After serving as a volunteer for three summers, spending a year developing the sailing program, and dedicating the last 20 months as a full time professional staff member to UCLA UniCamp, I’m very excited to officially announce that I will be moving on and switching jobs in two weeks!
Fun fact: I was Fat Sal's Deli's first employee!
I’m thrilled to be returning to work with Fat Sal’s in an executive/corporate level, to help accomplish their mission of total world domination. Well, maybe not exactly. I will be helping set up hiring systems, and working to develop a recognizable (and fun!) environment for folks to experience every time they eat at, or think about any Fat Sal’s Deli location.
There will be plenty of time to talk about Fat Sal’s in the future, so before moving on to the next chapter of my professional career, I feel obligated to share some thoughts and reflections on my time involved with UCLA UniCamp.
First and foremost: UCLA UniCamp is amazing.
I’m constantly reminding myself how lucky I am to have been one the few folks who get to be professional staff members of a non-profit that raises more than a million dollars annually to provide a platform for about 450 UCLA student volunteers to create a resident camping experience for about 1,200 LA youth.
The past 20 months have been an incredible learning experience for me in my role as Program Director for UCLA UniCamp. So I want to share 5 things I’ve learned here, as I believe they are applicable to many aspects of life (in my own, and likely yours).
1.When in a position of leadership, LEAD.
UCLA UniCamp has been around for 80 years. 2016 will be the 81st summer of camp. That’s NUTS! People do camp year after year because UCLA UniCamp in and of itself is nothing short of incredible. However, I wanted to take the program in a different direction, and make it better.
So I did.
If you are privileged to be in a position of leadership, add your spin to the role. Take control. Anytime you think “Oh, it would be so cool if someone did that” ... BE SOMEONE!
If everyone remains idle waiting for something to happen, nothing happens. People look to those in positions of leadership for motivation and inspiration, if you are there, don't take it lightly. Embrace your position, and lead.
2. Don’t be afraid of failure, embrace failures as learning opportunities.
I wish I could sit here and say I was the perfect Program Director for camp. I wasn’t, and I know that. However, I tried the SHIT out of new things. I will always be grateful to the 7 Head Counselors who took a leap of faith and tried something new with me last year. We tried to make the program better, some of it worked some didn’t, but now UCLA UniCamp is on its way to a whole new era of programming. I'm stoked to see where it goes.
Any great idea starts by trying. If you don’t try, you are never going to reach your full potential. Push the boundary. Set a new watermark. Strive for something greater. Question everything, and bring ideas to life. If you have the capacity to try something new, you should, every single time. Worst case? It doesn’t work, and you go back to what you know.
3. Create opportunities for others to lead as well.
Open the door to the future! Trust the people you work with, and give them opportunities to prove their amazingness! Doing work is tedious, having responsibility is empowering.
I believe that when people aren’t given a set way of accomplishing a task, it MANDATES innovation. I probably made people most upset in my role here because of the lack of answers/clarity I often give students.
To me, there is no “way UniCamp does things”. Just because we have done things a certain way before, doesn’t mean it’s the BEST way to do things. That applies to everything in life.
I tried to provide every student who participates in UCLA UniCamp to have an opportunity to lead… to question the way we do things. I asked the groups of Leadership to lead more than was previously expected of them. Then, I asked them to tell their volunteers to lead more than what was previously expected as well. The hope is that in a year or two UniCamp will see even more improvements to the program, as more and more students filter trough and share more and more ideas of how to improve the program… because now even someone who has been a part of camp for 2 months can assume a leadership role.
4. Appreciate the HELL out of people.
I disagree with some people’s opinions. Sometimes I don’t like the way something was handled. It happens, but, what doesn’t happen, is my lack of gratitude for the people who put in hundreds of hours to this organization.
I ended every single Leadership training meeting by saying “If nobody’s told you they love you today, remember I DO!!!”, and I meant it! I love every student/volunteer I have worked with over the past two years. I’m confident they are some of the hardest working, creative, diligent, organized and inspiring people I will ever meet in my life.
When people are appreciated, they continue to work towards the goal. It’s easier to push through the hard things when you know your work is being appreciated.
We are so quick to point a finger when someone we rely on doesn't accomplish a task, yet often forget to thank them for every small thing they do correctly. Take the time to appreciate the people around you, and your life will be much better.
I hope the people I worked with at camp know how much I appreciate them. You all know who you are.
5. Shit happens. That doesn’t matter. How you deal with it is what matters!
I feel like people often look for “someone to blame” when something goes wrong. There needs to be “fault” given. However, that’s just not the case at all.
When working on a team, it’s about working through the problem, not blaming someone for what happened. Classic relationship advice is “It’s not me vs. you, it’s us against the problem” and I think that’s true, not just for romantic relationships, but life as well.
The moments I’m most proud of are the moments of turmoil. The moments where “Shit happened” and we overcame it together. A fire breaks out 2 days before camp last year. No problem. We get to it, move 4 weeks of camp to different locations, and carry on business. Every week of camp happened, despite the odds being heavily stacked against us.
There is never value in pointing fingers. Talking behind people’s back about what they did wrong doesn’t achieve anything. Spending time finding the “fault” only takes away time spent working toward the goal. However, when people work together to solve a problem, it will be solved.
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It’s hard for me to believe that I only have one more week of officially being employed here. UCLA UniCamp has become a part of who I am, how I see the world, and how I navigate my daily interactions. I will forever be a better person due to my various experiences with UCLA UniCamp, and I know it will help me for years to come.
After Thursday, I will no longer be able to thank UCLA UniCamp with unpaid overtime hours. I no longer will have time to volunteer as a counselor in future years. I won’t be purchasing things for camp, so there won’t be any more lost receipts that end up changing from reimbursements to "in-kind donations".
How can I say “Thank You” now that I’m leaving?
One last thing I’ve learned at UCLA UniCamp, is that fundraising is a constant issue. By no means does UniCamp exist to raise money, however, if UniCamp doesn’t raise money… it won’t exist.
So, I am ending this post by both announcing my own pledge, and asking you to consider to do so as well.
Today I am beginning a way of giving to camp called “Pledged Giving”. Today, on May 19th, 2016, I am giving my first $10 of what will be $1,200 over the next 10 years.
I pay $10 a month for Spotify Premium. I pay $100 a year for Amazon Prime. Hell, if Google Maps cost $5 a month, I would pay for that too. UCLA UniCamp is just as important to me as any of these services, so I am going to add it to my monthly budget of “everyday needs”. I’m going to eat one less meal out per month. I’m going to refrain from one impulse buy per year. I’m going to make UniCamp a priority.
That way, I’m going to live every day of my life knowing that I am supporting the efforts of UCLA UniCamp, while also remembering the extensive impact the organization has on my life as well.
I’m hoping that others who read this post, whether you have done camp for a year, 10 years, or even not at all would consider joining me in this pledge. I know many of us are not at a point where large gifts are a reality, but small gifts over time add up. Even just $5 a month will add up over time (instructions how in the comment below).
I also highly recommend you check out the website www.unicamp.org to see the amazing programs we are putting on this year (in case you aren’t convinced just yet).
I’m going to miss this place a lot, and I will forever be grateful for the countless memories, hundreds of friendships, and thousands of lessons learned during my time here.
Below is a picture of me and “Dr. IDK” (I don't know) during my first week of camp in 2011. I can only hope I had as much of an impact on him, as he had on me.
If nobody’s told you they loved you today… remember that I do.
Much Woodsey and Real Life Love to All,
Michael “Belly Slap” Starr
UCLA UniCamp Program Director, October 2014 - May 2016