Every month, we’ll be highlighting a member of our wonderful global alumni community. This is your opportunity to get to know the people who have attended Camp Rising Sun (CRS), hear the favorite parts of their experience with our program, and see what they’re up to now!

This month, we’re spotlighting Sarah Schecter (CRS ‘19, ‘21), who hails from Oakland, California! Sarah was part of our most recent in-person Camp cohort in 2019, and then went on to help facilitate our virtual CRS session this past summer. Through her experiences at Camp, she discovered what servant leadership means to her and the ways in which she can embody compassionate leadership in her own life. A recent high school graduate, she is now in her first year at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is studying theatre and culinary anthropology.

Read our interview with her below to hear more about her favorite Camp memories and what she’s most passionate about!

Name: Sarah Schecter

Pronouns: She/her

Hometown: Oakland, California

Camp Years: ‘19 and ‘21

Education: Freshman at UCLA

Can you describe your experience with Camp Rising Sun?

I attended in-person camp in 2019 and fell in love with the collective values of the CRS community and the beauty of Rhinebeck. After Camp ended, I was thinking about it every day after coming home, so I knew I wanted to apply to be a second year camper. In 2020, CRS was postponed because of the pandemic and then in 2021, it moved online. Alongside a crew of awesome second year campers and counselors, I learned about the incredible virtual program that LAJF staff had developed and I assisted with planning specific days and activities. Helping to facilitate virtual CRS this summer was an amazing process of realizing the wonder and excitement about servant leadership that I had initially felt as a first year camper. As a second year, I appreciated that we were supported by staff while still having a lot of space to grow. I think that’s a beautiful alignment of virtual and in-person camp: It is an intentional and joyful place where the day is centered around growth and connection. Virtual CRS reaffirmed that Camp could be held in outer space or the depths of the ocean, and we’d still give each other feedback, hold tent talks, and take the time to create tangible community.

How did you find out about CRS and what made you choose to attend our particular program?

I found out about CRS from my friend Zeb, who attended a few years ago and came back as a second year camper. I was excited by his stories and clear sense of belonging with the community, so I applied as a first year high school student, but I didn’t quite have enough leadership experience and it didn’t work out. I applied the next year after I had gotten involved in a few community organizing and art projects in Oakland, and leadership at my school — it was definitely the right time for me to apply and grow as a leader, and I was so excited to be invited to join!

Before you attended Camp, what do you think you were most nervous about? What were you most excited about?

I had never been to sleepaway camp before, and I was most excited about the idea of being around so many young people from all over the world. I was a little nervous about the idea of being around people all the time because I really value my time alone. When I actually got to Camp, I realized that so many other people were feeling the exact same thing, and that having reflective quiet time is built into each day! It ended up being a perfect social balance for me.

What is a skill that you feel CRS helped you to develop further or expand on?

While the clearest answer is leadership, I think that developing an understanding of self-reliance is something that CRS has really helped me expand on. I now understand self-reliance as having faith in myself and a sense of self within a group, not simply how to function on my own. A special part of the program is each person’s discovery of what elements of servant leadership align with their closest values. Through Camp, I’ve been able to embody my own interpretation of servant leadership, which involves connecting with other people and embraces some element of awkwardness and silliness for authenticity.

What is the greatest lesson you've learned through your experience with CRS?

Leadership stems from bringing up solutions, not problems. At camp, this looked like always taking the time to be kind and connect with each person in a group, which extends to any situation really well. Sometimes being a leader is as simple as the person who’s ready to move a group forward in a compassionate way.

What is your favorite memory from your time at Camp?

Camping at the Red Hook campus! There was a thunderstorm so we escaped our tents to an old amphitheater. My friend from Sweden made a spaghetti dinner while my friend from Korea helped my camping group use twigs as chopsticks to serve the pasta (I love chaos). We were able to go back to our tents to sleep and stargaze, and in the morning we picked wild berries for breakfast in Red Hook’s misty green fields! It was so magical. For virtual CRS, one of my favorite memories was making memes in a breakout room. People were creating memes on everything from time zones and language translation to the enthusiasm of CRS facilitators and Zoom meditation. It was absolutely ridiculous. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe — I never knew I could laugh like that on a Zoom call!

Why do you think it's important for young people to learn compassionate leadership skills?

At Camp, I realized that compassionate leadership opens up new possibilities for the way people interact with one another. One evening, we were having a group discussion on communication and tradition. Someone suggested that a ritual for saying sorry could be to hand someone else a rock and sincerely apologize, then the other person throws the rock into a body of water to show that they accept the apology and are ready to move on. Everyone in the room really loved this idea, so, Laura (LAJF’s Program Director) decided to adapt the evening program so that we could all take part in this ritual. It was a magical experience; everyone walked down to the lake. It was serious and silly and magical and spiritual. People passed rocks to each other then threw them into the lake as the sun set. I remember lots of hugs and splashing of rocks. I think Laura demonstrated an enormous amount of compassion for the entire group. She showed us how to be willing to change plans to accommodate something the group took genuine interest in. Compassionate leadership is personal. It’s sustainable, because it accounts for everyone. It’s important to embrace ourselves and each other, and it opens up possibilities that simply don’t exist within the rigid idea of isolated leadership.

What is the impact that cross-cultural exchange and meeting people from other cultures can have on people and how we relate to one another?

I think that meeting people from other cultures can cement a person’s sense of self in the world and within their own community. Although it’s not exactly emblematic of any significant diplomatic idea, I remember laughing in a circle at camp when we all realized that our moms all scolded us for leaving cups in our rooms at home. There’s an amazing feeling of warmth and connection that comes from celebrating the things that young people share across cultures, no matter how small. Beyond the idea that we have more in common than we do different, cross-cultural exchange can help us grow immeasurably to recognize our differences and help each other grow. Realizing that nobody’s part of a monolith, and navigating differences on a personal level clearly leads to possibilities for peace between nations and groups.

Who are some leaders whether in your personal life, your community, or the world at large, you admire? Why?

Alice Waters, who founded Chez Panisse, the home restaurant of the farm-to-table movement in California. With a “delicious revolution” she transformed the way that most Americans interact with food; she believes that seasonal, local, organic, delicious food should be available for everyone. I admire her dedication to joy and ability to articulate the interconnectedness between seemingly disparate parts of life. Yuri Kochiyama, a civil rights activist from the Bay Area. She spent time in a Japanese Internment camp as a child, and joined civil and human rights movements in Harlem in the 60s. She’s known as a friend of Malcolm X and an incredible community organizer. I admire her attention to friendships that bridged people and movements. Ms. Joshi, my ethnic studies teacher. She always took the time to advocate for every single student, connect with everyone in her classroom, and constantly question curriculum to improve it. I admire her kindness, patience, courage, and brilliance.

What is a cause you're passionate about? How could you use the skills you gained from CRS to make a difference for this cause?

I am passionate about creating food justice—access to healthy, delicious, and ethically produced food for all—and exploring culinary anthropology, which I define as using different historical and cultural lenses to discover the social impacts of cooking and eating. Food is at the center of history, culture, politics, migration, religion, language, science, economics, and happiness.

My fascination with food has led me into multiple professional kitchens, where I’ve realized that I wanted to learn about both the food I was cooking and the people I was cooking it with. CRS has been a mindblowing experience of hearing about cultures from around the world on an incredibly personal level. Through conversations with the CRS community, I’ve learned that many Peruvians are resentful at the world for suddenly embracing quinoa, and almost all comfort food from the American South hails directly from West Africa.

Over the summer, I worked at Chez Panisse, the home of the farm-to-table movement which encourages restaurants and people to cook with fresh, locally grown, and sustainable produce. It was a fantastic continuation of other restaurant work that I’ve done, and the kindness and individuality at the restaurant reminded me of everyone at Camp! I also got some experience with working towards food justice during the pandemic. I cooked meals with organic produce leftover from local grocery stores that my friend delivered to unstably housed families nearby. My friend and I were able to do this on a weekly basis for over a year because we were both willing to support each other in order to support our neighbors who needed meals—we wanted our meal delivery to be sustainable, so we had to communicate well. I relied on my learnings from CRS that having a passionate and hardworking community makes anything possible. I hope to explore food justice on an even more sustainable and wide scale using tools and values from Camp Rising Sun!

What career or educational goals might you have for the future? What about personal goals you have?

I would love to speak more languages! I feel comfortable with Spanish and I’m currently working on Italian, French, and hopefully some more Hindi. When it’s safer to travel internationally, I want to follow up on all of the travel pacts I made with camp friends in 2019! I would love to visit my friends in South Africa, Sweden, Finland, Spain, South Korea, and India! I also hope to continue working in kitchens and eating around the world. I want to keep doing culinary anthropology research, focusing on food sovereignty and culture. I’d love to eventually open an accessible and delicious community-powered culinary museum dedicated to honoring food culture, teaching, and eating.

Can you describe a project you've worked on that you're proud of?

Last year, I was able to connect two elements of my life that I’m passionate about—playwriting and activism—through an international playwriting competition called #ENOUGH: Plays to End Gun Violence. I wrote a play called Hullabaloo, which explored the trajectory of gun culture in America in the form of a tent revival circus show. Hullabaloo was selected and performed around the world, from Germany to South Africa. I wrote Hullabaloo because gun violence exists outside of school shootings in my hometown, and I re-discovered the idea that gun violence isn’t a single story to tell but it interrupts stories—people’s lives—and affects us all. As a senior project in the literary arts program at my high school, I published a book of short stories and plays, which included Hullabaloo. I’ve been able to mail the book to some CRS friends around the globe!

What is a piece of advice you might offer to a young person who is considering applying to attend CRS?

First of all, do it! Second of all, remember that your unique story is exciting and fascinating. It can be so easy to discount all of the cool things about ourselves, when we should just be embracing them and sharing them with other people! Camp Rising Sun is a place that brings out the best in people and helps us all grow. I recommend that you do some research on CRS values and servant leadership, then take some time to articulate how those ideals align with your personal values in your application.

What is a hope you have for our society and our world?

That one day everyone can have a full belly of good food and feel loved.