By Ginnie Kim
Loud laughter, sore feet and new friends are some of the memories that summer scholars take home with them this year; however, many forget those who organized and kept the chaos manageable.
Behind the scenes, camp counselors are responsible for making the experience of being a BYU student for a week memorable for high school students across the nation.
'I keep telling myself that this camp will change someone's life,' said 18-year-old Nichole Tahonmpson, a student program assistant of the Summer Scholars Academy and other summer camps, about staying motivated during the frustrations of planning these workshops.
Tahonmpson, a native of Las Vegas, Nev., accidentally became involved in BYU camps. After not being hired as an accountant, she came across her position after a someone left the same office where she applied and immediately she took the job. Since then, she's been working on setting up programs such as a women's conference, theatre camps and Summer Scholars.
Heidi Reed, 24, a music performance major, Elizabeth Loe, 24, music education major and Kelli Johnson, 18, choral music education major at Utah State University, all became Summer Scholars counselors from past experience. Their love of youth and seeing them have a good time motivated them to be counselors again. Being previously acquainted other counselors helped them to get along and make their experience smoother. According to Loe, being a counselor is 'fun exhaustion.'
Among the other counselors, the Sackett brothers, Alan and Scott, make the Summer Scholars Academy unforgettable. Twenty-one-year-old Scott just returned from his mission in England. Alan married earlier this year and currently resides in Florida, working at Disney World. His many years with the program brought him to Provo. His goal is to help make others happy through these programs, he said.
'My life was changed by one of these camps,' he said.
The job of being a counselor was not all fun and games. Planning the food, housing, classes, professors and activities was the basis of the job. However, when things don't go as planned, the problem solving skills of the counselors kicked in, counselors said.
Late nights were also hard. Checking up on the teens, coming up with and presenting devotionals and putting everything in order didn't always get them to bed on time.
Even though times can get tough, their love for the youth and seeing them come out of their shells bring them back year after year. Johnson's advice to those who want to become counselors in the future is 'to have your wits about you.'