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Shelby: Let’s start off talking about your camp story. How did you get started going to camp?
Julia: I started going to camp when my 4th grade class went on an overnight trip. So my first summer was the summer after 4th grade. All my friends had actually gone the year before, but my parents didn’t tell me they were all there. They really wanted me to wait until I did the overnight in 4th grade.
Then I went the next summer, so I started as a Brave. I remember crying at drop-off, I didn’t want to leave my parents. Then after one night I was like: I’m never leaving this place!
S: The typical Brave experience, right?
J: Yes, exactly! I remember crying the first night and my counselor giving me a note my parents had left for me just in case I started crying. It really comforted me, made me feel so much better, and then I completely forgot I was away from my parents after that.
I went every summer that I possibly could after that, and then I was a CILT (Camper in Leadership Training).
S: Tell me more about that experience, as a CILT. That’s a cool program that not everyone goes through.
J: For me, I knew I really wanted to be a counselor. So I was excited to shadow counselors and see what that looked like, and learn tangible skills that I could use as a counselor myself. But I also learned a lot of transferable skills that I could use in my high school job and life in general.
S: From there, you were on Day Camp staff for two years right?
J: Yes.
S: Tell me more about that
J: It was lovely, I mean it was my first real job. I had taught swim lessons and done other small high school jobs here and there, but that really felt like the first time where there was like, a lot of responsibility on me! Like kids’ lives were in my hands!
I’m trying to think of the best way to describe it. We had so much fun and I loved those kids so much. I was so lucky to be with the younger kids.
S: Yeah what age group did you mainly work with?
J: They floated me around, as they did for everyone, but mostly the 5 and 6 year olds. I just wanted to give them the camp experience I had because I knew how impactful it was for me. I was actually living with Pathfinders then so it was like both ends of the spectrum. I originally didn’t think I would want that, but it was so fun to have such a different experience. I could connect with the 15-year-olds in a really meaningful way while also working with the little kids and being silly and blowing bubbles and doing all of those things.
S: I love it. So tell me about your college experience, you went to Miami of Ohio, right? How did camp kind of transfer over in that area?
J: Yes, I loved Miami. I ended up triple majoring in Spanish, Journalism, and Media and Culture. I really think that Camp prepared me for college because it taught me how to be myself, and being comfortable in who I am. It also taught me how to make friends FAST. I would go with friends, but some summers I’d stay for a second week alone. It was scary at first, but I learned how to make friends and, you know, just be a sociable person.
It’s hard to specifically say what camp taught me because, to me, camp is my whole childhood. It’s everything! I can’t even be specific.
S: It’s the foundation of so many things, without it you can only imagine how different life could have been.
J: I can’t! You know, I lost my dad when I was 12. That was after my second summer at camp. My dad wanted me to go to camp so bad. He was like “This is gonna be so great for you.” Obviously home was tough at the time. My mom and my brother and I were (and are still) grieving. Camp became my escape from that. Nothing seemed normal at that time, but camp could be normal. I couldn’t forget about that, but I could just be a kid.
It was consistent too. School was a constant, and camp was a constant. I mean I would count down the days until it was time to go to camp. Camp just really helped me get through.
S: I’m so glad camp could do that for you. So you go through camp, you go to Miami, graduate. And then where did that kind of land you? Because you’re in New York now?
J: Yes, but I didn’t immediately go to New York. So one summer in college I ended up working on a Dude Ranch in Colorado and it was the best. And I really think I got that job because of my experience at camp.
S: What do you do on a Dude Ranch? Is that what you said? Tell me more about that!
J: It’s like a vacation spot for families. There’s horseback riding, paddle boarding, and cooking. It’s like an all inclusive situation in Colorado. I worked in the kids program, so I took what I had learned at Camp T and led kids in activities throughout the day, taught them how to ride horses, it was so much fun.
I knew I wanted to work in Journalism or Media/Entertainment of some sort, but decided to go back to the Ranch for like two years because it was not the time to move to New York with Covid and everything.
(Eventually) I was ready to move to New York and ended up getting an internship at the View with ABC News. I was so humbled because I was 2 years out of college and taking an internship.
S: Ok but also it was at the View… like how cool is that?
J: Yeah it was cool and actually a Miami alum connected me to that opportunity. So anyway I moved to New York and started my internship. I was there for less than a year and became a production assistant. But I was ready for something new and so I did the same thing and another Miami Alum helped me!
S: Look at those alumni connections!
J: Seriously, it’s crazy. And so she was working for the Today Show, specifically with books and publishing. So we hopped on a call and I just wanted to learn from her. At the end of our call she was like, one of the talent, Jenna Bush Hager, is looking for an assistant. Is this something you’d be interested in? So she passed along my resume and after like 6 interviews, I got the job!
S:Oh my gosh, that’s awesome.
J: So yeah I left the View and went to the Today Show and NBC News and was Jenna’s assistant for 3 years!
S: What did that role look like?
J: Yeah, so basically anything Jenna did, I did too. She had so many things going on: the Today Show, Read with Jenna (her book club), a production company, etc. We used to joke that she saw me more than her husband and kids because she is like the busiest person I know.
She started the publishing company while I was her assistant, and so I was there helping her, and it got to be so much. So then this summer I got promoted to running her publishing imprint.
S: That is amazing, congrats! What does this new role look like?
J: I’m kind of still creating the role and figuring it out as I go. So we (Thousand Voices) are partnered with Random House publishing group and we publish across their imprints. I coordinate the Jenna side of things with the publisher. So I’m reading books that we get submitted from agents. I’m reading multiple books a week deciding if we think we should publish them. I’m helping with the marketing and publicity of all of our titles, going on book tours, like really doing all the things.
S: You’re juggling every single position and every single thing at once.
J: Yeah, I’m trying my best but it has just been so fun.
S: Have you seen the skills that you learned at camp showing up in a job like this?
J: Totally. I mean, I think camp really gave me people skills, which is what I use the most. I’m in the office 4 days a week talking with all kinds of people and different personalities and I think camp taught me how to interact with all people. It gave me leadership skills to figure out tough situations, or how to lead by example. Jenna was also a camp counselor and went to camp growing up, so we definitely bonded over that and saw the value and qualities that you need to be a good camp counselor.
Like I was saying, camp was really the foundation. It’s so hard to say specifically, because everything about camp made everything happen. No matter what job I would have ended up in, I know camp would have contributed in every way. And I’m so thankful for that.
S: I totally get it. Any last words or advice you would give to someone thinking about working at camp?
J: Um, do it. Some of my very fondest memories are from Camp Tecumseh. Camp got me through a lot of darkness and brought so much light into my life. I get emotional when I talk about it because it saved me in so many ways. I would say counselors were the biggest part of that when I was a kid, and I hope I gave just a little bit of that back to those kids when I was a counselor myself. It will change your life but it will also change others’ lives, and what more could you want?
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