February News from LAJF and CRS
Every month we send out an email newsletter to keep you — our community — up to date with everything going on at LAJF and CRS! If you aren’t already subscribed to our email list, please click here to subscribe. We’ll be sharing the link to the newsletter each month:
Below is the February message from our LAJF Executive director, Helene Mattera:
Dear Friends,
As our team is hard at work preparing for the upcoming summer Camp season, we have some important updates to share with you.
Organizations like ours continue to be impacted by the pandemic, and the safety of our program participants and staff remains our top priority. Camp Rising Sun is a global program and a core part of our mission is bringing people from all around the world together. COVID-19 has presented new challenges to how we operate and has inspired us to find innovative ways to connect young leaders across cultures.
Our team has made the decision to host one in-person Camp Rising Sun session, a Virtual CRS session, and Virtual Intensives. The in-person session will be for female and non-binary identifying individuals. Due to pandemic-related travel restrictions, we are also unable to welcome the full scope of international campers at our in-person Camp. In order to ensure as much access and opportunity to our programs as possible, we are hosting Virtual Camp Rising Sun and Virtual Intensives for the third summer in a row.
This summer, even though our program operations may look different than previous years, our goals remain the same. We are committed to deliver, as we have for the past 90s years, transformative leadership education experiences that provide opportunities for growth for our campers.
Please read on below and visit our website to learn more about the updates to this year's Camp Rising Sun season.
In gratitude,
Helene Mattera
LAJF Executive Director
Important Updates about the Summer 2022 CRS SeasoN:
We thank everyone who has applied to our programs this year. Please note the changes to our program made in light of the current Covid-19 Pandemic as of February 2nd, 2022. Anyone who applied before February 2nd has been emailed to discuss next steps.
Updates to our requirements:
The in-person Camp Rising Sun program in 2022 will be one session for female and non-binary identifying campers. Virtual CRS is an all-gender program.
Dates of in-person CRS are: July 1st - July 29th, 2022
Dates of the Virtual CRS session are: August 4th - August 17th, 2022
In-person CRS applicants should:
Live in the USA
Live in a country that participates in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program,
or live in a country that does not participate in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program that has a visa wait time of below 75 days as of Friday, January 29th as per the U.S. Department of State website.
Have a full medical (physical and mental healthy) evaluation prior to arrival. Proof of the COVID-19 vaccine is required to participate in the in-person CRS program.
The rest of the newsletter includes:
Learn more about Virtual Camp Rising Sun! Watch a testimonial video from VCRS alumna, Sara.
Join the College Student Network mentorship program. Go to lajf.org/csnapply to apply (deadline is February 1, 2022), and go to lajf.org/csninfo to learn more.