What Are Today's Young Adults Seeking In A Summer Role?

If you’ve been working in summer camp for a while, you may have noticed a shift in what motivates young adults to spend their summer in ministry. The 2025 UMCRM Summer Staff Impact Study provides concrete data to match that intuition, pointing us toward simple, powerful changes camp leaders can make right now as we prepare for next year’s hiring season. The clearest takeaway? While paying a fair wage is important, today’s young adults are driven more by purpose, belonging, and joy far more than by paychecks.

The Top Motivators for Staff in 2025

For first-year staff and returners alike, across the UMCRM network the study revealed three motivators that rose above everything else, each showing strong patterns in the data:

1. To have a positive impact on others

This was the #1 motivator on both the first-year staff list and the returning staff list.

• Among first-year staff, 93% said this was “very” or “extremely important”.

• Returning staff reported nearly the same result: 95% also said it was “very” or “extremely important.”

Young adults want meaningful work. They want their efforts to matter. They want to see the lives of campers change, and know they played a role in it.

2. To experience community and make friends

Community consistently ranked near the top:

• 81% of first-year staff rated this “very” or “extremely important.”

• 85% of returning staff said the same.

Belonging isn’t a bonus—it’s essential. Staff consistently named friendships, connection, and shared purpose as central to their decision to serve.

3. To have fun

Fun landed at the top of the list as well:

• 79% of first-year staff said having fun was very or extremely important.

• 83% of returning staff echoed that priority.

Camp remains one of the few work environments where joy is part of the job description, and young adults are actively seeking that. Here’s the contrast that should grab every Director’s attention:

• Only 32% of first-year staff and 32% of returning staff said “earning or saving money” was very or extremely important—placing it at the bottom of the entire motivation list.

Purpose. Community. Joy. These are the magnets; not money.

A special insight about male staff

While most motivation patterns were similar across genders, the study did identify one key difference: Male staff placed significantly higher importance on “a friend or mentor encouraged me to apply.” In other words, personal invitation matters, especially for those harder-to-recruit positions, and especially for our young men. Whether it’s encouragement from a peer or a nudge from an adult who believes you’ll be a great counselor, those individual connections helped to get guys to apply for camp positions.

What This Means for Recruitment

These insights give camp leaders an immediate advantage. Too often, recruitment messaging emphasizes schedules, job descriptions, pay rates, and responsibilities. Those things matter, but they do not spark initial interest. Insights from the research suggest three simple shifts Directors can make:

1. Lead with purpose.

Frame recruitment around impact, transformation, and meaningful relationships. Consider language like:

• “Make a difference in someone’s life this summer.”

• “Shape faith, confidence, and joy in the next generation.”

• “Help campers experience God in new and powerful ways.”

Your staff already believe this is why they’re showing up—98% told us so.

Showcase authentic community.

Use photos, videos, and stories that highlight connection, shared laughter, and belonging. With over 3/4 of staff naming community as a top motivator, it’s crucial to let applicants see the relationships waiting for them.

Don’t shy away from joy.

Fun isn’t frivolous. For 79% of staff, fun was a deciding factor. Show the playful side of camp: messy games, campfires, unexpected silliness, and moments of delight.

Finally: make the invitation personal.

Especially for male staff (and honestly, for everyone) a direct invitation makes all the difference. A mentor, youth pastor, former counselor, or camp leader saying, "I see something in you" is often what tips a young adult from “maybe” to “yes.”

Try This This Month

Pick five former campers, youth group members, or local college students and send them a personal message inviting them to consider serving on summer staff. No mass emails. No generic announcements. Just one leader saying, "I think you'd be extraordinary at this.”

That single, personal note may be more persuasive than a dozen job posts.

Bonus: Leverage your camp alumni and recent past staff. Prompt them to make a personal invitation to someone who they know would be a great summer staff member. Additionally, think about other adult leaders like youth workers, parents of current and past staff, and clergy, asking them to identify young adults (especially young men) whom they know and could extend an invitation to. Provide an easy action item: a postcard to share, or some sample text and a landing page link they can give to a promising camp staff prospect.

Up Next in the Series

In our next post, we’ll explore the most powerful predictors of staff success: support and agency, and why these two factors change everything about how young adults experience camp. 

Until then, thank you for the steady, faithful work you do to invest in the next generation of Christian leaders.

Want to explore the full dataset behind these insights? Dig into the complete 2025 UMCRM Summer Staff Impact Study Findings Report.