Camp Rising Sun (New York)
Camp Rising Sun is an international, full-scholarship, leadership summer program for students aged 14–16 by the Louis August Jonas Foundation (LAJF), a non-profit organization.
Among the Camp Rising Sun alumni are a United Nations Under-Secretary General; a president of Harvard University; a winner of the Intel Science Talent Search; a Foreign Minister of South Korea; two former Israeli ambassadors; an Under Secretary of State in the Carter administration; and folk singer Pete Seeger.
Located on 176 acres (71 ha) in Upstate New York,[1] including land once owned by the Livingston family, Camp Rising Sun (CRS) is one of the longest continuously running summer programs in the United States.
[citation needed] It was founded just after the stock market crash in 1929[2][3] by philanthropist George E. Jonas with the mission to "develop in promising young people from diverse backgrounds a lifelong commitment to sensitive and responsible leadership for the betterment of their communities and world.
[2] The Louis August Jonas Foundation's mission is to "develop in promising young people from diverse backgrounds a lifelong commitment to sensitive and responsible leadership for the betterment of their communities and world.
[8] Prior to the 2018 Boys’ Session, the camper in charge for that day was called the sachem,[1] a word that refers to an Algonquian chief.
[2] Campers carry out landscaping projects to improve the camp, such as building a Finnish sauna or a Japanese rock garden.
[2][3] Jonas said, "Schools give you technical training, but they don't necessarily teach you how to think" and he set up his camp to supply that need.
[2][3] There is instruction by staff, visiting alumni, guests, or other students on subjects like international affairs, microscopes, filmmaking,[3] creative writing, and landscaping.
Each Saturday evening, there is a large campfire, at which campers discuss their different countries and cultures about global issues, prejudice and hate and hear presentations, sometimes by outside lecturers.
A camper's journal from 2006 states, After waking up at 8 a.m., I had breakfast, attended morning assembly, and worked in the kitchen during teamwork time.
After tent check at 10 p.m., I stayed awake and talked with Sepideh (Iran), Anissa (New York), Su Bin (Korea) and Annalisa (Utah), the hiking counselor.
[18] On October 20, 2014, the LAJF Board announced that the sale of the Red Hook campus was to be postponed for six months and that they would seek to be better engaged with CRS alumni, including providing for electronic Town Hall meetings and other increased communications on its New Dawn plan.
[19] In mid-2015, after extensive meetings by the Board's Strategic Planning, Building & Grounds and Finance Committees, the LAJF Board agreed to consider the reopening of the Red Hook campus provided certain funds were raised by the alumni, $550,000 of which was needed to be raised by early September, to gain a "formal" commitment to do so.
In record time, over 300 individual contributors responded to this call, and the Board declared the first hurdle for reopening Red Hook a success.
Since 2015, Camp Rising Sun has run their summer program from the Clinton campus, alternating Boys and Girls sessions.
