Transcript of our interview with Stu, Merriam School of Music Summer Camps: Director Interview with Stu Harrison

What makes your camp or program unique compared to others?

There are a number of really unique and interesting things about the summer camp program here at Merriam School of Music. The first has to be our facilities. What campers get to experience at our main Oakville facility is unlike anything else at any other music school or music camp. Professional-level stages, rehearsal spaces, learning environments, instruments, equipment, and software are things that are going to create such a powerful first impression and really spark curiosity with music.

Whether they are beginners or they've already had a few years of musical experience, a trip to this campus is going to provide them a lot of really unique musical experiences that they just can't get anywhere else.

I would say the second unique thing about the camps is our theme weeks. Now, for sure, it's possible to run a music camp or a music-programmed camp pretty well any time of the year, dealing with a lot of that general musical knowledge. But a lot of kids have trouble connecting that with their everyday lives or really seeing how it's relevant in today's pop culture. So our theme weeks bring in lots of popular subject matter and everyday heroes into that learning environment.

Instead of just learning about songwriting, for instance, you're going to be learning about songwriting through the lens of, say, Taylor Swift. If you're learning how to be on stage for the first time, instead of a generic play, maybe there's a bit of a Disney-infused theme to it. There is some video game thematic material also on some of the theme weeks. This creates a really great frame to introduce music as something that's totally relevant and connected with their everyday lives.

I think the last thing definitely has to be the staff, both the quality and experience of the staff as well as just how organized and well-run this camp is. We are close to 30 years of running these camps. Tens of thousands of kids have been already able to come through and experience them. And so we run this like clockwork.

Plus, there's a full customer service team behind every enrollment to make sure that questions and concerns are addressed really quickly. The staff themselves, most of them are full-time music educators at the school with lots of years of direct educational experience, but they're also musicians themselves, so they're bringing both the musical authority to this experience as well as all of their teaching time.

What type of child is successful at your camp?

Ensuring that every child has a great opportunity to enjoy and succeed at camp is something we take very, very seriously. And there are a number of ways that we ensure that this happens.

The first is that we carefully segment ages in the camps, probably more precisely than a lot of other camps in this space. We don't let a 6-year-old and a 13-year-old into the same camp. Why? Well, obviously they're in different stages of life. They're going to be learning differently at different paces. They're going to require different classroom management strategies.

By keeping the years nice and close, we ensure that the camp counselors are able to run that classroom consistent with the needs of that age group. So the more specific and tight the age group, the more tailored that management style can be.

I think another thing that we do to really ensure that there's success is that we have a variety of camps tailored to both beginners as well as campers with some experience. And so everybody's always going to feel included, and that the camp is well suited to their level of experience. That's going to help drive engagement. It's also going to help ensure that they're really getting some learning out of the week, not just an entertaining experience, but also a formative educational experience.

I think the last way in which we really ensure that the students have success is obviously making sure that the ratios between the number of campers and the camp counselors are nice and tight. So you're often going to see a maximum of, say, 8 campers or 10 campers to every one major staff or significant staff, not just sort of a volunteer.

Also making sure that we've got volunteers involved, which we do every year, means that there's lots of support so that if students have questions, if they need to be taking bathroom breaks, anything, there's a very, very low level of interruption that occurs because we're having to address or help individual campers.

So really, the type of camper who's going to succeed here is virtually anybody who has a curiosity in music and a passion for music, whether that is a few years in or whether it's right at the very beginning.

Is the schedule structured or is it open?

A day in the life at the camp is a very structured one. Arrival time and pickup times are well established. We also have before and aftercare options, but as campers progress through the day, the day is highly segmented so that hour by hour we're moving from activity to activity.

No one is going to get bored or really lose interest in any particular activity. And with most of the camps, we are driving towards an end-of-the-week goal, and that goal is usually a performance or some sort of a project that they're going to be able to share with their parents, either in person or recorded so that they can take home.

Every camp has a long-term goal. All of the days are highly structured so that we're constantly moving between activities, and that just, first of all, makes the days go by that much faster, but we're actually able to accomplish a lot more.

We don't consider our job just to entertain your child, but also to really create and build upon their musical interest.

How does your staff deal with behavioral issues?

We have been so fortunate to have such amazing campers over the years, but occasionally we do run into behavioral issues, and so this is how we approach such issues.

First of all, every camper is expected to fully participate in activities. Every camper is expected to show respectful behavior to both fellow campers and supervisors and camp counselors, and they are expected to show a proper respect for all of the equipment and the facilities.

At any point, if we see contravention of that policy, at the first instance, we will address it with the child outside of the classroom so that we can make sure the child understands what has occurred that we are not being accepting of and what the corrective behavior is. They will then be welcome to rejoin the class.

On a second instance of the same type of behavior, again, the child will be removed from the situation. We will explain why we feel that they are, again, not being compliant with the policies, and we will inform the parent. Depending on the nature of the incident, we may keep the child out of the classroom for a longer period of time, or if we feel that it is safe and we feel that the situation is under control, obviously, the child would be allowed to rejoin the activity.

On a third instance, obviously, now things are getting a little more serious, and we need to take a different course of action. That's when we may ask the parent to come and pick the child up early from that class. And then, depending again on the nature of the issue, that child would either be expelled from the camp or asked to stay away from the camp for the remainder of the day or possibly some portion of the week.

What do campers value most about their experience at the camp?

We have a lot of campers that come back year after year, and the feedback we get generally falls into two categories. One is they love making friends. Sometimes, if you have an artistic student, they might be part of a body of friends at school where maybe it's a little harder to find other artistic kids to connect with.

The fact that they've got a full week where they're just completely surrounded by like-minded individuals who are creative, who are expressive, who love music or visual art or any one of those expressive art forms, and they completely feel like they belong. So many of these campers make friendships that really last throughout the year and say they can rekindle them summer after summer, or they even stay in touch throughout the year.

Definitely the opportunity to find new peer groups and friends is a huge reason why we have such a high rate of repeat business here at the camp.

The second one is it is really exciting to learn a new instrument or a new method of expression. So even if you're an experienced musician, if they've been, let's say, taking piano for 2, 3, 4 years, but they've never tried guitar, being able to apply all of that foundational musical knowledge to a new instrument, have fun with other people who are learning it for the first time as well, just adds an extra layer of engagement and excitement to their musical experience and their musical journey.

For sure, the ability to try new things even if you've already had experience with music and finding peer groups that are completely just on the same page as you are two great reasons why people would keep coming back.

What message do you have for new campers?

For any camper who is either considering signing up for a camp or has already signed up for the camp, I would strongly encourage the parents to thoroughly read all of the information about that camp on the website.

That comes in three forms. First of all, the description of the camp itself, although not long, is very specific. And I would encourage you to, rather than gloss over that, read it through thoroughly and ensure that the way that the camp is described, the requirements of the camp, whether the camp needs you to be bringing your own equipment, that's all well understood and you still feel that it's a really match for your son or daughter.

There's also an FAQ section on the Our Kids page that's quite thorough, really goes through several dozen different likely questions that parents might have. We would encourage you to spend some time on those FAQs and make sure that you've had all of your possible questions addressed.

The third is we have a downloadable parent's guide PDF which addresses a lot of the questions such as what the daily schedule looks like, how we handle inclement weather, and lunch. There's definitely some overlap between it and the FAQs, but there is some additional material.

What I would say is the best way to make sure that the camp gets enjoyed fully is to be as informed as possible. And those are the three best places to make sure that you're completely well-versed and prepared for what the camps have to offer.