Best Girls Overnight Summer Camp in New York

History of Excellence

There is a special feeling at Schodack, one that can be hard to put into words. When you step onto our beautiful campus, there is a sense of being part of something positive and something bigger than yourself. Perhaps this comes from being one of the premier overnight camps for in the country for over 60 years.

We are a coed camp that knows how to create a dynamic, warm and nurturing environment for our entire community.

Camp Schodack has been owned and operated by the Krouner family since its creation in 1857, and is now in the 4th generation of family ownership. This type of continuity and experience makes our campers and staff feel a deep sense of connection to the history of the camp. Our strong continues down through our year-round team of seasoned assistant directors and to our summer leadership team as well. Camp Schodack is known throughout the country as a traditional, industry-leading community that offers the absolute best in programming, leadership and facility offerings. As active members of the camp community, our team combine the best of camp traditions and innovative leadership.

Girl Bonding

Our girls camp consists of 140 girls aged 7-14. This smaller, intimate number allows all of our female campers to get to know each other and to feel part of a broader community. Positive group cohesion is essential to what we create, and each camper is placed in a bunk with 10-12 other girls her age. We get to know all of our families well before the summer so we will know your daughter’s interests and personality so we can create a bunk for her that we know she will love. The 3-4 dedicated counselors in each bunk are also hand placed by our leadership team, and nearly all of these bunk staff will have been former campers at Schodack themselves. This is totally unique to Schodack! Your daughter will be connected with a longtime camper in our teen program who will connect with her in the month before camp and meet with her on opening day.

You daughter will also be connected to other girls in her bunk prior to the summer so she feels comfortable and ready to acclimate to camp on opening day. Positive relationships among girls at Schodoack are just a natural way of life. Our campers are supportive, encouraging and always willing to meet new friends. We do not allow social cliques or “in-grouping/out-grouping.” These social dynamics are simply not a part of Schodack’s culture and our campers thrive because of it. Because of Schodack’s reputation as a positive and welcoming environment, the types of families who seek us out also care about these values and totally buy-in to our community.

A Break From Social Pressures

There are challenges to being a young woman in today’s culture. Life is fast-paced, activities are competitive and technology has created social difficulties that are hard to keep up with. At Schodack, we pride ourselves on offering a break from these pressures. Our policies at camp are rounded in our core belief about child development, ad we are intentional in what we focus on. We do not allow any devices at camp that can access the Internet, have videos games or any screens for movies. Campers do not have cell phones or personal computers.

A break from this technology is liberating for our campers, and the face-to-face interactions and appreciation for the outdoors blossoms in our environment. All of our campers also where camp shirts throughout the day. We do not want camp to be a place where our female campers are trying to “out-dress” each other or become competitive about material objects. Camp is a place to be silly, active and not focused appearance and so our semi-uniform helps create a level social playing field. When you thoughtfully create a community around common values, and you stick with them for decades, you can find yourself with something very special. That is what Schodack has become and it is why our campers and families return year after year.

Programming Your Daughter Will Love

Our days at Schodack are active! We offer every team and individual sport you can imagine and offer instruction at the highest level. Each of our sports facilities are top notch and surrounded by our beautiful, 100-acre setting of open fields and private woods. Many of our campers take advantage of our on-site horseback riding, a unique offering among smaller private camps in New York. We feel that both riding and tending to the care of the horses is an important growth opportunity for our campers.

For the more adventurous, we offer an amazing challenge course (both low to the ground and 50 feet in the air) and exciting special facilities like a huge waterslide and 300 year zip line. Our program offers a combination of structure and choice, which allows your daughter to experience everything we offer and still have plenty of time to focus on the areas she loves most. We also have lots of activities designed for our entire Girls Camp to engage in together. This gives the younger campers a chance to look up to the older campers and our older campers to develop leadership skills. The evolution through girls camp from Junior to Senior Camper is a wonderful thing to watch. Your daughter will be filled with pride when she realizes she has become the type of leader on camp that she looked up to in her earlier years.