ISSUE #4 UNITED KINGDOM
LIV ERP OOL
CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS IN LIVERPOOL ONE
THEY were called the Fab Four but to anyone who knows the city of Liverpool The Beatles were not the only amazing success, which has originated from the banks of the River Mersey. What is most surprising for those who have never been here, and we know that many of you have, it was known as the second city of the Empire because of its wealth and as early as 1851 described as ‘the New York of Europe’. Indeed it housed the first United States consulate in 1790. It has also been home to famous
writers, actors and musicians and Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 1, was first premiered here in October 1901.
Smaller Earth umbrella of the then fledgling Camp Leaders.
And therefore, it can hardly be any coincidence that when you bring so many diverse cultures together in one spot there is a melting pot of ideas and incredible energy.
It was founded by Chris Arnold and Dave Robinson in 1999, after they themselves had experienced the life changing opportunity travel offered. However, after those camp programs with BUNAC, they saw opportunities to make it a more inclusive experience to generations of young people, more used to the back streets of a North West city, than the golden beaches in some faraway exotic climate.
It was hardly unexpected then that it became the global birthplace of the
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The place is teeming with driven people keen to succeed in whatever walk of life, whether it be sport, humour or in business.
The pair founded Camp Leaders and based it on a simple philosophy, namely, that through ambition and passion, anything is possible. It’s a core belief of determination and a desire to follow that great American poet Robert Frost’s analogy of following the path less well travelled, which carries through our Western culture. Their voices were weak at the time but the message was strong and in the first year they sent 32 people to camp. However, once that message began to come across to young people, the business began to boom. So much so that it was able to move in to premises on Seel Street. It was there with a fledgling national team, the firm recruited double the number of participants for its second summer. Smaller Earth’s commercial manager Pete Hanbury said: “Moving forward to 2009, the firm I now work, for came to fruition, particularly as the opportunity and desire to inspire people to go further, in a literal sense, began to stretch beyond summer camp in the States.” This was facilitated by the addition of volunteering, internship and work and travel programs, which offered participants an exciting array of opportunities. Early successes came for the new firm in the shape of the Canadian Winter and the US internship programs. He explains: “Since that time the size and depth of the Smaller Earth program portfolio has shifted a few times, moving to its current focus, with Work and Travel and Au Pair opportunities leading the way.”
“As SEUK we’re now committed to the growth and development of our participants’ numbers within the other brands to ensure they become fully established portions of our portfolio.”
With just weeks before we herald in 2015, Smaller Earth UK is, according to Pete, going through a maturing process in terms of defining itself and its programs. “We’re now fully embracing the ‘UK’ in SEUK as we look to hone our individual identity. In the UK we’ve traditionally suffered from the fact that the name Smaller Earth applies to both the company that we work for and the range of programs that we offer, causing internal confusion towards who we are. “Moving forward, however, we have altered the perspective slightly to provide greater clarity and to bring a sense of identity to the UK office.” He hopes the move will bring strength to SE operations, allowing it to bring more to the global table with the aim of removing the unconscious divide between camp and non-camp programs. He adds: “Having come about backwards, the fact that Camp Leaders is the flagship program, which accounts for 80 per cent of our participant numbers, means that there had previously been a subconscious draw of time and resources towards that one program. “As SEUK we’re now committed to the growth and development of our participants’ numbers within the other brands to ensure they become fully established portions of our portfolio. SEUK is bigger than the individual.”
MEET THE TEAM
M I K E P E T E R S UK Director
Previously, Mike spent 16 years at New York YMCA, the final eight of which was in a full time role as its camp director. Part of his duties included recruiting in the U.K., Europe and South America. Nowadays, you can often find Mike watching a zombie movie or playing golf. His ‘lovely’ Scottish accent regularly resonates around the office.
P E T E H A N B U R Y Commercial Manager
Pete is the commercial manager for Smaller Earth. He spent three summers working at Camp Shane and lived for six months in South Africa. Among his other adventures, he participated in a 12 country rally from London to Ulanbaatar, spent time in Mongolia and even drove a campervan along Australia’s Great Ocean Road in an epic monthlong journey. He plays hockey in his free time and 2015 will see him taking to the road once again to run the London Marathon, with hopefully, lots of support from the rest of the team.
C H R I S C O V E N T R Y Brand Manager
It is Chris’s job to ensure that our online and offline marketing is running smoothly and our brand image is connecting with our demographic. He also ensures our recruitment strategies are always ahead of the game. Chris comes from a retail background, having worked as a store manager for Top Shop at the tender age of 20. Having worked at Camp Horizons, Chris was lured to the dark side working for Camp America as an area rep, until he saw the light and applied for a full time position with Camp Leaders!
J A M E S M E L L A N Brand Team
James joined Smaller Earth where he is involved in all things digital. He spent two summers in New Jersey, where he worked at Easter Seals Camp Merry Heart, catering for adults with special needs. In 2013, he backpacked around nine different countries in South East Asia, where he volunteered with orphans in Cambodia. Something you may not know about James is that he can sing every word to every song on the Arctic Monkeys’ first album. If you don’t believe us; test him!
H A R R Y P U R C E L L Brand Assistant
Harry has recently taken on a new position as brand assistant for Smaller Earth U.K. His main responsibility is taking care of all offline activity and marketing as well as leading the national team. He originally started out as a national team member himself ,after spending three summers at URJ Eisner camp in a variety of different roles.
H E L E N C O U R T Global Travel Co-ordinator
Helen has been with the company for over 10 years. She is currently taking some time away from the office on maternity leave, to raise her son Harrison. Helen’s unique and creative ways of viewing situations will often leave her global travel teammates inspired. Helen’s favourite holiday destination is Mexico.
S O P H I E H O D G S O N Global Travel Adviser
Sophie is currently away from the office on maternity leave, raising her son Ted. She worked at Camp Lincoln and Lake Hubert for several summers, where she met her husband, who is also part of the Smaller Earth family. Sophie loves animals and will often be found in the stable taking care of her horse Bill, a favourite amongst the rest of the office staff.
N A O M I T U R N E R Guru - Team Member
Nao heads up the Camp Leaders guru team, looking after applicants post-interview and making sure their applications look perfect. She takes the lead on organising the hiring fairs for the U.K and spent ten summers working at a Girl Scout camp in Virginia. She loves to be busy and splits her free time between roller derby and volunteering with the police force.
R E B E C C A F E R R A N Guru - Team, Member
Rebecca has been working in the office since 2011. After a brief stint of volunteering, she started processing the Aussie-based applications as well as working with the U.K returners. Rebecca spent four summers at a camp in Massachusetts and, more recently, travelled to Prague to gain a TEFL qualification. She loves to write, whether it be blogs, web content or poetry, but cannot be trusted with filing, as reciting the alphabet can be a struggle. She can often be found subjecting the rest of the Gurus to a musical One Direction ‘power hour’.
M E L C A M E R O N Guru - Team Member
Mel is the inspiration for Mark’s impressions, joining the U.K office from a small village just outside of Cardiff. She is part of the team, which help applicants prepare for summer camp, and right from the moment they finish their interview until the day they board the plane. She is preparing for her 14th summer at Camp Equinunk and Blue Ridge and loves spending time in New York and taking lots of photographs.
I A N M I L L S Guru - Team Member
Ian is another valuable member of the team. Over a period of 17 years, he has spent seven summers at a camp in upstate New York. He has also travelled to many different countries, but has lasting memories from his time in Israel, while he found Mexico to be an amazing place. He may be the eldest person in the office but he will happily remind you that he does not look it!
M A R K N I C O L S O N Explorer Team - Co-ordinator
Mark is the co-ordinator for the team, which head up both recruitment and sales in the U.K. office. Mark spent four summers at Camp Mondamin, an outdoor adventure camp for boys. He also spent a summer coaching sports in Hungary. Mark is great at motivating his team and his impression of a Welsh accent could have you believing he was born and raised in Cardiff!
J O N O ’ B R I E N Explorer Team - Global Travel Adviser
The U.K. office’s answer to Clark Kent, Jon divides his time between the Explorer team and saving the world! When he’s not doing either of these, he can be found playing the ukulele or working at Camp Echo Lake. He lived in Ohio for two years but when it comes to his favourite place in the world, he is torn between New Orleans and Denver.
B E C K Y MATULEWICZ Explorer Team - Global Travel Adviser
You may recognise Becky, as the new face of Camp Leaders vlogging‌ if not, watch this space! She has spent six summers at Island Lake Sports and Arts Camp and also took a three month trip around Europe. She loves to learn about new cultures and trying different things. She is also part of a young farmers club, who take part in a lot of fundraising events. To that end, she will shortly burn some rubber by pedalling 400 miles in a week long challenge to raise money for charity!
S T U Y O U N G Explorer Team - Global Travel Adviser
Stu brings enthusiasm and energy to everything he does. He has spent eight summers working in the States and has also travelled parts of South America, Australia and New Zealand. If you ever want to hear an interesting story, ask Stu about the time he looked a Great White Shark in the eyes and survived...!
R A C H A E L R O S S Explorer Team - Global Travel Adviser
Rachael has been with Smaller Earth for four years now and currently works guiding participants through the process for the majority of the SEUK programs. She has had the best of upbringings as a child and in her youth at the family owned Camp Cody, a summer haven where she still spends her summers. Aside from generally being the only American accent heard in the UK office, her adventurous nature makes her stand out; her hobbies include surfing, paddle boarding and cycling.
J O E G R E E N Explorer Team - Global Travel Adviser
As another member of the explorers team, Joe, has had a busy few years. After working at both Camp Winnebago and Camp Mondamin, Joe cycled 800 miles through Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as spending time coaching soccer in Budapest. He recently returned home to England after a year-long ski season in Canada and is currently planning his next adventure to the Australian outback.
K I M B A K E R Global Travel Co-ordinator
Kim heads up the team who work on the SEUK programs. She can tell you something interesting about every program she has worked on and has travelled extensively, working in Maine for seven summers and taking trips to Australia, New Zealand and several parts of Europe. She would love to visit Italy and South Africa in the future. If you ever want to make Kim sneeze, just offer her a mint, it works every time!
K A T I E C U N L I F F E Flights and Logistics Co-ordinator
Katie has just entered her fifth season working for SEUK. In the past she has worked at two different summer camps namely Camp Wapanacki and Camp Lake Hubert. She also took a two month trip to Australia, where she climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge and back in Europe she spent a fortnight coaching sports in Hungary. Katie loves to bake but balances this out by running 10k and half marathon races throughout the year.
N I C K G I L E S Social Media - Recruitment Adviser
Nick joined the company in September and is working hard to promote recruitment through social media.
He has spent time over in the States working as a soccer specialist and has toured both the East and West coast. He has a background in events promotion but secretly dreams of becoming an astronaut.
B E N O W E N Intern
Ben is the fresh-faced intern of the office. He will be working in the U.K office for a year, before returning back to Manchester Metropolitan University to continue business studies. In his spare time he enjoys playing basketball, both for a local team and his university. This hobby has taken him on coaching trips and tournaments all over Europe.
R O B S C O T T Information Technology Co-ordinator
Rob has been part of the team since 2008. While he is the technology expert in the office he loves to spend his free time reading Terry Pratchett novels and watching anything Marvel related on TV. He previously spent time on the other side of the world in the Camp Leaders Melbourne office.
LANGUAGE Afrikaans
MERRY CHRISTMAS Gesëende Kersfees
Czech
Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok
Danish
Glædelig Jul
Esperanto
Gajan Kristnaskon
Finnish
Hyvää Joulua
French
Joyeux Noël
German Greek Hawaiian Hindi Icelandic Irish Italian Japanese Korean Latin Lithuanian Maori Norwegian Polish Portuguese
Froehliche Weihnachten Kala Christouyenna Mele Kalikimaka Bada Din Mubarak Ho Gledileg Jol Nollaig Shona Dhuit Buon Natale or Buone Feste Natalizie Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto Sung Tan Chuk Ha Natale hilare Linksmu Kaledu Meri Kirihimete God Jul Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia Feliz Natal
Russian
Srozhdestovm Kristovim
Spanish
Feliz Navidad
Swahili Tagalog
Kuwa na Krismasi njema Maligayang Pasko
Thai
Suksun Wan Christmas
Vietnamese
Chuc Mung Giang Sinh
Welsh
Nadolig Llawen
TEAM PHOTOS BY Dean Maddocks & James Mellan
DESIGNED BY
2014