Leadership Development
Pasquaney works with boys to develop leadership skills at three broad levels: setting a strong personal example, helping others, and guiding others. For campers of all ages, opportunities to teach and direct others arise organically during activities, duties, and outdoor adventures.
When campers return as fifteen year olds, they can join Pasquaney’s service fraternity, the Sigma Alpha, and thereby take a more active role in helping younger boys and ensuring the camp runs smoothly. During Sigma Alpha meetings, campers and counsellor members come together as equals, working together to support one another and the rest of Pasquaney. Early in the summer, this often takes the form of older boys identifying how best to support younger campers who struggle with issues like making friends, homesickness, or being kind to others. At times, older campers have also provided valuable feedback to the council on ways that they can be stronger educators and mentors.
Older boys can strive for the position of COI, a leadership position with additional responsibilities, in a process that offers rich mentorship and feedback. Advisors are coached to talk with older boys about their interest in developing their ability as leaders, about their strengths and importance to the camp community, and about the skills that they want to strengthen and grow. We recognize and respect that not all boys are interested in leadership, and that often the success of a team hinges not on its leadership, but its followership. Our aim is to meet each boy at his level and help him achieve his goals about the type of person he wants to be.
All sixteen year olds are invited to return to Camp a few days early to think about how they want to lead as a group.“The night before Opening Day, sitting in a semi-circle in front of a fire in Baird Hall,” said Henry Anderson (camper 2010-2014, counsellor 2016-2024), describing his own experience as a sixteen-year-old, “I remember being asked, ‘What do you want to contribute to Pasquaney this summer?’ Ultimately, we talked about how our contribution would be about supporting other people, making younger boys feel welcome, and being a good friend to one another. That moment brought us together as a group and gave us a shared sense of ownership for the success of the summer.”
Camp Pasquaney taught me what it means to be a part of a community and what it means to be a leader and there is always something you can be better at, and I am so grateful for all I have learned and to be able to pass that on outside of this community. I am grateful to Pasquaney because it shaped my character.
A 2023 Camper