Your primary focus as a mentor is to bond with the children on your team so that you can
positively impact their lives. The Outdoor Odyssey counselors and staff help make this happen by
planning, facilitating, and supervising all activities. Prior outdoor skills may come in handy,
but most mentors have little or no experience with many of the camp activities.
Outdoor Odyssey serves mentors and children from Blair, Cambria, Indiana, Somerset, and
Westmoreland counties. Individuals attending high school or college in these areas are eligible
to serve as mentors.
What to Expect
It all starts with Leadership Academy, a super-charged week of
training and adventure for more than 100 potential mentors from 35 school districts. Held in
early June, Leadership Academy helps prepare you to work with children and gives us an
opportunity to assess your potential as a role model. You'll participate in all of the outdoor
activities that you'll experience-if selected as a mentor-later in the summer with a team of
campers. Executive Director and founder, Major General T.S. Jones, USMC, provides the training
curriculum and hands-on leadership principles for practical application in your daily life. The
training you'll receive this week is second to none and is available to mentors at no charge.
If you are selected as a mentor, you will schedule an additional week to return to camp with two
children from your own community. Following camp, you'll get together with your team at least
twice a month, every month through May. We'll also bring you back to camp for a weekend
refresher in the Fall and Spring.
If you're ready to accept the challenges and rewards of mentoring, contact your guidance
counselor; our Outdoor Odyssey representatives make regular visits to area high schools. If
you're a college student, or your high school does not currently partner with Outdoor Odyssey,
email us at email@outdoorodyssey.org or call today at 814.629.6516.
Additional Opportunities for Committed Mentors
Many mentors find their experience to
be so extraordinary that they choose to make Outdoor Odyssey a larger part of their lives by
keeping their teams throughout their college years, assisting Outdoor Odyssey with teambuilders
throughout the year, or becoming a counselor. Additionally, Outstanding Mentor Scholarship
Awards are given to mentors who most profoundly impact their teams. Other benefits include:
College and Employment Recommendations, Community Service Hours (For Schools That Require
Service), Senior Project, Support for Scholarship Awards, Junior and Senior Counselor Positions,
College Internships, Full Time Staff Positions, AmeriCorps Opportunities, and Pennsylvania
Student Service Awards.
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