Name: Stephanie Hippo Years as camper: 8? Years as staff: 1 Positions: Counselor 2010 I fell in love with Sequanota my very first summer at camp as a day camper. Growing up, going to camp became an annual event that I fiercely looked forward to. The excitement only increased as I became old enough to be a mini camper, then a cabin camper, and then even an adventure camper (easily my best year at camp). I can still tell you the name of my counselors over the years (Lisa, Ang, Molly, Doris, and Kristine), and I can still tell you the names of several of my cabin mates, as we’ve remained friends over the years. Though I only spent a week every summer there, Sequanota always felt like home. Sometime in junior high, I stopped attending camp due to athletic demands during the summer. I had to be home for regular cross-country or basketball practices, which didn’t leave much time for camp. Finally, during the summer after my junior year of high school, I made an effort to return to camp as part of CREW. It was all the time I needed to remind myself why I loved Sequanota so much. The following year, I applied to be a counselor at Sequanota. Sure enough, in the summer of 2010, I graduated high school and started at Camp Sequanota as a counselor. Instead of joining the team at Sequanota, I could have taken an opportunity to apply for an internship in Texas or returned to a job as a ride operator at a local amusement park that gave me minimal hours making less than minimum wage to do nothing but press a button and listen to merry-go-round music until I lost my sanity. Sequanota was the logical choice: I figured camp would be a good adventure before I started college in the fall, there was almost a 0% chance of merry-go-round music, and while the pay wasn’t great at camp either, I’d still make more per week than at the amusement park. Plus, there’s no better way to save up money than to be in the woods where you can’t spend it. Little did I know, it would turn out to be the best career decision I made that year. Over those 3 months at camp, I met dozens of new people, ate loads of ice cream, hiked a bunch of creeks, captured a lot of flags, burned plenty of s’mores, made a lot fires, sang a lot of songs, hugged a lot of Janines (ok, just the one, but I did it a lot of times), screwed up a lot of crafts, muddied a lot of clothes, laughed until my abs hurt more than a P90X workout, learned to belay, kicked a couple cans, shoveled a ton of woodchips, zipped a lot of lines, stayed up late too many nights, and went on one adventure after another. I could go on, but in short- it was the greatest summer I ever spent at camp, and I’ll never forget it. It truly is the people that make the camp, and Sequanota always delivers on bringing people that bond together so flawlessly. Every counselor there left a smile on my face, and I’m always happy to reunite with them. Since then, Sequanota has been the gift that keeps on giving. After camp ended for that summer, I began my studies at Case Western Reserve University, an engineering school in Cleveland, where I would be studying biomedical engineering. College was fantastic, and I really felt like I was where I belonged, similar to the feeling I get anytime I’m at Sequanota. In the middle of my spring semester, I had to decide whether or not I wanted to return to camp or chase after an internship. It was unusual for freshmen to land internships after only their first year, as you’ve really only only covered the bare basics, but I decided to take the risk. I made a very difficult phone call to camp, letting them know I would not be returning for Summer 2011. Come the beginning of March, I had no job lined up for the summer. I had talked to a dozen employers at an internship fair, hoping to strike up something. I finally got an email from a very cool company named MIM Software, where they make medical imaging viewing software. If you’ve ever been scanned at a hospital, there’s a good chance their software assisted in looking inside of you. They asked me to do a simple coding project to prove my skills. I finished as much of the project as I could, and emailed back with my fingers crossed. Unbelievably, I received an invitation to interview on site. When I got there, I went through a series of interviews, and later received an incredibly generous offer to join MIM Software for the summer. I had taken the first step towards my “big girl” career. In the course of my internship, I learned that the reason my resume made it through the stacks in the first place was partly due to my work at Sequanota, particularly my time with Camp Bethesda. Sequanota actually assisted me in landing my first internship after only my freshman year. That internship led to a change in my major to Computer Science (though I’m still focusing on medical applications) and a 7-month rotation at Philips Healthcare, where I was able to work on PET/CT software. I was finally contributing to medical technology like I always wanted to, as well as studying something that made me feel like I could do anything. Sequanota, if I could give you a hug and a high-five, I totally would. You literally helped make dreams come true. Nowadays, I’m halfway through my 5 year program at Case Western. In my spare time, I’ve been learning how to fence (swords, not picket), working part-time in an office on campus, and continuing to daydream about camp. While I’m unlikely to return to Sequanota as a counselor again, I will never stop loving every square inch of those 400 acres outside of Jennerstown, as well as every face that I met there. Sequanota gave me a family to lean on, a home I can always return to, and a lifetime of memories. For that, I’m forever thankful.