A counselor at Alpine has two primary roles. First, he is a cabin counselor. That means he lives with a group of 6 to 10 boys (depending on age, the younger the age, the fewer campers) and usually has a co – counselor with him. These two counselors are equal. There are no senior or junior counselors (each cabin area has a Head Counselor who is responsible for the entire age group and lives in a separate cabin).

Cabin counselors are responsible for the well being of their campers and serve as a mom, dad, coach, teacher, friend, etc. to these boys. These are the boys with whom you will build the best relationship. The cabin counselor is responsible for being with his cabin at all times including (but not limited to!) meals, night program, glee club, block periods, morning watch, cabin inspection, rest hour, shower period, and devotionals.

The second responsibility of a counselor (and equally important) is to serve as an activity instructor. During the day the boys in your cabin participate in activities based on a schedule they choose. Each counselor teaches an activity, specializing in the same activity all summer. Each activity has an activity head who is in charge of the activity, and all activity leaders are responsible for running a fun and safe activity each day.

We strongly believe in the value of having all of our counselors here for all sessions for several reasons. First, it allows all of the staff to come in at the same time and go through staff training together. Staff training is a great time of teaching where we bring in some outstanding and talented speakers, but it is also an incredible time of bonding and much comraderie is formed between staff members. By the end of the week many guys who have just met for the first time remark that they feel like they have known each other for years. We want everyone to be here together when we are building this team, and we want them to feel like they are all in this job together, co-equal laborers for the summer.

Secondly, we feel like the whole summer is crucial for the individual growth of each counselor. Like any service work any of us ever do, the servant always gets as much if not more from the service as the one being served. This is definitely the case with counselors at Alpine. It is a huge growth opportunity for staff. We feel like guys could probably do this job for a month or even 6 weeks and walk away a little tired but not really changed or affected dramatically. It is during the course of an entire summer that we have seen the Lord work in all of our hearts and minds and attitudes year in and year out. It is when you are tired or frustrated and feel like you don’t have any more to give that you learn to depend on the strength that only the Lord can give. And it is this tremendous stretching of our faith that allows us to leave here absolutely worn out and at the same time knowing that we will never be the same because of what we learned about ourselves over the course of an entire summer.

All of our new counselors come to camp for the entire length of our summer sessions. Usually staff training starts sometime in the last two weeks of May. Some specialized activities like Horseback, Project Adventure, Climbing, Waterfront, Riflery and Archery (and sometimes others) come in 4 to 7 days early for activity certifications. We have a 9 day Junior Camp session followed by two consecutive terms of 26 days each that usually end around the first week in August. Most counselors find that they have several weeks on either end of their school semesters for traveling and being with family.

Alpine counselors come from all over the place. We welcome applications from schools all over the United States and the world. We have had counselors from Australia, South Africa, Sweden, and several other foreign countries. That being said, the vast majority of our staff come from schools in the Southeast. Mississippi State, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, Virginia, Washington and Lee, Clemson, Furman, Davidson, North Carolina, and Wake Forest usually all draw counselors (in no particular order!) There are too many others to list all of the schools where we have had staff from at one time or another. It is always a blessing to see the Lord raise up a staff each summer and bring them together from all over the map.

Alpine Camp is a privately owned traditional Christian summer camp. We hire Christian young men who have a desire to have fun and take care of campers ages 7 to 16. All counselors must have at least satisfactorily completed their freshman year in college. Many guys have completed more than that when they come for the first time. And many counselors return for multiple summers while they are in college. Probably about a third to maybe half the staff grew up at Alpine as a camper. So usually a majority of the staff are coming to Alpine for the first time, based on the recommendation of a friend or campus minister. Each summer we hire about 75 guys to be counselors.