During the school year, Rachel Oestreich works in the Central Bucks School District. Her job is to teach digital marketing, web design and other skills that will serve students well in the digital age.
In the summer, Oestreich works at Golden Slipper Camp in the Poconos. There, she’s still teaching valuable life skills. They’re just more social.
That’s camp, she says.
“The true magic is the friendships these kids make,” she said. “Camp is all about getting to meet new people.”
On April 5, Golden Slipper announced in a Facebook post that Oestreich, 31, will take over as assistant director. The Warminster resident has worked at Slipper since 2014 as a counselor, village leader and girls’ head counselor.
As one of two assistant directors alongside Matthew Freedman (also announced in that post), Oestreich will focus on camper experience and administration. Freedman’s focus will be Jewish programming and recruitment. Both will work under Camp Director Justin Guida.
Golden Slipper is rooted in Jewish values and has a camper body that is about 70% Jewish, according to goldenslippercamp.org. Oestreich went to Hebrew school and had a bat mitzvah and confirmation at a Huntington Valley synagogue that is now a Russian Orthodox church.
“From my perspective, Judaism is all about doing what you can to help others,” she said. “I want to be at camp and pay it forward.”
Oestreich takes the same approach with campers as she does with students. While the 31-year-old often teaches digital skills in school, she tries to do so in group environments.
She offers a recurring lesson during these activities.
“You’re going to have to work with people. You don’t have to like them. But you do need to be respectful,” she said. “I translate that to camp.”
Oestreich called it a lifelong skill.
“Learn to communicate and problem solve as opposed to getting angry,” she said.
As a village leader and head of girls’ camp, Oestreich gave counselors fun activities to build connections between kids. Sometimes, counselors went around in the evening and asked kids for their highs and lows of the day. On other occasions, they would ask for favorite colors or desired superpowers.
“Little things that are silly and help them build those lifelong relationships,” Oestreich said.
The assistant director wants camp to be remembered as a happy place.
“Camp is their safe space where they make those memories that keep them going throughout the year,” she said.
Growing up, Oestreich attended Indian Valley Day Camp in Huntington Valley until it closed. Then she worked at Willow Grove Day Camp for a year before it closed as well.
Oestreich’s brother was still a camper, so her family began researching which camp to send him to next. They found Golden Slipper.
Oestreich called it “the best happy accident ever.”
She started as a senior counselor about a year before she became an instructional assistant in her hometown Centennial School District. As an instructional assistant, she worked in emotional support classrooms and learned how to help students figure out that “they can get better at whatever they want,” she said.
Oestreich applied that skill to camp. She could help counselors get through to campers who were having a difficult time. She could even help counselors by exposing them to different activities and experiences that could teach them about themselves.
“I like getting to see campers experience things they’d never get to do, but also counselors,” Oestreich said. “Just the joy in their faces when they find that new thing they like. It’s a pleasure.”
This summer, Oestreich is going to make sure campers are happy and that the office is running smoothly. Long term, she plans on spending summers at Slipper and going into a training position to help teachers use technology in the classroom.
“My main excitement is getting to help more. Now I have more stuff to do,” she said.
