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Grab the workbook: How to Use Your Adventure for Your Career Goals
If you went to summer camp as a kid, you get it. The bats at dusk, the swim across the pond, the feeling of being someone slightly new for a week… Those memories don’t fade.
And if you worked at summer camp, you also know that the skills you built there — troubleshooting on the fly, managing 300 kids and 65 staff, keeping everyone safe and fed and having fun — are some of the most transferable skills you’ll ever develop.
Mary-Jane Strom is the CEO of Girl Scouts of Northern California, a lifetime Girl Scout member, and a Gold Award recipient whose project focused on increasing access to outdoor spaces for all girls and women. Mary-Jane is also a competitive swimmer working toward completing open water swim events in all 50 states.
Mary-Jane and Angie talked about:
- Why summer camp is a powerful growth environment for youth (and adults)
- The business of summer camp: 8 weeks or 3 days?
- Mary-Jane’s career path from camper to lifeguard to camp director to CEO
- How to translate outdoor leadership experience into resume-ready skills
- Mary-Jane’s 50-state open water swim goal and how camp swimming started it all
- What the media gets wrong about Girl Scouts
This conversation is for anyone who’s ever felt like their outdoor experience doesn’t “count” on a resume.
Check out these resources:
- ✨ Mary-Jane on LinkedIn
- 🌳 Girl Scouts of Northern California camp info
- 📱 @gsnorcal on Instagram
- ➡️ The Cairn Project on IG
- ✨ The Cairn Project’s newsletter
- 🥾 Become a Trailblazer
- 📅 Summit Scholarship Foundation
Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!
You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:
- Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
- Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.
- Share this episode with a friend or family member.
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The Cairn Project
Mobilizing to empower young women in the outdoors through grantmaking.