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Odyssey Teen Camp Blog | Recent Posts

Packing For Summer Camp: An Insider’s Guide to Packing Smart
The countdown before camp has begun, and, while excited, you may be less than enthusiastic about packing. Whether you’re speed packing after diligent procrastination or slow packing far in advance, we’d like to share some tips and tricks for a smoother experience. ...

Gender Diverse Housing at Odyssey Teen Camp
Our biggest question One of the biggest questions we get all year is how we assign campers to their cabins at OTC. Unlike many other camps that decide housing based on the binary genders of “boys” and “girls,” we at OTC have chosen a different approach. We...

Giving the Gift of “Magic” (The Gathering)
I freshly remember my first experience with Magic: the Gathering (shortened to Magic for the rest of this post) at OTC. Here I am, a 13-year-old kid so far tainted by society that I start my first summer at camp trying to find out where I “fit in” and who I...

Telling Ourselves a Different Story
Learning from disappointment and frustration When a camper wants to call home after only being there for a few days, they usually ask their parents to come and get them. They are tired from walking; they don’t love the rustic camping lifestyle; they miss their cell...

OTC is Rising Like a Phoenix From The Ashes
"Cosmic Phoenix Rising" by Laura Milnor Iverson I don’t know the story of that phoenix very well, but I think it’s about renewal, resurrection, transformation, strength, and all sorts of things that sound really good to me. I started Odyssey Teen Camp about twenty...

Anything But Typical: Celebrating Neurodiversity at Odyssey Teen Camp
Too often, young people are punished for being different. As a neurodivergent person, my teenage years were punctuated by pressures to conform. Teachers and authority figures weren’t interested in how my mysterious brain worked or how fully I felt my feelings. They...

What Social Justice Looks Like at Odyssey Teen Camp
“What are the ideas that will liberate all of us? Science fiction is simply a way to practice the future together...practicing futures together, practicing justice together, living into new stories. It is our right and responsibility to create a new world.”-adrienne...

The Fear and Fun in Getting Ready to Go Back to Camp During a Pandemic
When Covid came to town last year I was as scared as just about anyone. My wife, who is a Nurse Practitioner, was going to work at a hospital in NYC every day, treating many patients with COVID 19, and I was staying home afraid. A bubble? I knew early on in this...