Korean Thomas - Future Olympian

Before coming to Jameson Camp, Korean Thomas was very shy and didn’t like to initiate social contact. After her first year, Korean’s social skills and ability to make new friends greatly increased. In fact, in her third year attending, Korean says her favorite part of camp is “getting to meet everybody and make friends with many of the different counselors and campers.” Korean has received help from many counselors, but she specifically looks up to Bailey, who in her first year helped her to open up and make new friends.

These social skills Korean has learned have helped her with making friends at school, which may be very important in the future. Korean currently lives with her dad, but will soon be moving to live with her mom, resulting in a school change. A new school means a new environment and new peers. However, Korean isn’t as worried about making new friends after learning how to connect with fellow campers every year at Jameson Camp.

            One specific area where Jameson Camp helped Korean blossom is through recreation. Because of the confidence she has learned at Jameson Camp she has joined the school’s basketball team and continues to work on her skills at camp. Korean is also proud of her swimming skills. She believes that she has always been a good swimmer, but now she can keep above water while supporting four or five of her fellow campers. With this improvement Korean now has dreams of becoming an Olympic swimmer!

            Some of Korean’s other future aspirations include attending college, writing poetry, and playing professional basketball. Korean enjoys writing as an escape from boredom, but the recognition that she received after sharing some of her work with campmates at Jameson Camp has inspired her to keep moving forward – “People couldn’t believe that I wrote that and said my poem was so good.” Korean sees poetry as a way to express herself. She says, “There is more to life so you look at life and you write.” Korean enjoys reflecting on life and sharing her findings with campers and counselors at Jameson Camp.

            Korean plans to come back in the summer mainly because it is fun and it helps everyone. “People that don’t really fit in can come to this camp and have fun with everyone; there are no problems here,” she said.