Counselors are selected by the Director of the Summer Program and the Dean of Students based on their experience and interest in working with young people, their character references and their interpersonal communication skills. The Dean of Students organizes a comprehensive 11-day training and orientation session for all resident counselors prior to the beginning of the Summer Program. Topics covered during orientation include first aid, responsible counseling, conflict mediation, and campus safety. Counselors are the primary link between students and the Summer Program. Students can feel free to approach their counselors with questions, concerns, problems or just plain homesickness.
Every effort is made to provide as much individual student-counselor contact as possible.
There are four Junior Artist dormitories, each with four student rooms, one counselor room and shared bathrooms. Students are housed by sex and age, four to a room. Two or three counselors live in each dorm. There are three girls' dorms and one boys' dorm. Supervised by their counselors, students are responsible for cleaning their own rooms and the common bathrooms.