Success at Beyond Akeela

Before Camp Starts

Through our thorough application process and extended conversations with all of our camp families, we do our best to ensure that each camper is set up to thrive in our camp community. Success for Beyond Akeela teens starts with an honest and open dialogue with families and professionals about how the Beyond Akeela team can best support them. We encourage families to reach out and discuss any changes in a camper’s life between enrollment and the start of camp that may affect their time at camp.

We talk to the amazing Beyond Akeela staff members about the importance of previewing changes, schedules, and transitions with our teens. We encourage all families, new and returning, to engage in conversations at home about Beyond Akeela during the months leading up to camp. Going through the Family Handbook, checking out the program details webpage designed for teens, or simply talking about goals for the summer, will spark interesting conversations about a camper’s upcoming experience. We find that these conversations help teens feel more prepared for the new journey they are about to embark on over the summer.

Partnership Over the Summer

Our work with families is not done once teens arrive at camp. We continue our partnership with parents/guardians by providing updates of the successes and challenges each camper is experiencing. Our goal in these conversations is to brainstorm with parents how we can continue to make camp a successful experience and mitigate any challenges for their camper.

Teens can respond to new environments in different ways, and we occasionally determine that camp is no longer the best place for a certain camper. This decision is always a last resort. Before this decision is made, the camper’s parents will be engaged in problem-solving discussions. After all other possibilities are exhausted, a teen may be asked to leave our community. In these very rare cases, we work with parents to make arrangements to help their teen transition home smoothly.

Most importantly, we want all of our campers to leave Beyond Akeela feeling great about themselves and what they’ve accomplished in our community. In cases of early departures, we will make sure that campers recognize the successes they had during their stay at camp – and we hope that parents will be equally committed to emphasizing the positive.