In Episode 02 of Leaders of Tomorrow, LAJF Executive Director Helene Mattera talks to Janna DeLoach Pennington, whom she attended Camp Rising Sun with over 20 years ago. Janna went on to serve as Director of Student Leadership and Programming at Samford University before starting her own consulting firm, Janna Pennington LLC. Helene and Janna talk about:
How they each even heard about Camp Rising Sun in the first place
The shock both to Janna and her parents at her leaving home to go to Rhinebeck, New York for eight weeks—especially coming from the “small town” of Statesboro, Georgia
How CRS shaped Janna’s personal growth, and fundamentally changed her
The seeds Camp Rising Sun plants in young minds—sparking curiosity, exploration and a desire to learn about the world
How important it is for young people to believe in themselves, and be brave
Listen now:
Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Leaders of Tomorrow. I'm your host, Helene Mattera. We created Leaders of Tomorrow to share inspiring stories of hope with you, personal stories about the ripple effect of one individual on their communities and the world. Each episode features one of our alums from Camp Rising Sun and shares a glimpse into how their teenage experience at our program helped pave the way to how they lead today.
Today, our guest is Janna DeLoach Pennington, an educator and counselor helping individuals and groups focus on empathic communication and understanding. She and I went to Camp Rising Sun together in 1997. She, from Statesboro, Georgia, me from Brooklyn, New York. In so many ways our lives were different, but for both of us, Camp Rising Sun burst open the small bubbles we had been living in. She shares with us her relationship to Camp Rising Sun from age 15 and how it impacts her work today. Hi, Janna.
Hi, how are you?
Good. Janna and I went to camp together in 1997 and it was a pleasure meeting her at Camp Rising Sun. Janna, would you paint a picture for us? It's 1997 in Statesboro, Georgia, and you decide to apply to Camp Rising Sun.
Sure. So it's been a long time now, so I have to really dig deep to remember that time. In 1997 in Statesboro, Georgia, I was a freshman in high school. I attended a public high school that was the only high school in my small town. The town had about 30,000 people, probably, including a college, but a small town, for sure. I was active in a bunch of activities at school and I was a cheerleader at the time. I lived with my parents and my younger siblings in what I thought was a pretty typical kind of suburban-like neighborhood, enjoyed spending time with my friends. We spent a fair amount of time out at my grandparents farm on the weekends, doing all kinds of outdoor activities as well. I think at the time I just assumed it was a normal... It was normal to me, and I think I had a pretty good comfortable life at that time.
When you applied to Camp Rising Sun, what did you know about it beforehand? There's often I hear stories about people who were told it was a science camp, for example. That's what I was told. And so there's a lot of misunderstanding. What did you think you were getting yourself into?
My mom had spoken to somebody at the grocery store in a typical small town fashion there. You can't go to the grocery store without seeing 15 people that you know. But my mom had spoken to somebody at the grocery store whose daughter had attended Camp Rising Sun previously. I don't know how the conversation came up, but she shared with my mom some information about the camp, and because it was coming straight from the source of someone whose daughter had attended the camp, I think she probably had a little better information to share.
I knew that it was an international leadership camp, and I was interested in leadership. I held several leadership roles at my school and in the community, and so I think it was appealing for that reason. My friends, however, did not understand what in the world I was doing and they referred to camp rising sun as "Nerd Camp" all the way before I left, while I was there, and really once I returned and was talking about the camp. So I don't think they got it, but I think I had a pretty clear idea, to some extent, of what it was going to be like as an international leadership camp.
Lucky for you. What made you get on a plane? Was that something that was comfortable to you, the idea of getting on a plane and being away from home for eight weeks?
I'm laughing because I really can't believe that I did it, and I can not believe that my parents allowed me to participate. I had pretty much lived, well, I had lived my whole life in Statesboro, Georgia. My dad is from Statesboro, Georgia, and my mom had lived there for a long time before I was born, and that was sort of my world. I knew, I think, on some level that there was a lot outside of the bubble that I lived in, but I didn't really know anybody who had been outside of the bubble, I guess. And so when I think about the fact that I, as a 15 year old, thought, "I can do this by myself and go to this camp for the whole summer," it really reminds me that I must've had some courage that I didn't realize that I had.
Janna laughed as she recalled how unlikely it was for her to be getting on a plane to fly to CRS for two months, away from home, for the first time.
I think I was interested in learning. I think I knew that there was a world outside of Statesboro, Georgia, and I think I was curious about that and kind of wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and the world that I knew, but I don't think I had any idea what I was doing. I was really nervous getting on the plane to go to New York. I had never flown anywhere by myself. I had never been to New York. I had not traveled many places outside of Georgia besides just visiting grandparents and things like that. And so I really didn't have any travel experience, especially alone. And so doing that was a huge leap for me to get on that plane by myself and go somewhere where I didn't know anyone or have any idea what to expect when I stepped off the plane.
What are some special moments that sparked something new in you? What are some of the camp experiences that all these years later you look back on and really feel like it stood out in your personal growth?
One big experience was the hiking trip that we took as a group. It was the first time I'd ever been hiking in the mountains and so that was a big deal. And I loved it. I really loved it. I remember how hard it was climbing up to the peak of this mountain, and then getting to the top and celebrating with my fellow campers who were there, and just feeling on top of the world, literally and figuratively. Because of that, that's something that I have done a lot more of in my life since then. I participated in an outward bound program when I was in college and moved to a city where I live now where hiking is readily available, and that's a big part of my family life now. So I think that was a big experience for me.
Another experience that really has had a big impact on me is our council meetings, which were weekly gatherings around a campfire and when we would come together and share about the week and share about our lives and sing. It was a really meaningful time. I remember those meetings being really powerful, but there's one particular thing from one of those meetings that stands out to me. Mary Murphy, who was the director of Camp Rising Sun at the time, I remember her talking about the people at camp and the way that she talked about the beauty within each person is something that I think about often. I think the specific words that she used was, she said, "There's a universe in each of us." I don't know that I had ever thought about people that way.
I had had this camp experience where I had met all these different kinds of people who were beautiful to me in different ways, and I was beginning to see like, "Oh, wow, each person has so much to offer to the world and all these powerful stories that people bring." But Mary's words, I think, it summarized my experience and gave me something that I could take with me into the world after camp. I actually talk about her saying those particular words, that a universe exists in each of us, all the time when I'm working with different groups or individuals because I think a lot of my work now revolves around bringing people together and helping people to understand themselves and other people.
I think that that's a critical piece, is just recognizing that a universe exists in each of us and the only way you can experience that universe is to get to know a person, and that your universe isn't the only one, the one that you live in. And so we have to be in community and in relationship with other people and really spend the time listening and getting to know them for us to experience that big, broad universe that has so much to teach us.
So the eight weeks has ended, you had all of these experiences and it's sounding like your heart was full of newness and excitement. I know from so many alumni who I've talked to that there's this going home experience. We even have activities and workshops for campers to prepare them for going home. We've even called them re-entry workshops, which sound cultish. But we do know that it's different when one person has evolved and changed so much the way that it seems to happen at Camp Rising Sun. When they go home, there can be a disconnect because you have changed but that bubble that you talked about probably hasn't. And so you go home to a family that has basically not had this injection of newness and stimulation, and then your friend group and your school. And so everyone's story about going home is different. What was your story like going home?
It's interesting when you talk about the re-entry, because I think having worked in higher education this language that we use to talk about people coming back from study abroad experiences, and I think Camp Rising Sun sort of is that. For a lot of campers, it really is abroad. For me, it was just across the country, but there is a challenge of leaving that experience that is so focused and meaningful and returning to where you came from.
I remember, I think that I knew that I had changed and I knew that the experience had changed me, but I don't think that in the moment I had the words to express that, or I couldn't process that as a 15 year old, I don't think. But I knew that I had changed and I wanted people to know that. And so the first thing I did was dye my hair purple, which was much to my parents' chagrin. At the time I didn't think this. I didn't think, "Oh, I'm different. I want to dye my hair so everyone can tell." But I think I had this desire. I wanted people to know, "I'm different. I still pretty much look the same except for the hair. And I'm talking the same and doing the same activities, but I'm not the same as I was when I left."
Beyond dyeing my hair purple, I had a desire to share the things that I had learned at camp with people around me. I think it's hard to share, especially as a 15 year old, this whole shift in worldview about a universe exists in each of us and we can all come together from different backgrounds and perspectives and be together and that'd be a meaningful experience. So I think the things that I chose to share were changeable things like I drove to the nearest big city and purchased all of the supplies I needed to make couscous and hummus and sushi. Came home, made it for my family and friends and none of them had ever had those foods before either. And so I got to share the food portion with my family and friends.
I think that now with a good bit of hindsight, I think that it took me years to sort of reconcile the experience of Camp Rising Sun with my life. I didn't go away and come back and I was different and I lived my life differently. I think that there was a seed planted at Camp Rising Sun that continued to grow through the rest of my life, but it took some work to figure out, "How do I live out the values of Camp Rising Sun and the things that I learned there in this different environment where those things are not necessarily valued in the same way?" I think I made mistakes and at times I felt like I had to choose one or the other. So it's hard to live both ways, I guess is kind of how I think about it now.
I think it took me a little while to figure out that I could be Janna from Statesboro, Georgia and also live out the values of Camp Rising Sun without leaving Statesboro, Georgia or leaving the people who had loved me and cared for me prior to camp, and that it was possible for me to take that experience from Camp Rising Sun and share that with other people in a way that might have an impact on my community. But it didn't. That didn't happen immediately.
Yeah. As I talk to alumni about their camp experience, I think what you're sharing I've heard many times where the idea of planting a seed and that it's something that grows in us, that change grows in us and it means something different to us at different times of our lives. Something that I've thought has been interesting. So you and I went to camp together in 1997 and we fell out of touch. But as soon as we reconnected a couple of years ago, it was as if we just picked right back up again, and that bond was there.
In that conversation, you shared with me this concept that really blew my mind. You talked about your girlfriends at the time and how, as you were home back in Statesboro, Georgia, that you began planting those seeds in the people around you. To me, that's the purpose of why we run Camp Rising Sun is that we instill these values in some small number of campers who come each year, but then they go and shed a light, a bigger, brighter, light, broader light, to the people around them. Could you just tell us a little bit about what that experience has been like for you and your friend group?
Yeah, sure. So I had a couple of really close friends when I went to camp and when I got back, they were the ones that I shared music in particular with. I remember, they were my safe space and so I felt like I could share those things with them. They were open to learning about new things and being exposed to different ideas. So I shared my music interests with them, which were sort of contagious, and so they sort of took that on and I think just ideas and stories about camp. Those friends, it's really interesting now because two friends in particular who I have kept in touch with over the years, these two friends have gone on to do really amazing things. Certainly, I don't take credit for that, they're amazing people. But the thing that has kept us close is this curiosity about the world and interest in exploring different people and places and ideas. I can't help but wonder how much of that was prompted by the seed that was planted at Camp Rising Sun.
A few years ago I got together with these women for kind of a reunion weekend. We hadn't seen each other in a while. And one of my friends said, "Do you remember when you went to that camp?" I can't remember if she called it the Nerd Camp or not, but she said, "Do you remember when you went to that camp in high school?" She was like, "You brought back all this stuff and I think it changed all of us." I hadn't really thought about it until that point, the domino effect that it can have in communities. Something like Camp Rising Sun didn't just touch my life, touch one person's life, it touched my friend's lives who have gone on to touch other people's lives. My sister too I think is another example. She's wonderful and changing the world in all kinds of interesting and amazing ways. I think some of the sense of possibility I think that's instilled at Camp Rising Sun can be transferred to other people as well.
Yeah. What's interesting for us at the foundation where we run Camp Rising Sun is each summer our campers come to us and we work with them, and we get to know them, and we plant those seeds, and then they go back home and sometimes we don't hear from them. Something that I loved about reconnecting with you was really hearing that it did make a difference.
Well, so in 2008, I had finished my master's degree in counseling and I took a position coordinating a service learning program at the university in my hometown, in Statesboro, which I had sworn I would never return to. And long story, way too long for this podcast, but I interviewed with one person for the job and accepted the position, was really excited about it, it seemed like a perfect fit for me, and then found out that that person who was going to be my supervisor was leaving and a new person was coming in. I was a little nervous about that, but soon found out that my new boss was also a Camp Rising Sun alum.
So he was the director of the Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement at this university and I was going to be working with him. I hadn't known him previously. He's older than me and so we hadn't really crossed paths before this. I mean, it was just uncanny. We couldn't believe that we were working in this office together, and that we had both sort of traveled around, and been different places, and had ended up at this university working together doing leadership and civic engagement, which is largely what Camp Rising Sun is about, and had shared this really important life experience.
And so I guess I was in my late twenties then, and so that was also the time in my life when I was moving into, "Who do I want to be as an adult? What do I want my life to look like? What career am I going to pursue and why?" I think working with him reminded me that, "Oh yeah, this isn't really an accident that I ended up working in student leadership and civic engagement. This is part of that seed that was planted by Camp Rising Sun so many years ago." And having him, it was the first camp person I had seen face-to-face pretty much at all since camp. And so talking to him about that experience and the role that it had played I think kind of got me thinking again about camp and the role that it had played in my life when I was younger.
I think too, so now I've spent many years working in higher education and doing consulting kind of stuff, and it's all been related to leadership development and service learning and community engagement and kind of bridge building between cultures and that sort of thing. I think the deeper I've gotten into that career and found that that's the role that I want to play, that I sort of feel called to play in the world, I realize that, again, it's no coincidence that finding myself where I am today is a direct result of that Camp Rising Sun experience that I had when I was 15. And so, as I've become more aware of that, it has made me want to be more involved with camp and to help to create that experience for other campers so that 25 years down the road, they open their eyes one day and realize that that seed that was planted so long before has shaped their lives in so many significant ways.
That's really beautiful. I love that story, and I love stories like that with the alumni finding each other in funny ways. Like you said, it's kind of no coincidence that Camp Rising Sun alumni are drawn to similar types of work of service.
When we realized that we'd both been to Camp Rising Sun, I think we sort of thought that we were invincible. I mean, it was like, "There's two of us in one office. Let's do this thing. Let's take on the world."
How did you figure it out, just out of curiosity?
Well, my mom knew that he had gone to camp previously. And so I mentioned to her that, "Here's my new boss. I found out who my new boss is going to be." And she said, "Janna, he went to Camp Rising Sun like you." And so of course, when I talked to him that was one of the first things that we talked about.
So thinking about Janna at 15, she seems super cool and really insightful and brave and courageous and I sure liked her when I went to camp with her. What advice do you think 15-year-old Janna would give you today? What would she think about your life and what you've accomplished?
I think 15-year-old Janna was unsure about who she was or what role she could play in the world, or even if there was a role that she could play or an impact she could make. But I think one thing that 15-year-old Janna knew was that she was brave and was willing to take some risk and try new things. I think as I have gotten older, that has been a challenge for me to put myself out there. To be intentionally uncomfortable I think can be harder to do when you're older than when you're young. And I think a 15 year old Janna would say, "The world is waiting for you. Get outside your comfort zone and go try something that you don't think you can do and see what happens."
That's awesome. I think that's really good advice. I'm going to try and listen to 15 year old Janna too in my own life.
Me too. Me too.
Yeah. I think the world has changed so much since we went to Camp Rising Sun. I think part of the gift and curse of going to Camp Rising Sun and meeting people from all over the world is that you then love people all over the world. With everything going on, and there's so much struggle and challenge and sadness, it feels like it is more intense because when you hear about something going on in the news, it's not just some anonymous, faceless person who's suffering, it's you can quickly imagine someone that you care about, someone that you knew personally and sat across the table with, and it becomes more personal. I find, for myself at least, that sometimes it's overwhelming, and I need to find doses of hope here and there to keep me feeling fueled so that I could keep going and serving. And so I just wonder, what gives you hope today?
That's a tough question these days, isn't it? When I look around, I see some of the things that you mentioned. It's just, there's so much division, there's so much hate. There's not much listening to each other. There's not much believing other people's experiences, and it does seem hopeless like, where do you even begin to try to fix this or make the world better than it is? But I think that one place that I find hope is knowing that I have experienced what it's like.
I have experienced a world where people who do not agree, do not have similar backgrounds, come from different countries and cultures and religions and all the things, I experienced all of those people coming together and building relationships and listening to each other and learning from each other. And since I've experienced it, I know that it's possible. I think remembering that it's possible gives me fuel to do the work I do, where I'm trying to bring more people together and help people talk to each other. Camp Rising Sun was the first place that I ever experienced that—where those bridges were being built between people and cultures. I think just knowing that it's possible has given me the strength and desire to try to recreate that in various areas of my life over the last 23 years.
I hope our listeners feel hope today and that this has inspired them to be brave, to think about their 15-year-old self, to think about their Camp Rising Sun experience if they're an alum, to get curious about what our program is all about and get involved. I just want to thank you for sharing this experience with me, and I'm so glad that I got to go to camp with you in 1997 and be your Brooklyn Tony Danza experience.
Well, thank you. I'm so honored that you would ask me to be on the podcast. It is a great honor, and I'm so thankful to reconnect with you and Camp Rising Sun and to be a part of all of the great work that you and camp are doing in the world.
Well, thank you, Janna. That was absolutely beautiful. A tradition that we have at the end of our weekly council campfire is to announce the names of the campers who will serve in leadership roles the following week. Campers wait all summer to hear their names be said, and there is this smile that crosses their faces as they stand once they've been said. After the camp director announces all of the names of the future leaders, they say, "We look forward to your leadership." Well, I look forward to the leadership of the young people who come to Camp Rising Sun now. Like Janna, it gives me hope for the future.
Something that Janna was too humble to mention during the recording was that she just launched her own website and her consulting business. She shared that simply being asked to think about 15-year-old Janna reminded her to be brave and that she has something worthwhile to offer the world. You can learn more about her business and her bio below. I look forward to seeing how she continues to make a positive impact and the ripple effect of that work on her clients. Thank you for joining us today, and you can find all the links and show notes for today's episode at www.lajf.org/podcast. Remember to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platform to hear more inspiring stories of leadership, connection, and hope.
About Janna:
Janna currently works as a Personal and Professional Development Consultant as CEO of the firm she founded, Janna Pennington LLC. She also serves as an instructor at Greenville Technical College in Greenville, South Carolina. She earned a Bachelor’s in History at Furman University in 2004 and a Master of Education and Professional Counseling at the University of Georgia in 2008.
Connect with Janna in the CRS Alumni Group on LinkedIn.