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Ep. 80: What you need to know about Gap year travel
279 Plays10 months ago
If your teenager is thinking of travelling over the summer, or taking a Gap year before, or after University, you might be worried about a few things:
- How will they finance their student travel?
- How can they stay safe?
- Will a year out have a detrimental effect on their job prospects?
Lee McAteer is the co-founder of Camp New York, a brand new camp in America, where young adults have the opportunity to earn money and gain work experience in a structured and safe environment, before travelling with their earnings. He says student travel is an amazing opportunity, and gives his tips on how to make sure it adds to students' CVs too.
Who is Lee McAteer?
Known as ‘Britain’s Best Boss’, entrepreneur and student travel expert, Lee McAteer, has announced his much-anticipated come back in the student travel sector.
McAteer, co-owner of the largest independent wrestling company in Europe, PROGRESS Wrestling, has teamed up with USA visa sponsor IENA, the world leaders in cultural exchange programmes, to launch a new travel experience in summer camp cultural exchange.
Camp New York will offer participants an experience of a lifetime to work at a USA summer camp in the New York tri-state region. All participants will receive a fantastic salary with all food and accommodation costs covered as part of their package.
Lee McAteer, co-founder of Camp New York said: “I’m so excited to announce my travel come back project with the launch of Camp New York."
More teenage parenting from Helen Wills:
Helen wills is a teen mental health podcaster and blogger at Actually Mummy, a resource for midlife parents of teens.
Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear new episodes. If you have a suggestion for the podcast please email [email protected].
There are already stories from fabulous guests about difficult things that happened to them as teenagers - including losing a parent, becoming a young carer, and being hospitalised with mental health problems - and how they overcame things to move on with their lives.
You can find more from Helen Wills on parenting teenagers on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills.
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Please note that Helen Wills is not a medical expert, and nothing in the podcast should be taken as medical advice. If you're worried about yourself or a teenager, please seek support from a medical professional.
Transcript
Enhancing Employability Through Cultural Exposure
00:00:00
Speaker
So if you can turn around to an employer and say, well, look, I've worked in a foreign country, I've worked with different cultures from all around the world, under time pressure circumstances, they're the kind of employability skills that employers are looking and the people between 18 and 28 need to be able to progress further forward in their career.
Podcast Introduction: Navigating Teenage Challenges
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to the Teenage Kicks podcast where we take the fear out of parenting or becoming a teenager.
Guest Introduction: Lee McTeer on Gap Years and Travel
00:00:37
Speaker
I'm Helen Wills and every week I talk to someone who had a difficult time in the teenage years but came out the other side in a good place and has insight to offer to parents and young people who might be going through the same.
Lee McTeer's Summer Camp Initiative in New York
00:00:52
Speaker
I've got an interesting one for you today, especially if you're considering a gap year or a long summer travel plan post-school or uni. Lee McTeer, dubbed Britain's best boss after converting his office into a ball pit and allowing staff to take as much holiday as they like, is a student travel expert who's now launched Camp New York, a summer camp in the New York Tri-States region.
Advice for Students on Gap Years and Camps
00:01:18
Speaker
Lee says all participants will receive a fantastic salary with all food and accommodation costs included as part of the package. Lee has had a history of operating overseas summer camp initiatives for students so I wanted to get him on the podcast to give us his tips for students who want to travel on a gap year or before they enter the world of work. Lee, welcome to the podcast. Ellen, thank you so much for having me. It's a real pleasure.
00:01:47
Speaker
I'm looking forward to this. My gap year travel was such a long time ago and my kids are talking about it. I've got one at uni and one in lower six, as I used to call it. And they're both talking about it and I'm thinking, it must be really different now. In those days, I went to Australia for six months and I think I phoned my parents twice.
00:02:11
Speaker
Well, that's probably two more times than most people do these days, Helen, so let me tell you.
Influence of Teenage Years and Parental Expectations
00:02:16
Speaker
Well, thank God for social media. Lee, will you start as is tradition with this podcast by telling us a little bit about your own teenage years? What was life like growing up for you?
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, gosh, you know, as I approach my 40th birthday in December, I certainly look at my teenage years with great fondness. But of course, it's also about learning from your mistakes. And of course, as teenagers, we always make mistakes, but it's about how we move forward from them.
00:02:43
Speaker
Now, initially, it was quite difficult. My parents went through a messy divorce. I ended up moving into a council flat above a golf club, but it really gave me the grounding and the foundation to really want to achieve something with my life. I then decided to not go back to my grammar school for A-levels, decided I was going to go to a place called Yale College in Wrexham, and it really gave me the
00:03:09
Speaker
dare I say it, the street awareness, the ability to say, okay, if you want to do something, I've got to make it myself. And I really need to put myself forward. So I feel as though I did that. But what I want to do is I wanted to get as much experience as possibly could. And I wanted to achieve whatever that word even really meant. So I got my first job at Chester laser quest, I was then working also in a in a bar, I was working in swimming baths,
00:03:39
Speaker
Oh, right. Proper teenage portfolio career then. Totally, absolutely. But it gave me a real grounding in terms of what I liked, what I didn't like. And also, dare I say, it started to help me network with people that I would never normally have the opportunity to meet. So I was very fortunate to
00:03:57
Speaker
get work experience with a fantastic guy called Ken Ward and he was the head cameraman for the BBC in the northwest and I then had all these wonderful opportunities to see what the media was like and it just really I just felt as though actually whilst I've gone through a real tough time with my parents getting divorced he
00:04:15
Speaker
I've now got a wonderful new opportunity to really take advantage of knowing that if I want something, I've got to work hard for it. So whilst it was very difficult at the time, I would say my teenage years gave me the grounding to create and do what I do now, really.
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah, right. Would you say that's a particular personality trait of yours? Because I guess there's lots of kids and lots of us who've had really difficult times growing up. Some of them seem to really take the bull by the horns and use it to fire them to do something. And then some just don't seem to be able to muster that kind of energy. Do you have any sense of what made you go that direction rather than the opposite?
00:05:03
Speaker
I mean, it's a great question. I mean, obviously, everybody's different. But for me, I grew up with a father who was very supportive, but it was very much a question of, and this was a good thing, by the way, but it was almost, if I'd got to the moon, it'd be, well, that's great, son, but why haven't you got to Mars? He was always pushing me to try and achieve. So I always had that chip on my shoulder to the point that all I really wanted in life was my dad to turn around to me and say, I'm really proud of you. Well done. And that really drove me to try and
00:05:31
Speaker
achieve the things that I did. But I'm a great believer that if you want something, you've got to do it yourself and you can't expect other people to do it for you. And what I would say is that I see a lot of, especially in young people at the moment, especially for dare I say it, kids who are now looking at gap years and doing things such as Camp New York,
00:05:55
Speaker
is kids have got to take responsibility for their own actions. And whilst it's all well and good for parents to molly coddle them and to do the vast majority of things for them, the reality is that unless they have the opportunity to do it themselves, the sad reality is that you're probably doing them a disservice for later on in life. So it's almost a tough love, if that makes sense.
00:06:17
Speaker
really, really important, especially with programs such as Camp New York, because at the end of the day, it's you that, you know, as the applicant, the kid, you know, 18, 18 year old, plus, that's the person that's going to be going to New York, it's not the parent. And it's, so there's got to be that sense of responsibility there. Yeah. So would you advocate letting your kids, I don't want to say fail, but letting, letting them
00:06:45
Speaker
take the reins of something themselves and not get it right. Is that what I'm hearing? Yeah, I think to a certain extent, Helen, I think, of course, you've got to guide your kids in the right manner, but at the same time, you can't hold their hands in every single thing because of a wise. How are they going to learn? The reality is that I make mistakes every single day, but the big thing is you've got to learn from them. It doesn't matter if you
00:07:10
Speaker
39 like me, or if you're 18, it's about how you then bounce back from those mistakes and what you learn on that journey. So I think it's just a question of not molly coddling to the point that all of a sudden, they can't take responsibility for themselves. Otherwise, I think we'll end up with a generation of kids that feel so entitled that they won't really know what hard work is, if that makes sense, without being disrespectful.
00:07:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting because this debate happens quite a lot and we're going completely off track, but I don't mind that if you don't. I love these conversations. There's been a whole load of, oh, millennials don't know what, don't know they're born. They've had everything handed on the play and it's a lot of rhetoric and it's very unfair and because everybody does what they, the best they can do, but
00:08:03
Speaker
There's definitely a trend in parenting styles. I read something about this. Apparently, it's centuries old. There's four or five cycles of parenting styles, and depending on which one your parent was, you become the next one. And we're all, as generations, we're largely parented in the same way. So there's been a lot of criticism leveled at parents of millennials, for example.
00:08:28
Speaker
for telling them that they're the best and they're amazing and everything you do is brilliant. And you've just reminded me of that with the sort of entitled thing, which, look, it's a generalisation and I do think anyone born in that time period must be really pissed off with hearing about it.
00:08:45
Speaker
But my parenting style and that of many of the parents that I know has been very, very supportive of everything my kids do, not to the extent of everything they do is brilliant, but how can I help you? How can I facilitate you? How can I take your pain away? And I do sometimes wonder if
00:09:07
Speaker
Oh God, look, as parents, we beat ourselves up terribly for whatever we do. We get it right, we also get it wrong. And that's also centuries old and will never change. But I do sometimes wonder if I've set my kids up to rely on me too much. And then I look at both my kids and think, no, that, no.
00:09:27
Speaker
My kids are both quite self-motivated, it's just that I've got one who's self-motivated for absolutely everything in the world and wants it all, and one who's pretty happy on the couch to be honest. And I get a lot of parents contacting me and saying,
00:09:43
Speaker
I don't know what to do with my son. He's 15. He never wants to go anywhere. He's happy at home gaming. Now that they can game online and chat to their mates at the same time, that's socialising for a lot of teenagers now. And that's great because it's better than gaming alone and not talking to anybody. But parents of my generation are desperate for our kids to be in the sunshine, making plans, going out places.
00:10:09
Speaker
And I don't know why I'm telling you this. I'm not even sure I've got a question. I'm just like, this is really, really common. I guess my question is, do you have a view on the kids that are not motivated to do things like Camp New York and whether as parents we should be pushing them to do it? The answer is, I think they do need pushing because otherwise
00:10:32
Speaker
In a few years' time, all of a sudden, it's, oh, well, I really wish I'd done that back then. And all of a sudden, you're dealing with a whole sense of regret. I think what doesn't help is, I mean, I kind of grew up as that social media generation. I mean, I went to a summer camp in Massachusetts in 2003. Of course, that's the time when Facebook or their Facebook was starting. But you're then dealing with what I think is actually antisocial media.
00:10:59
Speaker
combined with the likes of the gaming to the point where it's now almost combined with covid and the fact that people couldn't go out is that i think young people about also got it very difficult in terms of learning how to socialize outside of the
00:11:15
Speaker
And in fairness, we talk about entitlements, but of course, what we're not forgetting, or what we shouldn't forget, sorry, is the house prices and inflation, everything else like that. It's almost like if you don't have that helping hand at the very start, how do you then move up that proverbial ladder? So it is difficult for sure.
00:11:36
Speaker
But for me, it comes down to, well, do you want to be in the UK or Ireland or wherever it may be for the summer? Or do you want to explore the bright lights of New York City, meeting people from all around the world in which you're adding something fantastic to your resume? For me, that is a real compelling argument that I would argue that a parent should be trying to not convince, because at the end of the day, the applicant slash the kid has to want to do it themselves.
00:12:05
Speaker
But it's almost like that fear of missing out if they don't do it. I've been very fortunate to work with some brilliant people around me that quite frankly deserve the plaudits rather than me having the whole Britain's best boss type stuff. But the reality is that those that have had those
00:12:27
Speaker
ground grounding jobs such as you know, working at McDonald's, a Burger King, a Tesco, working in a bar and stuff like that. They are people that my experience that tend to do the best as employees of mine. So therefore, what is that fine balance between literally getting somebody off the couch to say, right, you need to do this, you need to do that. Because I think it is so, so important. And I don't necessarily know the answer to that Helen either, other than the fact that it's
00:12:56
Speaker
come on, you could be doing this, you could be doing that, you know, kind of gently, gently. Yeah. In terms of trying to persuade them to actually do something with their lives.
Early Work Experiences and Employability Skills
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah, the mum nagging persona just comes out every day. We all feel like such nags. Would you say that those other kids that do well because they've had the experience of being around other people and fending for themselves, is that what it is? A bit more streetwise around people outside the family?
00:13:28
Speaker
100% is that they've got outside of their bubble, they understand what it's like to work with customers on a ground floor perspective. They understand what hard work is all about. And it also gives them that foundation say, actually, I want to not do this potential job in the future, I want to do something different. Therefore, it's almost that consistent reminder say, well, actually,
00:13:52
Speaker
I'm going to do something else. Not there's any disrespect to the people that work those jobs, but that just seems to be the general consensus from what I'm dealing with. My niece got her first job when she was 16. She works at Nando's this week. I think they've had 14 staff leave for different reasons, and all of a sudden she's having to work so much harder. I'm saying to Helen, I'm like, this is a great foundation for all the things that you're looking to do once you go to university.
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, these things are sent to trios, that's for sure. Yeah, no, you're right. Both my kids have done waiting jobs in a restaurant and coffee bars. I love it actually because they come home every day and go, oh my God, you'd never guess what happened today. You hear all the stories and it's brilliant. It's very funny, but they're exhausted because six people called in sick. Exactly that is a hospitality industry norm, I think, isn't it? They're all harassed and overworked.
00:14:51
Speaker
And my daughter is the loveliest person ever in a restaurant to waiters and waitresses because she's like, she knows what to do. You never hand them the plates, but you stack up the plates and you put them on the side of the table because that makes it easier. If you hand it to them, that's hard. I've learned so much from the kids, but she's just so sweet and polite to restaurant staff because she knows how hard a job it is.
00:15:14
Speaker
Well that's it isn't it? It's a great book called To Kill a Mockingbird and in it Attica says to his daughter Scout to truly understand someone he's got to slip inside their shoes, slip inside their skin and that's something that always resonated me from learning that as a kid at school in that every single situation you're in, whether it's
00:15:35
Speaker
as a student, whether it's as a business, whether it's in a friendship or relationship, is to try and slip inside the shoes, the skin of the other person to try and understand where they're coming from, to then get a greater understanding. And, you know, Camp New York, for example, is all about cultural exchange, to the point that actually it's about trying to understand the viewpoints of people from different places around the world. And I think, yeah,
00:15:59
Speaker
What's happening in Russia and Ukraine and everything else like that is it's more important than ever to try and understand everybody's viewpoint from around the world so we can actually come together rather than having some of the horrendous situations that are happening all over the world.
00:16:13
Speaker
So it's things like that. And again, for them to be able to understand, you know, your kids by saying, Oh, well, actually look after that waiter or waitress because of these reasons. I know what it's, you know, I know what it's like. It's those bits of experience that are so important for young people.
00:16:28
Speaker
Yeah, and it's a classic selling technique, isn't it? If you understand your customer, then you know how to sell to them because it's not selling an item as a commodity, it's a relationship and you're selling a life improvement for them because you know what they need. Totally. It's treat people how you want to be treated.
00:16:49
Speaker
Yeah, totally.
Experience at Camp New York
00:16:50
Speaker
So tell me a bit about Camp New York and what are kids likely to be doing? What age bracket is this and what are they likely to be? What does their day look like when they're with you?
00:17:04
Speaker
Well, that's a great question. I mean, truthfully, no day is the same. But in terms of the people that normally do Camp New York, normally, they're around between the ages of 18 and 28, give or take. We work with hundreds and hundreds of camps in the New York tri-state area. So every single placement that we offer, they're all going to be flying into New York. So they get to experience the bright lights in New York City literally the minute that they land into whether it's JFK or Newark or LaGuardia.
00:17:32
Speaker
and then they'll head off to the summer camp. On their days off, they can then go back into Manhattan or they can explore other places for that matter. The placements normally last nine weeks and then they've got 30 days to travel afterwards as part of the American J1 visa. And within that 30 days, they can then use the $2,000 plus that they've had as their salary to enjoy the bright lights and to see everything that New York has got to offer.
00:17:59
Speaker
So it's a fantastic experience. All the food and accommodation is covered as part of the cost, which is literally £349. And it's just a fantastic experience that I cannot recommend enough. Of course, I'm biased.
00:18:16
Speaker
But if you were to think to me as an 18-year-old, here's an opportunity to go to New York for the summer. You're going to be earning some money. Your accommodation is going to be covered. It's going to be great for your CV. So you're going to keep mum and dad happy by saying, actually, I'm used up in my life. But you're going to be hanging out and meeting people from all around the world at these summer camps.
00:18:33
Speaker
And the other thing is that the types of stuff you do at the summer camps is, let's say for example, some of your hobbies, let's say like football, let's say like tennis or sailing or arts and crafts or drama, you are literally helping teach your hobby at the summer camps. And then there are other camps that we work with.
00:18:55
Speaker
that are very, very special to me personally, that they're special needs camps. So we're working with kids that have got some difficulties, but they are so thankful for meeting people from the UK. I mean, when I go to the UK even now, I'm always asked to do Harry Potter phrases and stuff like that, right? We don't know what the cultural exchange, right? We don't know what they're expecting. The Americans just love an English accent, don't they, and all the history. They probably think Harry Potter's real, do they? Hogwarts is real.
00:19:25
Speaker
But it's real to me, Helen. It's real to me. But it's a great opportunity. It's a great experience. It's something you can put on your resume and your CV. And what I will say from an employee perspective is it's the connotations you can then say in an interview. So if you can turn around to an employer and say, well, look, I've worked in a foreign country. I've worked with different cultures from all around the world under time pressure circumstances.
00:19:53
Speaker
They're the kind of employability skills that employers are looking and the, you know, the people between 18 and 28 need to be able to progress further forward in their career. Yeah. So for me, it's a massive, massive win. And I encourage everybody to look at it or you know, whether it's Camp New York or another gap year program, but get out of your comfort zone.
00:20:17
Speaker
make sure it's obviously with a reputable, safe organization. And go for it and do something that's really going to be meaningful and make a difference to your life.
00:20:27
Speaker
Yeah, and I guess it's a good element to add into a gap year plan if that's what you're doing, if you're having a whole year before university or after university before you start working. There's loads of different things you can do, but see, both my kids want to go travelling primarily so that they can do a ski season because they both love skiing and they both said, I think the easiest thing would be to work in a bar and I'm like, yeah, have you seen what time the bars close?
00:20:55
Speaker
in ski resorts. I don't think you'd be doing a lot of skiing really. Well, maybe not. Just a wash down and put some napkins out for breakfast maybe. But they could do that. They could have a four months in a ski resort and they could do Camp New York as a summer thing. Is it just summer or is it all year long? What do you do?
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah, so for the vast majority of placements, it's the summer. The majority of placements start around about June 15th and finish around about August 15th. But some placements do start on May 1st, and some people will be over there until the end of September. So it's not quite just a summer thing, but the vast majority of people and their placements at Camp New York are for the summer.
00:21:48
Speaker
And so you could do that, earn you two grand or whatever it is, do your 30 days travel and potentially even save some of that so that you can then go off and into rail around Europe because that's my kid's dream is all of that stuff they just want to be. And my son is saving all of his, he's only 16, but he's saving all his earnings from his restaurant job.
00:22:11
Speaker
for, so that he's got loads of money when he leaves uni. Well, he won't have will he spend it at uni, but this is his theory so that he can then just spend money travelling for a year.
00:22:27
Speaker
It's resonating with me what you've said is that actually that's great and if you've earned enough money to go and see Prague and all the cities you're interested in and split and do all of that, that's fantastic. But if you've also spent a couple of months
00:22:44
Speaker
doing something like Camp New York, then you've got a skill set, that's what I'm hearing. Because the traveling will give you a little bit of wisdom and a little bit of street wise, but in terms of selling yourself to a future employer or for a university degree, you've done something a bit different and you've got a skill and a network even of people, presumably. Do people use the contacts they've made to network for employment in the future?
00:23:12
Speaker
massively. I mean, just in terms of my own experience, I mean, some of the people I worked with at summer camp, I still speak to now and some of them have got unbelievably successful jobs. And I mean, one of my best friends works for Apple in Cupertino in California, I was actually at law school with him. But one of the things was that he was able to put the fact he'd work at a summer camp. And these were the different things and that helped him get his job at Apple. You know, so it's, it's,
00:23:39
Speaker
It's all, I mean, I totally agree in the fact that traveling will give young people some elements of being streetwise, but it's also about the skill sets and the employability that things like Camp New York offers.
00:23:54
Speaker
So it very much combines the work and travel aspect together to be able to give them experience of things that they can put down. Because in my opinion, you can't really, I mean, as an employee myself, if someone says, oh, I've done a gap year for 12 months, well, that's great. And I understand that you're going to have certain levels of experience on that. But if I see something like Camp New York, it's like, well, okay, well, I know that you've been working on this, you've been working on that. And I can have a really good conversation in terms of
00:24:22
Speaker
what you've learned because unlike a gap year where you can literally just on the basis of traveling all the time, just say, okay, well, I don't really like that person in the bar. I don't like that person on the beach. You know, in every walk of life, you end up working alongside people, you wouldn't necessarily class as best friends. But again, it gives you that grounding for those extra employability parts to your resume further on down the line. So it does add so much more than just traveling.
00:24:49
Speaker
but it gives you that ability to have money in your back pocket to then, dare I say, you could even just keep the money. You could go back to the UK if you wanted after the, or wherever you're coming from, you know, $2,000 and put it towards wherever you want to. And some people do that. Spend it all on Freshers Week.
00:25:04
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. That's what I did. Tell us a little bit about how you... First of all, how you came to be in this business anyway. I'm gathering from what you're saying, it's from personal experience of having enjoyed it yourself. Then why you picked New York?
00:25:25
Speaker
Yeah, no, for sure. So initially I worked at a summer camp in 2003. I went with another organization that I had a very poor experience with, and I thought there would be a better way of doing this. So then in 2010, I set up a company called AmeriCamp, which very much looked after the entire US for these opportunities.
00:25:48
Speaker
And then I sold that business in June 2021 after also creating brands such as Camp Thailand, invasion.com, Camp Bali, Camp South Africa, amongst others. But for me in the back of my head, I always thought that actually we need to give young people the option to be able to really break down to set locations for where they want to be. And that's the reason why I decided to create Camp New York.
00:26:16
Speaker
purely to offer the opportunity to be in that New York tri-state region so people could 100% have the knowledge that if they want to go to Manhattan on their days off, if they want to go and fly into New York, they can do. Because the reality is I would say probably without trying to stereotype, give or take, I would say around about 75% of all the people
00:26:38
Speaker
that wanted to do AmeriCamp. They all wanted to be in the New York area. So I thought to myself, what better way than offering the actual opportunity for what people want. We've got all the experience to be able to do so. We're also co-owned by a visa sponsor, which is incredibly important. So when it comes to the tick boxes for all the safety and the health aspects of what we do,
00:27:02
Speaker
We are literally very much in that pole position to the point that if you come with us, you're going to be looked after every step of the way. We've got a 24 hour, seven day a week hotline that's manned by our teams. God forbid, if anything ever happens. So we're literally breaking it down to give young people the opportunity to actually go somewhere they want to go and they can make what is the joint highest salary in the industry for doing it as well. So I think that we're incredibly excited about
00:27:32
Speaker
it's already the reception for, it shows how popular it is, especially going to the Freshers' Fairs and going around and literally some of the students are like, what's he telling me I can go to New York somewhere, $2,000? And the thing is, of course, there are some costs to get there. But the reality is, is that even if you kind of break everything down, you're still going to be well over $1,000.
00:27:59
Speaker
you've then got all those opportunities, who you're going to meet, etc, etc. So it's a really, really exciting project. And also I miss the summer camp industry because just the difference that it makes in cultural exchange. And I'll forever be thankful and looking out for the brands that I created from the beginning, but it's a new chapter now and I'm very much looking forward to showcasing exactly what Camp New York can offer and what it can do for young people.
00:28:25
Speaker
So are you doing Freshers Fairs at the moment? Yeah, literally. I mean, I've outside hierarchy, hierarchical. I've not done a Freshers Fair in a long time. So I've done a few in the last couple of weeks. And it's been great. We've been on the kind of ground floor again, meeting all the students, seeing what they're after, what they're up to. Because that's significant for me. I love meeting people. I'm very much a people person. Yeah.
00:28:49
Speaker
You know, so the opportunity to then speak to people, see what they like, see what they don't like, and to see what the feedback is as well has been absolutely fantastic. And, you know, we've been up in Manchester, we've been up in Glasgow, we've been up in London, we're doing some stuff in Ireland. And it's just brilliant, you know, and I love meeting people and to see where people's dreams
Balancing Maternal Instincts and Independence
00:29:09
Speaker
are. And actually,
00:29:09
Speaker
quite jealous really because i'd love to be able to relive the last 20 years of my life to be able to do the same kind of things that i've done and and actually enjoy the journey more because with me you know i started off as a lawyer i ended up in the media i created all these these these brands
00:29:25
Speaker
Um, but of course, what I didn't really do, I didn't really enjoy the journey enough because I was always always the next thing. So now after selling my business, I can kind of get a little bit of retrospect so I can enjoy the journey a lot more. And it's, it's, it's really exciting. Helen, I feel like a, um, like a GDA level student again.
00:29:49
Speaker
I can so relate to that, Lee, because I've just literally 10 days ago dropped my daughter at university for the first time. And I'm so jealous. There's a bit of me that is really sad because it's the end of an era and she's off and I'm not that kind of parent anymore where I've got my son still. I must not forget, I've still got my son.
00:30:09
Speaker
But I'm really jealous and I keep pestering her with messages. Have you been to the Freshers Fair? Have you signed up for anything? Have you auditioned for this yet? And she won't tell me because it's my life. You wouldn't know. You don't know any of the people I'm going. Who are you going out with? You don't know them. So I'm not telling you. I'm not fair. I just want to be there and do it myself.
00:30:29
Speaker
But you really don't appreciate it at the time, do you? So for anyone listening that is 18, 19, 20, just sit down occasionally and take a moment to think about how nice or how not nice the thing that you've just done is.
00:30:45
Speaker
totally, you know, 100%. And the thing is, is that, you know, as you as you get older in life, you start to appreciate your parents so much more. Maybe it's an age thing. I think it's crossed. Yeah, absolutely. My mom's got some very interested in traditions, like, for example, 1111, she'll always text me. So 1111, if I don't reply back, wrong.
00:31:07
Speaker
and because I do a lot of traveling with my job, sometimes I might be on a plane, I might be able to respond straight away, but it's still things like that that mean the world. So if you've got a parent that really is, in one way you might think, oh gosh, too much is too much, it's only because they care and they want the very best for you. And it's funny, with Camp New York, we have a parents page on there, not because we're trying to molly coddle the applicants, but sometimes,
00:31:35
Speaker
A lot of applicants can be very last minute in their application, whereas now is the perfect time to apply because all the placements are open. There's lots of time to sort out your embassy appointments to get your American visa, et cetera, et cetera. What happens is, especially after Christmas in January, it's like, oh gosh, well Christmas is over. What we're doing from a summer and there's this mass panic, mass rush. So if you're thinking of saying,
00:32:04
Speaker
If you're listening to this and you want to say to your son, your daughter or your nephew or niece, have you heard about Camp New York? My biggest, biggest thing I would say is apply now, get the application started going early so you're not rushing because there is nothing worse than when you're at towards the latter parts of the season, you have to turn around and say, no, we've got no places left or we can't fulfill what we need to do.
00:32:27
Speaker
Well, and then I assume that those are the kids that are then stuck kind of grabbing whatever they can get with not necessarily all the security and the support that places like yours offer. Absolutely. Yeah. That's a really important one. I did think about, as I came into this podcast to record thinking, it's a bit of an odd time to be talking about a gap here because I've only just started university. So I don't know when I'll put this out. I will put it out in the next couple of weeks. For anyone that's listening,
00:32:55
Speaker
when I talked about just having done freshers' fairs, it's because freshers' fairs are ongoing right now. But that's a really good point. I hadn't thought about it that way. And it's the same with booking a holiday, right? We get to January the 3rd and go, oh God, lifestyle, let's book a holiday. And that's when it all starts to go chaotic.
00:33:14
Speaker
It's exactly where literally in January, straight after Christmas, you'll see all the holiday companies advertising because people want them before or after Christmas. When the reality is, your best holiday deals will be on Black Friday. And also, it's no different to Camp New York. It's like, get your stuff in early. You're not rushed in. All the very, very best placements are available. And literally, it's not going to take you that long. And for what is going to be a fantastic summer, a great experience,
00:33:42
Speaker
And again, it's funny because I was as a student, I was quite last minute on everything, to be honest with you. So I completely sympathize. But if you are a parent, and if you can help them just say, look, have you done it yet? Have you done it yet? My for them a little bit. It is so much worth it further down the line. And they'll be so thankful for you to as well.
00:34:02
Speaker
Well, back to that, give them a little push when they need it. Yeah, no, it's a good point. Lee, have you got any other advice for parents and or teenagers and young adults who are considering taking a year out to
Planning a Gap Year: Tips for Safety and Budgeting
00:34:17
Speaker
go travelling? What sort of things do they need to be thinking about?
00:34:20
Speaker
First and foremost, do the research, work out who is exactly behind the company because I have heard some horror stories. When I had my Camp Thailand business, when I created that, there was a lot of companies that were trying to copy what we were doing.
00:34:35
Speaker
and they were creating fake URLs and all sorts of stuff. So make sure the company and the brand you're talking to is exactly that who you're talking to. Because I remember we had a couple of situations where we got some bad reviews for something. They pretended to be Camp Thailand and it wasn't us at all. So make sure you do your research.
00:34:57
Speaker
you know, speak to as high a person as you possibly can. Do you know, that's so, so important, you know, because for us, you know, we've obviously got that experience there to know that what we've doing between the team, we've got over 100 years of summer camp experience, you know, in our team. So do your research is very, very important. And also make sure you're getting value for money.
00:35:22
Speaker
because there are a lot of other companies that are out there that I'm not just necessarily talking about the summer camp space, but just in terms of gap year, ideas full stop, that charge a lot more than they should be. So do your research in terms of all of that. And also set yourself a budget, because what you don't want to have happen is where all of a sudden you then relying on credit cards,
00:35:46
Speaker
And then you come back and you're in a whole world of pain. So whatever your budget is, stick to it. And the more organized you can be, the better. And at the same time, what you don't want to do is you don't want to be totally rigid by saying, okay, well, I'm only going to spend X amount of time in Thailand, X amount of time in Cambodia, where it may be. Because the reality is you don't know who you're going to meet.
00:36:11
Speaker
Yes. So have a bit of flexibility for doing that, but have a really good strong foundation. Have a good pot of money in which you know that you're going to be safe for, but don't just spend all the money full stop in the first few weeks. A classic example is the amount of students that I know that have gone to Australia, who they've gone on a work and travel program, they've gone over a pot of money.
00:36:36
Speaker
They've not gone and got a job from the outset. They've treated it like a holiday in the first, say, three or four weeks, and all of a sudden they've run out of money, and they've got to come home.
00:36:46
Speaker
And I've seen that a lot, Helen, a lot. They would be some snippets for sure. But, you know, think of that bigger picture, think actually, yes, I'm gonna have a good time, but is this also something that's gonna add to my future? You know, which programs like Camp New York do, but research came to a budget will have a bit of flexibility because you don't quite know who you're gonna meet.
00:37:12
Speaker
That's a really good point. And I remember, I mean, I am quite rigid. I like a plan. I don't feel safe if I haven't got a plan. And I remember getting really caught out in Australia because the friend that I was traveling with, we met a bunch of people who were going to Fraser Island the next day. We were in Cairns or somewhere and we'd not planned to do that. And she really wanted to go and we nearly fell out over this.
00:37:41
Speaker
And because we had the budget and I was a bit of a control freak, I was like, yeah, but we've got to do this, we've got to do that. And I'd controlled her already at that point because we'd gone to markets in Sydney and I'd said she'd wanted to buy clothes. And I was like, well, yeah, but do we really need to buy clothes? Because just think about it, that's $10 that could be spent on a boat trip in the Whitsundays. This is how long ago it was.
00:38:07
Speaker
So I'd already done, and she ended up just blowing her top and going, we are going to Fraser Island and I don't care. And we're having an extra night in this hostel that was like, I don't know, $6 a night or whatever it was. And we went and we had the best time and it was, I wouldn't say I've freed up and I'm super flexible from then on, but it did give me a little bit of a lesson.
00:38:31
Speaker
of how you get more out of life if you go with the flow a little bit. I don't know how you teach an 18-year-old to get that balance right though. Have you got any tips?
00:38:44
Speaker
Well, in terms of the balance, I mean, for me, if I was advising somebody and they desperately wanted to travel and do a gap year, I wouldn't just start them off by, for example, saying, right, I'm going to Thailand, I'm going to travel, then I'm going to go to Australia and be quite blase. And I appreciate and biased, but I would very much say, right, okay, start your gap year.
00:39:06
Speaker
by doing something like Camp New York. So then you've got some extra money under your belt. It's your first experience of traveling. So you've then, it's almost like slowly, slowly, but you've got a lot of protection around you. God forbid if anything happens. So you're starting to build up
00:39:23
Speaker
how you need to be a little bit streetwise by coming out of your comfort zone, by going to a country abroad, and then once you've got that foundation, then you've then going to meet other people in and around those areas that may end up going traveling with, whether that be to Canada, maybe to Mexico, to Thailand, where it may be, but build it up. Don't just absolutely go straight into the deep end and all of a sudden, right, I'm going to go and travel in the middle of Vietnam, for example,
00:39:52
Speaker
build it up. That for me is really, really important because whilst I've done loads of traveling to the point where I end up creating the companies that I did, the foundation for it was working at a summer camp in the USA. That was the initial foundation for it. So for me, slowly, slowly started up
00:40:13
Speaker
and then do that and then you can then go on to these more weird and wonderful experiences because the great thing about the US is of course the vast majority of people speak English so you're able to communicate more effectively. When you go to the likes of Cambodia or Thailand not everybody speaks English and it can be a lot more difficult. God forbid if there's an issue or a problem so it's about building up your confidence, building up your trust and then going out there a bit more into the wider world.
00:40:40
Speaker
I like that. It's a bit like going to school, isn't it? And learning to grow up in general, you go slowly and you put building blocks in place. That's a good way to do it and to know that you've got some safety and support there if you need it in the first few wobbly months of being away from home completely on your own.
00:40:59
Speaker
What just one other question, just talking about being flexible and who you're going to meet when you're out there. I know that a lot of parents will have this in the back of their minds when they send their kids off to the other side of the world.
00:41:13
Speaker
What do you say about kids keeping them, and young adults, like you said, some of these people are 28, keeping themselves safe in that mix when they're meeting new people all the time and changing their plans? Are we talking about summer camp for that question or are we talking about, for example? Any of it, whatever people are doing. The other stuff probably, because you've already spoken to the fact that a summer camp has some safety built in.
00:41:41
Speaker
What about the rest of the travel, the independent stuff? How do our kids keep themselves safe and how do parents navigate that with them?
00:41:50
Speaker
I mean, in truth, Helen, it's very, very difficult because you can't just continue to hold their hand forever. My advice would be is to, hopefully they're gonna be traveling with somebody is a starting point. And if that can happen, I would very much strongly advise that. So therefore you've got someone to rely upon, someone that's there for you. But if you are traveling as a solo traveler to some of these places,
00:42:17
Speaker
then it's for them to get involved in group activities that might be created by the hostel, for example. So the hostel will have different events that people can then get involved with. So all of a sudden, you're not just going to some random event, but it's actually the hostel can clarify and say, this is something that we know about, this is something we can pass. And then it may well be that the accommodation you're staying at, like a hostel,
00:42:42
Speaker
there's a number of people from that hostel that will go to that event. So all of a sudden you then got a bit more safety in numbers from a place that's already to a certain extent
00:42:51
Speaker
that it is probably too strong a word because they can't be in control of every single activity that's going on. But if there is an event that's hosted by that by the hostel, then it's a really good underpinning for meeting friends, meeting new people, and then going to explore, you know, from that particular point. So that that would be my advice, really, but try to try to to buddy up with people for sure.
00:43:14
Speaker
Yeah, and that's a good point actually. Go do things that have a feeling of reputability around them so they are sanctioned by the hostel or they're found by the hostel so you know that someone local knows it's a real thing. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, good point. Lee, it's been a great conversation.
Camp New York: Resources and Social Media
00:43:40
Speaker
Tell us where people can find Camp New York.
00:43:44
Speaker
So if they go to campnewyork.org, all of our information is on there and we would love people to take a look. Let us know what you think. Maybe you've got some suggestions that you think might make the experience even better, but you can apply on there. There's also a parents page if there's any questions to help your son or daughter, niece or nephew.
00:44:05
Speaker
And the applications are open now. The applications will be open probably till around about mid-March, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the placements will still be there. So if you're looking to do it for that particular young person, then please get them to apply now simply at campNewYork.org. Perfect. Thank you so much for the tips and the conversation.
00:44:26
Speaker
No,
Podcast Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:44:27
Speaker
thank you, Helen. And also quick little social media plug, literally on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, literally just at Camp New York. Perfect. Very simple, straightforward, memorable. I'll put links in the show notes anyway, just in case. Great stuff. And thank you so much, Helen. Really appreciate what you do. And thank you so much for having us. You're very welcome.
00:44:49
Speaker
Thank you so much for listening. I really do appreciate it. Thank you to everyone who's already rated and reviewed the podcast. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Amazon, it would mean the world to me if you could leave a review. It really helps get the word out, as well as making me very happy to read what you have to say.
00:45:08
Speaker
If this episode strikes a chord for you, please share it with anyone else you know who might be in the same boat and hit subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. If you have a story or a suggestion for something you'd like to see covered on the podcast, you can email me at teenagekickspodcast at gmail.com or message me on Instagram. I'm, I am Helen Wills. I love hearing from all my listeners. It really makes a difference to me on this journey.
00:45:38
Speaker
See you next week when I'll be chatting to another brilliant guest about the highs and lows of parenting teens. Bye for now!