Summer Camp Spotlight: Pierce Camp Birchmont

Learn more about the camp directors who are making an impact on CIEE BridgeUSA programs and discover why they consider CIEE an essential partner. 

Q: Please introduce yourself. 

My name is Peter Brimstone. I'm the assistant director at Pierce Camp Birchmont in New Hampshire. I'm originally from Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. 

Q: Can you tell us your history with this camp? 

Sure. I first started here in 2008 as a very young and green counselor. I was an activity specialist. 

I was the activity instructor and then I moved on to being a group leader, a head counselor, head of soccer at one point, athletic director, and then finally got the call up to the big leagues and now assistant director. 

Q: Can you talk about your relationship with CIEE? 

My relationship with CIEE is through our hiring of international staff. About half of our camp counselors and all of our support staff are international. So CIEE is an agency that we use to help bring those young people across to work, study, and to do a bit of cultural exchange. 

A lot of them are students or they're working in their home countries, and they come to the U.S. to experience summer camp, which is something quite unique for them. It was the same for me when I was a young 20-year-old who was wanting to see another culture, another country, spend a bit of time in the U.S., in an environment that we don't really have – certainly not in the U.K. We work with CIEE to find those young people who have similar aspirations to come, who want to work with kids, who want to share a little bit of their culture, their background, and to get this experience in the States, as well. 

Q: And how long have you worked with CIEE here? 

We've worked with CIEE in its current capacity I think for, well in my role, for the past two years.  

Q: And what do you like about CIEE? Why have you returned to it? 

We returned to CIEE for the quality of the staff that we got. We don't recruit huge numbers of international staff. We try and get a balance between domestic staff in the United States and international staff. 

And last year (2024), our first year with CIEE, we brought in about a half-dozen counselors who were great. We really enjoyed the depth of preparation they had had. And certainly in the applications, you know, things like videos, introductory videos, where you could get a bit more of a feel for them, for their personality, because so much of this job is personality. 

Of course, there are hard skills that go with some of our activity specialists, but really, it's about finding the right people. And what I found doing the hiring is that CIEE’s platform and how they engage with applicants gave me an opportunity to find out a little bit more about them before I got them here, which made me confident they would succeed. And then this year, we expanded that to go with the Summer Work Travel program as well, to try bringing some support staff in for the first time. And that, again, has been great.  

One thing I like about CIEE, as well, is the diversity of home countries. Traditionally, we've always had a lot of staff from places like the U.K., from Ireland, but certainly through the support staff model to be able to get candidates from countries where we maybe haven't had participants before has been something we've used this time. 

We've had our first support staff member come from Jamaica. We have another from Mexico, a counselor from Australia. Getting that diversity among our staff is pretty key as well. 

Q: Is there anything else you can think of that you'd want to say about CIEE? 

It's been a good start. I am excited to see – certainly with the Summer Work Travel program – where that goes and if we can get some more superstars through. 

I think the team has been great that we've engaged with. Long may it continue! 

Looking to hire camp counselors and staff for your upcoming season? Learn more about how CIEE BridgeUSA can help with your operational needs through the CIEE BridgeUSA Camp Counselor program.