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Libby Frost

Internship Reflection Paper

July 11, 2021

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Introduction

My name is Libby Frost, and I am a senior Public Health major at Georgia College and State

University. I am completing my internship this summer at Camp Aranzazu in Rockport, Texas.

This camp is a facility that serves campers included in various special populations. The staff

consists of a Camp Director, Assistant Camp director, Program Manager, Facilities Manager,

Facilities Director, Finance, Secretary, and Activity Leaders. The meaning of the word

“Aranzazu” is a spiritual place requiring a difficult path to reach. Some of the special populations

that they serve include but are not limited to intellectual/developmental disabilities, kidney

failure, childhood cancer, teens living with cancer, epilepsy, heart failure/disfunction, autism,

children and teens who struggle thriving in social settings, and foster care. Camp Aranzazu held

their first camp in 2006. The land that camp sits on today was donated by a family who bought it

when it was an abandoned church. This family had served for various camps for children with

special needs, so they decided that they wanted their investment to lie in the hands of something

similar. One of my all-time favorite camp traditions is the campfire. Since before the first camp

began in 2006, staff members have sat around the fire and dreamed of what camp could be for

some people. They dreamt of the fears, trials, and triumphs that these special individuals would

overcome here. After every campfire is over, some of the ashes are collected in a jar to represent

the connection that camp has to everyone who comes through the gates. I think it is amazing that

there has not been one campfire that has not had a bit of the last fire in it. Another tradition that

camp has is that everyone that comes to camp gets to paint a tile. This tile is then placed

somewhere around camp whether it be the walls of the dining hall, the walls of the art center or

the sides of the pool; there is a little piece of every camper’s art that will stay with camp forever.

This artwork might be one of my favorite things of camp because each one tells a different story.
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Some of the tiles say things like “fighter”, “brave”, a bible verse and then some are just silly

things such as a slice of pizza or a jellyfish.

Description of Experience

My role in my internship is an Activity Leader. As an activity leader I live on site all through put

the summer and cannot leave the site while camp is in session. As part of my job, I have to create

lesson plans for the area of activities that I am assigned to each week. Within these lesson plans I

am required to write SMART goals and objectives for the activities that week and create a rainy-

day alternative activity in case it starts to rain that day and the original activity is canceled. The

best and most motivating aspect of this job is definitely watching the campers arrive on the first

day of camp and them not wanting to leave their parents/not wanting to be there at all and then

on the last day they are crying when their parents come to pick them up because they do not want

to leave. These campers come to camp and they are not seen as different and are treated like a

normal kid. Many of these campers have never been in the same room with someone that has the

same condition as them and at camp, most if not all of the campers share that in common with

each other. As a lifeguard it is very heartwarming to hear the kids point out their scars to each

other and tell their story. I am very lucky that these kids have given me the opportunity to learn

about them and to see them be warriors and overcome the difficult things that life hands them.

One of the most challenging parts of this internship is the physical labor, however it is all worth

it and for a good cause. I would say the ultimate challenge for me is hearing about these kids

diagnoses and me not being able to do anything about it. I often find myself wondering “why?”

and realizing how unfair it is for them to have to take all of the medications and treatments that

they have to have. I have truly never seen such inspiring kids/people in my life. Even the med

staff that the camps bring with them are warriors in my eyes. These nurses have to sleep so
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lightly at night because the camper’s parents have trusted them with their children’s lives for a

week, and many of them require an abundance of attention during the night, so they are lacking

sleep. I have definitely started worrying less about how tired I am because some of these

campers are tired all of the time, and in reality, I could have things way worse. I still do have a

couple weeks left of my internship left however, I do wish I could be making more and stronger

connections with campers. Because of COVID-19 this year we are not allowed to spend much

time in the camper’s cabins. In the years prior, Activity Leaders would spend about an hour to

two hours in their cabins each night to relieve their counselors. We are not able to do that now,

so we are missing lots of one-on-one time with campers and I really do wish we could

experience that.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

Coming to Camp Aranzazu, I did not even know what to expect/did not have many expectations,

however, I am pleasantly surprised with how organized and friendly the staff is to everyone. The

program team consists of 3 women who are all under the age of 30. I would not expect such

young individuals to be so knowledgeable and helpful. I have some of the greatest bosses I could

imagine having. The program team is extremely open to new ideas and is willing to be flexible if

any other activity leaders want to take an activity in a direction that may not be what it was in the

past. An example of this is when we are lesson planning, we do not have to run plans by them in

order to do them. They give us free reign to plan the activity how we would like. Many of my

fellow Activity Leaders are Recreational Therapy students and they came to camp prepared with

many resources, activities and games to add to lesson plans and leadership has really trusted that

we are capable of facilitating an amazing activity that the campers will enjoy. At some points I

do wish that my supervisors were more present during sessions/available to ask questions to, but
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I do understand that they have office work to do and that if they had it their way, they would be

right alongside us with the campers. I really enjoy that all three of my supervisors have been

activity leaders, so they know what it is like to be in our shoes. My experience could be

improved by the leadership taking more action with other Activity Leaders when things are

brought up to them. For example, at the beginning of summer, many of the staff members had

issues with one activity leader not pulling their part of the team and I know that this was brought

to their attention on multiple occasions, and nothing was ever said to them until one week ago. I

know it is not my place at all to judge how they are managing their staff, but it is very

discouraging when you have to go above and beyond to cover from other people’s slack. I would

absolutely encourage other Public Health students to do this as their internship. I have learned

more about myself as a worker, others, and how I want to be as an employee than I could have

ever imagined. I could for sure see myself doing something in this field for a career. Children are

my passion, and it inspires me even more when they are dealt such a difficult hand at life and

they are overcoming that, and I would love to be able to see that every day.

Internship Preparedness

I felt very prepared for this internship academically. Although, I am not a recreational therapy or

exercise science student like most of my co-workers are, I still feel as if Public Health did a great

job preparing me for it. I felt the most confident working with people who have intellectual and

developmental disabilities and lesson planning for them. I completed my Community Health

Service-Learning hours with The Life enrichment Center, and they are dedicated to serving the

lives of those with developmental and intellectual disabilities, so I felt confident with that. I felt

least confident planning for games and ice breakers. This is not much that we learn in Public

Health, so coming up with different games and activities for them has been a challenge for me. I
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have learned how to take notes and recommendations from my peers as well throughout this

process. As I have said before, learning about SMART goals and objectives has been one of the

main things I have used from my classes at GCSU. I believe I used Methods of Health Promotion

and Program planning and Community Health the most. I have used the skills I learned in Health

Promotion to plan activities and give new ideas for programming. I have used Community

Health because of the different types of special populations we learned about in there. We

learned how to treat and manage peers within special populations, and I have found that very

resourceful to me. I think a class or chapter solely based on lesson planning and program

facilitation would be helpful for Public Health students at GCSU. I learned a lot about the back

side of program planning and promotion, but I feel like I was lacking in knowing how to

properly execute the program (at least at my internship).

Internship Performance

I have absolutely gained skills that I have never thought I would be able to have by becoming a

staff member at Camp Aranzazu. I have become lifeguard certified, learned how to sail, learned

how to do archery, fish, learned about nature, sports and games, and arts and crafts. I have been

very satisfied with my performance with these skills. At the beginning of the summer, I was not

confident in my lifeguarding skills, but I now know that my supervisors prepared me very well

and I feel especially safe at the pool. At sailing I do not feel as confident anymore because I

mainly am only scheduled for sailing as a lifeguard. This is a bummer for me because. I really

love sailing, but after 3 weeks of not being able to sail I do feel like I am less confident in my

ability to do so. I honestly am very proud of myself for overcoming my fears of snakes and self-

confidence issues. I also had a midway check in with one of my supervisors and they said they

had no notes for me to change anything I was doing. They also told me that they thought of me
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as one of the most levelheaded and mature people they had on staff, which is why they schedule

me on some of the more challenging parts of camp. I think I need to work on not getting

frustrated when people do not carry their weight on the team. It is very easy to get frustrated

when I have to pick up the slack, but I just need to recognize that I am responsible for my share

of the work and even if I do have to pick up the slack, it is okay because that means the program

or activity will go over well.

Personal/Professional Insight/Benefits

Overall, I have enjoyed my time here with Camp Aranzazu very much. At the beginning of the

summer I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to do at the end of the summer, but now I am

planning to apply for some jobs at CHOA. I have really realized that I enjoy traveling and

learning new tasks. I enjoy being able to challenge myself and overcoming those challenges. I

was a very insecure person when I came to camp and I believe I will leave feeling very confident

in my ability to interact with people of all ages, professions, and diagnoses. I enjoy program

planning and facilitation so much that I am going to try to apply for jobs in that field. At the

moment I do not plan to go to graduate school yet. I am going to focus on getting a job and

creating the best life I can have and use all of my new skills that I have learned here at camp. I

have gained many insights regarding the populations that I have worked with thus far. I have

learded how to care for someone having a seizure with epilepsy. I have learned that people with

intellectual and developmental disabilities are still people and they want to be talked to as people

and treated as any other adult would be treated. I have learned that kidney disease is something

that does not get enough attention and there are many kids who are struggling right now because

of that, but they are still kids and can do the normal things that all kids do. Next week I am going

to be with a camp with teenagers living with cancer. From what I have learned I know that I
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should be eternally grateful that I get to spend a week with them because some of them have a

terminal diagnosis. Overall, I will never forget this experience and Camp Aranzazu will always

serve as one of the greatest places on Earth. Dreams do come true for all here.