Capstone provides opportunity to ‘find commonality’

This summer nearly 300 Portland State students will spend two weeks in the great outdoors working as counselors at Kiwanis Camp on Mt. Hood, where they will help youth and adults with disabilities experience camping to its fullest extent.

Four two-week sessions of the Senior Capstone course entitled “Learning from Persons with Disabilities” will be offered from mid-June to mid-August. The program will try to recruit about 60 students for each session.

Counselors will be working one on one with children and adults with physical and mental disabilities during the two weeks. During that time campers will partake in activities such as canoeing, fishing, horseback riding, arts, crafts and swimming.

The program is in step with the university’s goal of embracing diversity, said Dr. Ann Fullerton, Portland State special education professor and practicum coordinator for Kiwanis.

“For the student, the goal for them is to get to know a group of people that they usually might not have a chance to meet,” Fullerton said.

Kiwanis Camp Director Skye Farina said that that the success of Kiwanis can be seen in the number of people that keep coming back each year.

“We have many returning campers and counselors returning as staff, which speaks volumes for the program,” Farina said.

Fullerton was one of those people that kept returning to Camp Kiwanis. She started as a counselor when she was 13 years old. Now, 26 years later, she remains actively involved in the program.

“For me, it was important for my own growth … that I can build relationships with people unlike myself and find commonality,” Fullerton said, recalling her experience as a counselor at Kiwanis. 

Fullerton said that she is touched by the papers she reads from students who have been counselors at Kiwanis in recent years that have had positive experiences similar to her own.

“The thing that I hear over and over again is that it’s the hardest thing they have ever done, but it’s the best thing they have ever done,” Fullerton said.