At Camp WeHaKee, WOW students step beyond the classroom to strengthen leadership, resilience, confidence, and healthy relationships through new experiences and connections.
As the bus pulls into Camp WeHaKee in Winter, Wisconsin, cell service begins to fade. After a seven-hour ride from Chicago, camp staff greet the group with enthusiastic waves as students step off the bus, ready for a week of new experiences.
For many of the 65 young women arriving from across Chicago and Waukegan, this week will be filled with firsts: first time camping, traveling out of Illinois, rock climbing, horseback riding, canoeing, or tubing. Just as important, it is a chance to connect with peers they otherwise might have never met.
“It made me make new connections,” said one student from Waukegan.
Another arrived expecting students to stick with the people they already knew.
“I thought people would stay in their own groups, but we surrounded ourselves with new people,” she said. “And it was really nice.”
The weeklong experience is part of Youth Guidance’s Working on Womanhood (WOW) program and takes place through a partnership with Camp for All Kids’ Four Star Fellowship, which provides Black and Brown teens and their year-round mentors with a free overnight camp experience designed to strengthen relationships, build confidence, and create opportunities for growth.
Throughout the school year, WOW students develop skills in emotional intelligence, healthy relationships, leadership, self-awareness, and visionary goal-setting. Camp WeHaKee gives them a chance to put those lessons into practice—sometimes without even realizing they are doing it.
“It’s real-life application of the skills they’re learning,” said WOW counselor Lissette Guzman. “Communication skills, starting conversations with someone new, putting yourself in situations that may feel a little scary. Camp gives them opportunities to practice those skills all day for five days.”
Building Connections Across Communities
From the moment they arrive, students are surrounded by young women from different schools, neighborhoods, cultures, and backgrounds. Over meals, in cabins, and through days filled with activities, friendships begin to form among young people whose paths might never have crossed back home.
“My favorite thing about camp is getting to know people from different places and getting to be friends with them,” said CeCe, a WOW student.
The sense of belonging begins quickly. Returning students help newcomers learn camp traditions, explain activities, and ease first day nerves.
“Compared to last year, they were a lot more confident,” said WOW Counselor Lissette Guzman. “They were being leaders helping the new students who were coming here for the first time.”
For the returning students, that shift—from being the one who needs reassurance to the one providing it—offered its own lesson in leadership.
Discovering Confidence Through Challenge
Throughout the week, leadership emerges in both expected and unexpected ways.
At the rock-climbing wall, one young woman became overwhelmed halfway up and wanted to quit. Looking down from the wall, she could hear her counselor and peers calling up encouragement.
“We were all looking on as she was going up,” recalled WOW counselor Rolyne Pritchard.”It got to a point where she said, ‘I can’t continue. I can’t do this.’ But everyone was encouraging her. She kept going and made it to the top.”
When she came back down, the young woman thanked her counselor, Rolyne, for believing in her.
For Rolyne, the moment captured what makes camp so powerful. Young women encouraging one another through challenges and discovering strengths they did not know they had.
But not every challenge came with a harness or climbing wall.
Counselors watched students navigate uncertainty and difficult situations happening back home while still choosing to remain present and engaged in the experience.
“I’ve been noticing some of the girls having emotional moments because of things happening back home,” said Asia, a fourth-year camper and WOW alumni. “But seeing them still be able to come back and have fun and give the same energy they had before was really powerful.”
Resilience, in those moments, looked less like conquering an activity and more like finding a way to rejoin the group, reconnect with friends, and keep moving forward.
Taking Lessons Home
For many students, camp revealed strengths they did not realize they had.
“This week showed me that I can be more outgoing than I think I can and that I don’t have to be afraid to be myself,” said CeCe.
Kiara another WOW student shared a similar realization.
“This week showed me that I can really persevere and try new things.”
Those moments of growth are exactly what WOW aims to cultivate. Outside their everyday environments, students have uninterrupted time to build confidence, strengthen healthy relationships, support one another, and step into leadership roles.
As the week came to an end, the tears shed while saying goodbye. The young women board the buses home carrying new memories, stronger friendships, and a renewed sense of what is possible.
Those moments of discovery are at the heart of what WOW seeks to cultivate. Away from their everyday routines, students have uninterrupted time to build confidence, strengthen relationships, support one another, and step into leadership—whether that means reaching the top of a climbing wall or simply introducing themselves to someone new.
As the week came to an end, there were tears as the young women said goodbye. Soon, they would board the buses for the long ride home, carrying new memories, stronger friendships, and perhaps a different understanding of what they were capable of.
“This space is a container for exploration,” said Rolyne.”A container to be empowered.”
For the young women of WOW, Camp WeHaKee is more than a week away from home. It is a place where lessons practiced throughout the school year take on new meaning—through unfamiliar challenges, new friendships, shared experiences, and the courage to try something for the first time.
The cell service eventually returns on the road home.
The confidence, connections, and sense of possibility they found while it was gone can travel much farther.
This experience was made possible through the Camp for All Kids Four Star Fellowship Program, which funds a week-long overnight summer camp experience for WOW and BAM students and their year-round counselors.