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Hope Strawn is a se-
nior Music major from
Gadsden, Alabama. This
paper, “Finding My Place
at Mitchell’s Place,” was
written as a reflective
piece for her internship at
Mitchell’s Place Summer
Camp.
She is an active member
on campus as the rise3
Student Outreach Coor-
dinator, an Orientation
Program Team member,
Concert Choir soprano,
and a member of Omi-
cron Delta Kappa Honors
Society.
After graduation, she
plans to attend the
University of Alabama at
Birmingham to get her
Master’s Degree in Collab-
During my second session at Mitchell’s Place Summer Camp, I felt myself
taking on a different leadership role than I previously had. Instead of follow-
ing along with my coworkers, I began to take my counselling in a different
direction when we got a new camper. Jay* (name has been changed) was a
five year old child with autism who was developing his verbal skills much later
than other children his age. During my entire two weeks working with him, he
only spoke once. The other counselors at camp were always nervous around
Jay because he had a tendency to run off. He was one of the most adventur-
ous children I have ever met, but he was so much smaller than the rest of the
campers and had a hard time fitting in. After he started to be more comfort-
able at camp, he changed, and I changed with him.
The first week, we went on a field trip to Stewart Perry. This eco-friendly
construction company was a beautiful, large area where the campers got to
spend an entire day discovering new things. The campers learned how to fish,
found new plants and animals on a nature walk, saw how bees make honey,
toured the garden, and got to enjoy a cookout. The biggest problem, however,
was the water. Jay could not swim, but he kept bolting for the lake. The camp
director was starting to get nervous, so I told her that I would gladly keep a
specific watch on him for the day. She gave me a life jacket for him, and I held
his hand as he was included in all of the events that the older campers got to
enjoy. During the nature walk, he did not understand that it was a scavenger
hunt, so I helped him by putting rocks in his bag and showed him how to
make the bag into a puppet. He could not talk back, but I felt that he under-
stood what I had to say. While the
older kids were fishing, I held him from a distance and told him to look at the
fish. At this moment, I realized something. I had been tapping my hands in
a rhythm with him beside me, and noticed that he could copy the exact same
patterns I was doing. Jay was incredibly smart and had so much love to give, he
just had a different way of expressing it.
During the rest of the days at camp, I continued to watch Jay. He hardly
ever ate anything, so I helped him open up his food and tried to help him eat.
He eventually started to, even if he had some resistance. I watched him curi-
ously try to understand different toys. One that caught his eye the most was a
magnet. He did not understand how it worked, but after I showed him a few
times, he started to copy me and find other objects that were and were not
magnetic through trial and error. The only words Jay ever said to me were, “Uh
oh!” when he dropped the magnet on the ground. Once he realized he did not
break it, glee showed forth in his face and he was so content to keep learning.
As part of my internship, I taught music to the children unless it was a field
trip day. One day we were supposed to go to the zoo, but due to a thun-
derstorm, we had to cancel. All of the children were disappointed, but the
hardest part was that the school where we held camp had its power shut off all
morning due to a tree falling from the storm. Our plans had been completely
derailed, and we were not sure what to do. I decided to take the initiative and
gather the campers around to sing around a fake “campfire” in the dark. It
cheered the children up so much, and even though Jay could not sing along,
he clapped along with me.
However, nothing is perfect. Children throw temper tantrums, and disci-
pline does not always come easily. Later in the day, Jay kicked me in the face
while he was sitting with me. I remembered thinking to myself, “How do you
discipline a child if they cannot say ‘I’m sorry’ to you?” I remember sitting Jay
up and telling him he could not do that again, and that it really hurt my feel-
ings. I did not sit next to him to play with magnets for the rest of the day, and
Jay was so upset. He came up to me throughout the day and reached his arms
up for me to hold him as he cried.
Every day after that incident, I tried to teach him that I could not always
Hope Strawn
Finding My Place at Mitchell’s Place
Hope Strawn