Hiring the 140 staff for the summer is one of the most important responsibilities at Falling Creek. We are very excited about the 2014 crew and we will begin staff orientation next week. One of the highlights of the hiring process this past winter included Jez and Peter Bishop, long-time senior staff members, representing Falling Creek at the annual CCUSA Sydney, Australia Job Fair. Jez will return for his eighth summer as co- head of the paddling program and the “Director of Vibe”, and Peter Bishop, who will be returning for his fifth summer and will serve as both a Tribal Leader and an Assistant Program Director this summer. Here is a note from Pete
“We have a number of international staff each year at Falling Creek, myself, Jez and Lili are just some of the staff that have worked at the greatest camp on earth over the years, but a question I get asked a lot is how did you find Falling Creek?
Well, there are a number of Camp Counselor recruitment companies that operate in numerous countries around the world, with Australia, New Zealand and the UK, being primary markets. CCUSA is one such recruiter, with which Jez and I use every time we travel to Falling Creek. Every year CCUSA promote and offer a cultural experience program, whereby interested participants apply to work at a Summer Camp in the USA. The program is promoted as a cultural experience, as the participants are not primarily interested in earning money for the next college semester over the summer, they are more interested in the experience of working in a different country, working with children and gaining valuable life experience. CCUSA provide the platform for us Internationals to do this, sponsoring us for a J1 Cultural Exchange Visa, which allows us to work at Falling Creek.
So what has this to do with the CCUSA job fair? Well, normally participants fill out their application, have an interview with CCUSA and their application is sent off to camps around the US for consideration. The job fair in Sydney in February allowed Jez and me to meet and interview prospective staff in person for Falling Creek this coming summer. The event lasted for roughly 4 hours, and in that time we had the pleasure of meeting some very talented and motivated individuals, who in our eyes have what is takes to be a Falling Creek staff member! With Goody on call, we successfully assisted in hiring six new international staff for this coming summer, that we may never have had the opportunity to meet! It was both a privilege to represent Falling Creek over here in Australia on the international stage and one of the best experiences for Jez and me to be able to contribute to the upcoming staff roster for 2014! We can’t wait to see them in action!”
Peter and Jez