As a freshman at Samford University, Lawson Cribb had no idea she would end up majoring in education, or that her major would end up taking her to Costa Rica.
Cribb, a senior majoring in elementary education with a concentration in Christian missions, is interning this semester at WinShape Camps International. Owned by Chick-fil-A, WinShape Camps International unites local churches and communities outside the United States with the message of Jesus Christ through the experience of camp.
Cribb travels from Birmingham to the Chick-fil-A Corporate Support Center in Atlanta every week to write the curriculum for the organization’s international camps that will be held next summer in Brazil and Costa Rica.
During the camp, kids will participate in Skills twice a day. These Skills sessions will include games, activities and creative projects. There will be five Skills and four activities per Skill. The Skills include Arts and Crafts, Man Land, Girl World, Recreation and Group Games. Cribb is writing each Skill based on the theme for the summer, Road Trip, and will connect them back to the gospel.
“The theme is Road Trip, so everything has to do with that,” Cribb said. “One of the things they are going to be doing is painting a view that they would see out the window driving down the road, so they would paint the mountains, a bird, the sunset, and then we would talk about how God created all of that, and the same God also created you. We’ll talk about how they are created in the image of God and how they are daughters of the King.”
Although Cribb’s internship will end after this semester, she has the opportunity to go with WinShape Camps International to Costa Rica next summer for six weeks to teach her curriculum. She will serve as the volunteer coordinator and will travel to different communities in Costa Rica to train the local volunteers who will teach the curriculum to the kids participating in the camp.
Not only will Cribb get to the see the fruit of her hard work in her internship, but she has also gained a different type of educational experience working more behind the scenes, as she is training those who will teach children. However, working for an international camp has not been without challenges.
“It’s been interesting because you have to make sure you can locally source the resources in the country because you can’t take it all down there,” Cribb said. “We have to get it in the country, so that’s been interesting trying to figure out.”
Cribb has previously worked for WinShape Camps during the summers in college and also traveled to Costa Rica for a spring break project this past spring. It was that trip that sparked the idea for her to apply for the internship after she fell in love with the culture and people of Costa Rica.
Along with writing curriculum, Cribb is also participating in personal development, in which she’s learning about cross-cultural servanthood.
“My supervisor and I are reading this book about cross-cultural servanthood, so we’re talking about serving with humility when you’re going to other cultures and writing from that perspective, as well,” Cribb said. “You want to assume the best and not try to change the culture in any way, but be more aware of it so you can serve them and love them best.”
