IBA Bachelor Student Spends Summer as Horse-riding Instructor in USA

16.10.2023

Alexandra Kukhtina Goes through New Challenges and Rewarding Experiences at Camp Jewell YMCA

Over the course of last summer, IBA Bachelor student Alexandra Kukhtina, specialising in Economics & Management, had the chance to undergo a completely new experience by working as a counsellor and horse-riding instructor at Camp Jewell YMCA in Connecticut, USA.

As the end of the school year approached, Alexandra had been searching for work opportunities abroad, thinking of ways to spend her vacation. While doing so, she began following many social media profiles that advertised temporary vacancies, which eventually led her to an Instagram post about summer camp jobs in the United States. After reading more about it, she created a profile on a recruitment agency’s platform and was soon contacted by Camp Jewell – a popular sleepaway equestrian camp for children – and subsequently accepted their proposal.

The student highlights that, even though she had started camping when she was 10, and had attended various summer camps in Russia, Spain and Turkey, this was the first time she had worked as a counsellor.

“I wanted something extra apart from school, which would enable me to hone my skills and invest in my personal development. The agency was searching for people with specific competencies, and we had to include them in our profile. I mentioned that I could teach guitar, dancing and horse-riding, and I was very happy that they accepted me as a horse-riding instructor, which was my priority, because I absolutely love horses and I had always wanted to teach that.”

Despite having started riding horses when she was four, it had been three years since Alexandra had last practised the equestrian arts due to the pandemic. For this reason, she decided to participate in three trail rides in the Netherlands before traveling to the USA. “For many years, I had been going every summer to Spain for a one-month horse-riding camp, but because of the pandemic the last time I had been there was in 2019. After that, I had only taken one private lesson here in the Netherlands, last year. So, I went on the trail rides because I needed to practise and remember how to handle the horses.”

Alexandra was required to start her summer job on 8 June, which would mean she would miss the end of her school year. However, Wittenborg allowed her to anticipate her final exams. “This support was really helpful to me, because Wittenborg allowed me to finish my school year almost a month earlier. I studied for the exams on my own, using the materials that were on the module online area, and submitted my exams in advance. And, although the school has a 75% attendance requirement, I had attended enough classes, so that wasn’t a problem,” Alexandra explains.

Getting Started at the Camp

Before the camp started, Alexandra and the other staff underwent a two-week training during which they were introduced to the establishment’s rules and routine and developed various new skills including belaying, driving gators, making campfires and tying knots. She also learned the basics of archery and obtained an American Red Cross Certificate.

In total, the camp’s staff comprised 120 people coming from many different countries, including the USA, Netherlands, Ireland, England, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Mexico, Chile, Honduras, Colombia, Brazil, Mongolia, South Africa, Scotland and Spain.

At the end of the training, the participants were invited to voluntarily teach a lesson to the rest of the group, so that their coordinator would understand their level of knowledge and define their roles in the camp. Although Alexandra was sick and with a high fever on the day she was supposed to teach, she decided to do it nevertheless, delivering a horse-riding lesson.

“I did it because I wanted to be an instructor, and not a camp assistant, as I really wanted to challenge myself. Afterwards, my coordinator said she was very happy that I taught that day because otherwise she would have had to make me an assistant for the whole summer, but I was assigned as a full instructor.”

A Challenging and Rewarding Experience

Alexandra spent two and a half months at Camp Jewell until the end of her contract on 20 August. During this period, she took care of four different groups of kids – each consisting of approximately 10 children and staying at the camp for two weeks.

In addition to working as a horse-riding instructor every day, from 9:00 to 16:00, she also collaborated with her recruitment agency as a content creator, producing videos about her experience. And, after finishing her job, she spent 12 days travelling through different cities and regions in the United States.

According to the student, her summer was very fulfilling, and interacting with the kids was a fun, challenging and rewarding experience. “It was a great responsibility to take care of the kids, ensuring their safety and at the same time having a lot of fun together. The biggest challenge was to find the balance between setting and following the rules and being fun at the same time. However, it was really rewarding to see the kids finding solutions to the problems they encountered, making progress in getting along with each other and becoming friends and improving a lot in horse riding. They gradually start trusting us, and at the end of the sessions they would dedicate us songs and write lovely messages.”

Alexandra points out that it is important to have hobbies not necessarily related to one’s studies or profession, because this is a pleasant way to acquire useful skills.

“You never know which skills life will require you to have, and when you push yourself to participate in different activities you sometimes acquire not only the abilities you went for, but also additional skills that are coming to you unconsciously. By being part of an international team at the camp, I was forced to build on multiple competencies including intercultural communication, teamwork, leadership and problem-solving. These were real-life situations and practical knowledge instead of just sitting with a book, and that pushes you and makes you learn new skills that will be really useful in your life,” she concludes.