needed to remember we were all in the same boat getting to know each other and becoming familiar with our new college environment. A lot of my friends that didn’t attend camp were unsure of how to interact with those who they hadn’t gone to school with for years. They didn’t know the tricks I had learned at Kingsley Pines to make friends. I know homesickness depends on the person, but getting use to being away from home made it much easier to adjust to the hectic lifestyle of a student."

“Simply being placed in a camp environment where you’re constantly meeting and getting to know new people, while engaging in a myriad of new, different and sometimes challenging activities is in itself great preparation for college,” replied Trevy Wing a freshman at Dartmouth. “The counselors are also inspiring people who expose you to positive new activities that may well become your passion. I originally didn’t want to go to camp, but my father persuaded me to try it out. I wouldn’t be the same person today had I not gone to camp, I emerged a much more confident, socially aware, open and friendly person."

Nikki Ioannilli at Salve Regina University learned to sail at camp and is on her college sailing team. “I know how to respect my older college teammates as mentors from my camp experiences with counselors who were my mentors in sailing and in the cabin. The sailing team also sees me as a leader from the skills I learned at camp mentoring to younger campers.”

“Camp provided me with a safe place to learn from taking risks”, said Jill Escobar, who is a freshman at American University in Washington, DC. “Kingsley Pines gave me the confidence I needed to throw myself into this brand new place called college that I didn’t really feel comfortable in yet. I could take risks and therefore take advantage of the opportunities I found around me. I am eager to try new things, in part, because I was so successful with finding new activities I loved as a camper. Camp prepares you for life in this unique way that I don’t think any other experience can.”

If you are the parent of a first time camper, take comfort as you say good-bye to your child on opening day at camp. You are making one of the best parenting decisions of your life. Attending summer camp will help your child discover themselves and give them the skills they need to be successful in college and as an adult.