DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

Don’t phone it in.

After our group’s second week of running summer camps, we were pros. We could throw together activities the night before camp with impunity and swap out computer lessons for plays about the jungle community on the fly. Our confidence soared at our ability to teach anything from music and rhythm to math exercises to dance routines.

Unfortunately for me, this translated into “phoning it in.” Our group of 7 Duke Engagers fell into a routine every day: eat breakfast, hop on the bus, teach five activities with some breaks for snack, and head back to the hotel to prepare for the next day. This rigid schedule was interrupted only by trips to ruins on the weekends. Even our choice of where to go for dinner every night started normalizing: Mondays, Mom’s Place; Tuesdays, Chinese food; and so on.

The routine itself wasn’t bad, but my enthusiasm waned as we got too comfortable with running the summer camps. I knew the activities too well and wouldn’t engage the students enough while teaching them about these activities.

I then realized that I had to break the monotony. I was robbing these students of a genuine camp experience by not investing myself enough. When I realized that I was phoning it in, I changed my goal for camp. I focused on talking to individual students and learning about their lives. Thus, I would start an arts and crafts activity, but then go sit down next to each student and ask them about themselves.

This worked really well. I noticed myself getting closer to the students and more interested in their lives and their troubles. At the end of the week it was much harder to say bye to these students. I’m glad I learned this lesson here in Belize, as it can apply to all relationships I form. The summer camps were dry for me without the touch of personal interaction and discussion, but a quick adjustment of attitude changed that.

Every student shows up to the first day of summer camp with an abundance of curiosity. The first day of St. Andrew’s Duke Engage Summer Camp was no exception. As a first-time camp leader, I also had my fair share of curiosity. Our group of Duke students arrived at the school to set up for camp at 8am, and students had already gathered outside the gate to the school. Apparently the students were extremely curious about their week; camp started at 9.

I soon realized another reason why many of the students waited outside the school an hour early: they were not signed up and wanted a spot at camp. The dilemma? We had already signed up an overburdening 55 students for 50 spot (we limited the camp size because of narrow supplies). Our waiting list soon grew to 20. Luckily, many students no-showed, but had to make difficult decisions all the same. Turning five of the students away the first day and then five again the second day was a depressing and frustrating experience. Many of the students either did not understand or pretended to not understand and only stared at us as we told them to leave. They then simply tried to impose themselves on the camp by following our groups around for the next two hours. Finally, a stern lecture from the school’s principal sent them home. Some of those students had come to camp only for the free lunch meal we provided.

At the end of the first day I stood outside a classroom in my sweat-drenched shirt and beamed in triumph at how my lesson plan had gone. My hands were covered with chalk and my feet with dirt. Before that day I feared that the students would not care to learn about their government or practice public speaking. They had come to camp to paint and color and sing in between scoring football goals. To my surprise, they embraced the government and civics activity I’d drawn up in one night, running up to the podium to pound their fists and shout out the speech I prepared. Some even added their own convincing campaign slogans. If I was successful, those students left the classroom with a little more knowledge about how their government functions. I wish someone had told me about those things when I was in elementary school.