Encampment Stories

[CAPDCCMOM]

I am getting ready to send some great Cadets to their first encampment. What advise can you all give me, a Senior Member, to give these Cadets. I have a Cadet that has dyslexia, book work can be a challenge, but this Cadet NEVER gives up and has a great attitude. What advise should I give him, and should I let the Encampment Commander know well beforehand?

[PHall]

I am getting ready to send some great Cadets to their first encampment. What advise can you all give me, a Senior Member, to give these Cadets. I have a Cadet that has dyslexia, book work can be a challenge, but this Cadet NEVER gives up and has a great attitude. What advise should I give him, and should I let the Encampment Commander know well beforehand?

Yes, yes, yes,yes, please let the Encampment know about this cadet's condition well before Encampment.
That will give them some time to prepare for this cadet. Otherwise your cadet will probably not have a good time and may even "fail" Encampment.
So give them a heads up.

[CAPDCCMOM]

That is what I thought. Thanks.

[MSG Mac]

Some of these Cadets will be away from home and parents for the first time. Let them know that separation anxiety is common and that the TAC Officers and Encampment Staff are there to talk to if they are needed. Emphasize that they should take the experience one day at a time.
 

[PA Guy]

Do your best to make sure they are mature enough for the experience.

[Tim Day]

If your Wing's encampment is adhering to the CAPP 52-24 the Encampment Commander will be making "reasonable accommodations" and the encampment should be a good experience for your Cadet. The whole point of encampment is that Students learn to work as a team despite the diversity of strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. That said, most of us do not have special needs training. 

As an Enc/CC I'd like to know if someone has a diagnosed condition so I can specifically prepare the Cadre and Staff, but even if we don't know we should be prepared to handle anything that comes up. Speaking for myself, I'd like to talk to the parents about what kinds of accommodations I'd need to make. You should be able to contact the Enc/CC (or the Commandant of Cadets) directly if you're not comfortable including this in the normal application forms. 

[PHall]

Stuff like this is covered on the Medical Form, yet every year we have parents leave stuff off and we find out about it during in-processing.
Maybe if we sent a few home right at in-processing with no refund things would change a little... 

[Майор Хаткевич]

We had to deal with a cadet who had an issue with reading. Cadet was getting zeros on the class quizzes when the rest were averaging 90-100+. Turns out the unit reads the tests to the cadet for this very reason, but no one thought to mention this either on the app, by email, or phone call until encampment staff did the phone call...

[CAPDCCMOM]

Thanks Everyone for the help . I did contact the EC, and got a very positive and helpful e-mail in return. Thanks again, it is appreciated.