Here at Eagle’s Nest Camp, we are proud to be one of the three programs run by the nonprofit Eagle’s Nest Foundation. For nearly 100 years, ENF has been providing hands-on educational programs for young people, founding The Outdoor Academy (OA) in 1995. OA is an accredited semester school for motivated 10th and 11th graders focused on honors experiential education, outdoor leadership, community-building, and craft.
Although a summer camp and an academic semester school are very different experiences, Camp and OA also have many similarities, and some participants get to experience both! Over OA’s 31 years, we have seen almost 400 ENC campers become OA students, and OA alumni often come back to campus as summer seasonal staff. So, we asked a few of the recent OA alumni who were here for Camp Session 2 this summer to share about their experiences.
Read on for the detailed responses, or view these interviews and hear from camp parents on YouTube.
How long have you been a camper at Eagle’s Nest?
Ash (OA Spring 2026): This is my fifth year at camp, and I’m a Junior Counselor this year.
Jeffrey (OA Fall 2025): This is my sixth year, and my sixth year is my JC (Junior Counselor) year. I got the whole Eagle’s Nest experience!
Sam (OA Fall 2025): This is my seventh year at camp, but my fifth at Session 2. Wow, that’s crazy!
What are some similarities that show up at both OA and Camp?
A: I think the emphasis on community… and finding little ways to bring that into the day, like Goodnight Circle at camp. All of camp comes together, holds hands, sings a song, says Goodnight. We do a similar thing at OA, a different song but same idea. And before meals at camp, we “cheers” and we always pass and wait for everyone to get all the food on their plate and we do a similar thing at OA. So a lot of little pockets of community from camp are carried over in an OA sense.
J: Arts and crafts are very similar and fun. At camp you get to learn about it, and at OA you get to take action with it. At camp you are guided by counselors and other people, but at OA it’s your own imagination. It’s you and the materials.
What are some differences between OA and Camp?
A: OA is a school and camp is a summer camp. I think I learned a lot more at OA. Although, [at camp] I could be taking outdoors class and identify some trees, you really dive into that because you have so much more time at OA. I would say that’s a big difference of being able to really learn more here because you’re here for much longer and it’s a much smaller community at OA. You get so close with everyone in your semester. I would say I know the majority of people’s names [at camp], but I don’t know everyone. You don’t have classes with everyone, you’re not in a cabin with everyone. At OA it’s a much much closer community.
S: Once I got to OA, some of the (camp) staff transferred over and that was super cool. But also I got to get to know my teachers and my residents and everybody as though they were my friends. It was super cool. You get to have such a close relationship with everybody, not just other students, because it’s such a small community.
What are some places around campus where you have memories from both OA and Camp?
S: Cabin 7 Field is a big one for me. At camp, Cabin 7 Field is the place where you learn who you’re gonna be in your classes with and who you’re gonna sit at your table with and things like that. And then being able to go to OA and use it as a space to hang out and a space where you do Goodnight Circle every night at OA, and it was just like cool to have the two different pieces of it connect.
A: I think Wayah, which is the arts and crafts building. At camp I would take stained glass there or other fun little crafts, and then getting to fully explore it at OA was super cool. A whole new supply closet was opened up for us, full of art and craft supplies. I feel like that’s a nice metaphor for, like, a whole new closet is opened [at OA].
Tell me more about that (the agency that students have at OA.)
J: The main [example] for me is getting to go places on campus that at camp you can’t go to, so more freedom. There’s some trails behind the Sun Lodge that I didn’t know were there until I got to OA. Another one, for me, would be the fishing pond. [At Camp,] I could only go there during classes, but at OA, with all the freedoms I had, I got to hang out there a lot more. At Camp you have to stay with your cabin at all times, but at OA you can hang out by yourself or with friends.
S: I think you have a lot more freedom [at OA]. Not to say that you don’t have freedom at camp, but it’s a ton more people and there’s a lot more wrangling little children. [At OA,] with a group of kids who are going to be a lot closer in age to you and also a lot less people, you can go to a lot more places by yourself and so the responsibility that’s given to you feels really nice, especially if you’ve already been to camp and then you now get to sort of experience this campus on your own. It creates a lot more new experiences to have. Even just doing my own laundry at OA was nice.
What might camper families not know when they think of OA? Any misconceptions?
S: There were a lot of people [during camp] who asked me, “Do I just not get to talk to my friends?,” because there’s no electronics at camp, so you are cut off for three weeks from the outside world and that’s part of what makes it so special. But at OA it’s not the same. There is a huge emphasis on staying within the community that you’re living in, but also there’s a landline and you can call your friends and you can call your family and then you get video calls. It’s not quite as isolated (as camp), which I think is very daunting for some people, so it’s not the same.
A: A lot of questions I’ve gotten at camp when talking about OA were like, “Was it actually school?” I grew up thinking of this place as where I go when school is over, and then I got to experience this place as school. So I think a lot of people can’t wrap their head around the idea that this campus can be transformed into a school!
Any final thoughts?
J: Just go for it. You won’t regret it. If you never thought about doing OA, change your mind, you would love it and I recommend it. Not a lot of people get to be here for such a long time.
S: It’s awesome. I think something that makes this place so special is it’s so welcoming to everyone. If you’re a returning camper wanting to go [to OA], you’ll be able to share this place that’s so special to you with the other people.
A: If you go to camp, there’s a good chance that you really love it here. Getting to live here and explore this area in a whole new way was so special.