Xcelerate 2018

Depending on how long you’ve been following me, you may know that since 2013, I’ve been working at the summer camp programs at my local community college.

When my journey began with these summer camps, I was an assistant instructor for the Lights, Camera, Action! camp, and I taught children between the ages of 7-14 how to make movies. That camp went through several changes through the years, and I’ve been there through most of them.

In the last couple years, my work with the summer camps expanded. I began helping with other camps in areas that I wasn’t as familiar with. This could be very challenging at times, but I got through it, and it gave me a more detailed idea of how the Xcelerate camps ran as a whole.

This year, I was given an opportunity. The program developer for Xcelerate asked me if I wanted to take on the role of program coordinator. I accepted her offer.

Making the change was a bit difficult for me. I’m not a huge fan of change. I’ve been an assistant instructor for so long. It’s really become a staple of my summer over the years. The worst part about making the switch was that I would not be able to be a part of Lights, Camera, Action. I’m still feeling the sting from that as I type this. It was hard to let go of.

Taking this position was probably a good thing for me to do. It gives me the opportunity to bring my producing skills to an office environment. It gives me more responsibility over the camps that have become such a large part of my life as of late. It also delivered a decent pay raise, which I was in desperate need of after financing my latest short film.

Upon publishing this post, I have been working in this position for three weeks. It’s been entirely prep work up to this point. The camps are just now about to start.

It’s going to be a big adjustment for me to not have the same role I have had for years. I’m hoping this isn’t too hard of an adjustment. There are definitely a lot of positives about this new position. They far outweigh the negatives.

Since I’m doing a lot more logistical work with the camps this summer, I won’t be making regular posts about it. I will probably reflect on the experience once it’s all said and done though, so look out for that!

I’m just really going to miss Lights, Camera, Action.