Help make the magic happen while reducing your costs.
Our covenant begins “We value the “Summer Institute Magic” that we co-create for one week every year”. We are blessed with a community of talented people, who are willing to share their gifts. In return, the community acknowledges these gifts by awarding ‘camperships’ to those that are willing to work at SI.
Camperships are not designed to cover all of your costs. If a campership does not cover enough to make your attendance feasible, you can also consider applying for a scholarship.
What is a Campership?
A campership is a discount off of the cost of SI that is given for some of the larger volunteer positions. This is not to be mistaken for community workshifts, which are the small, one-time jobs that we ask everyone to sign up for as a service to our community. It is also not to be mistaken for scholarships, which are given to individuals towards their SI costs that are funded by donations and given based on need.
Camperships are our way of acknowledging that you are giving up some of your vacation time to co-create SI magic.
Part of the deal: As safety is a priority for any community, all campership recipients will have to submit the information necessary to initiate a background check. Once you have passed the background check, you will be given the information you need to register: your campership # and the value of the campership. The value of the campership will reduce, but not eliminate, your registration fee. You must finish registering before April 1st.
To determine which tiers to assign for the many campership jobs, we considered things like time required year round, time required shortly before SI, opportunities missed at SI, and time required at SI.
Why are we doing this? Why do we have camperships at all? The answer to that is that we highly value the work that many, many people put into making SI happen. We also recognize that SI is a vacation for most, so when they are doing a lot of work during it, they are working through their vacation.
Finally, we realize that many people rely on their camperships in order to come to SI. We hope that keeping costs down for all will help toward that end. We also want to remind everyone to please apply for scholarships as needed – we want you there!
Additionally, if you receive a campership for work but would like to donate it to the scholarship fund or the operating fund rather than using it yourself, we’ll be offering a way to do that at registration.
How Can I get a Campership?
Apply for a Job
LEARN MORE & APPLY NOW!
There are other campership positions at SI that can not be filled by submitting a proposal. We also need to staff golf cart drivers, RE teachers, worship pianists, and so much more.
These jobs can be involved and take time to learn or be something perfectly suited to a first-timer. Some positions are awarded for a single year, others for 3 years at a time.
If you are interested in this level of involvement, you have to look each year to see if anything fits your skill set.
Review available jobs available and apply today! There are still a few jobs available for 2023!
Submit a Proposal for a Morning Seminar or Afternoon Workshop
One big way that you can help make CERSI awesome is to help us offer strong programming that will appeal to a range of people. The leader of a morning seminar or afternoon workshop will receive a campership/fee waiver of $300. Two or more leaders may split the campership. Questions should be directed to the workshop coordinator at [email protected].
If you have an idea or passion you’d like to share, please submit a proposal. Use the same application form for both Morning and Afternoon proposals. Applications for CERSI 2023 have already been accepted and applications are closed.
Morning Seminars
Morning seminars meet Monday to Friday for 75 minutes. They can be learning-based or activity-based, and topics might be spiritual, practical, physical, intellectual, gustatory, artsy, musical, or more!
Morning seminars are intended to be attended by the same people all five mornings, and therefore can support a curriculum that builds upon itself each day. When writing your proposal, consider the ways in which your seminar may appeal to a variety of attendees, support the SI Covenant, and affirm and promote UU principles and values. Also, please think about the space. Will your seminar work well in a classroom setting? We will reimburse expenses up to $50.
Morning Seminars are chosen with an effort toward providing a variety of options to the community (i.e. spiritual, intellectual, physical, hands-on, etc.)
During registration, adults pre-register for their top 3 choices for a morning seminar. If not enough people register for your seminar, it may have to be cancelled.
Afternoon Workshops
Afternoon workshops at Summer Institute are intended to be drop-in events that people can attend anywhere from once to all five days. Because afternoons are inter-generational, afternoon workshops can be designed for children, all ages, or adults. As a general rule, workshops tend to be more casual than morning seminars and are often sports, games, and crafts, although they are by no means limited to these options. Do you have a creative idea for ways that the community can play, explore, or learn together? We want to hear it!
When writing your proposal, consider the population and age group to whom it is likely to appeal. It can be designed for outdoor or indoor spaces. The budget is limited to $50.
Applications for CERSI 2023 have already been accepted and applications are closed.