Young Alumni Board Members: Emma Manderville and Pearl Young

Camp Mohawk’s Board of Directors was formed in the 1920s and has evolved over time. Perhaps one of the most significant changes to the structure of the Board is the relatively recent addition of the YAB (Young Alumni Board) member. In 2024, the Board voted in two YABs. They are full board members and are eligible to serve for up to three one-year terms.

Camp Mohawk’s first YABs are Emma Manderville and Pearl Young. This article focuses on these two trailblazing women whose input and unique points of view have become invaluable to the Board and represent the future of its function and importance to the daily magic that is Mohawk.  Neither of these young women would credit their individual addition to the Board as all that noteworthy, yet their outlooks and more recent personal experiences at Camp infuse leadership with valuable information and current concerns and ideas.

Emma Manderville

Emma’s first year at camp was 2010. She had an older sister, Tess Manderville, who was already a camper for the prior two years and Emma was chomping at the bit to be able to go. She said that she was so envious because Mohawk seemed magical. Finally, she got to Camp and overlapped for one summer with her older sister, who was a senior at that time.

Beginning as a Jawak, Emma was a camper for four summers, skipped her CIT year and returned as a JC, working alongside YAB Pearl Young. Emma was also a Counselor and Unit Leader. She was on the riding staff and so spent lots of time at the stables, while enjoying breaks from the horses and teaching Baking. Emma was particularly happy about meeting people from other countries and getting to know their cultures. An added plus for Emma was that her birthday always fell in the middle of staff training. Loving celebrating your birthday at camp: that’s a true Mohawker!

There were many great camp memories, of course, but the influence that counselors and all staff can have on young women is one of the most important parts of Mohawk. Emma had a Mohican counselor who was in clinical training to be a social worker and that path intrigued Emma. After earning her undergraduate degree in public and community health at Keene State, Emma went on to grad school at Simmons University for a Masters Degree in Social Work with a Clinical Focus and a Trauma Certificate track. For a little over two years, Emma has worked at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, focusing on outpatient OB/GYN as a clinical social worker dealing with everything from postpartum depression to adjusting to new babies and everything in between.

Emma grew up in Fairfield and Bridgeport. Her last summer at camp was 2021 as Mohican Unit Leader.  She was seeing someone at the time and convinced him to work in maintenance at camp for that summer. They have been together for the past 10 years.

Joining the Board happened after a conversation with Kathryn Krase at Woman’s Wellness Weekend. The addition of the YABs to the Board had just been approved and one thing led to another.  The Board via Patrick Marchand reached out to both Emma and Pearl with an invitation to join the Board of Directors in this new role. Both Emma and Pearl were really happy to be starting this new venture together since they both had their first staff summer together as well. Emma felt so special to be asked and was very excited to join.

The board offers a “ unique opportunity to be behind the scenes and to have a say in the future.” There is an “ unnameable, unchangeable quality” about Camp and a goal is to keep Camp the same as it was while planning for the future. Emma describes “chasing the high of the first summer that was so special.” Her goal is to create that feelings for others. This she can help do on the Board.

Mohawk was the subject of Emma’s application essay for both undergraduate and graduate school. Emma spent the spring semester of her sophomore year of undergraduate school at the University of Limerick, Ireland and of course, met up with a former counselor who lived there - she wasn’t alone! Her undergraduate essay focused on the ten different campers in her first cabin and what each taught her. She used the various roles counselors play as they shepherd campers and manage responsibilities of staff. Her graduate essay explained how she dealt with a homesick camper, who was having a panic attack. Emma credits Mohawk with the skill set she subsequently brought to every job. According to Emma, “ Mohawk prepared me for jobs better than any jobs outside of camp I ever had.”

Living in Boston allows Emma to travel to camp when necessary. Emma is currently on the Facilities Committee of the Board and has learned a great deal. She honors the “cycle of the role model” she has witnessed and experienced growing from a camper to a member of the Board.

Pearl Young

Pearl hails from Waterbury, CT, and for the past year has made her home in Richmond, VA, with her husband of two years and their seven-month-old, Eden Elisabeth. Like Emma, her friend of many years, Pearl was deeply involved in the riding program at Camp (she has been riding since age six and continues to this day). Last year, Pearl happened to attend a barbeque and ended up in a conversation with a former camper who told Pearl that she appreciated Pearl teaching her how to canter. This camper continues to ride to this day.

In addition to her role as riding instructor, Pearl also taught dance at Mohawk. She currently owns and runs her own dance company, Pearl Movement Co., where she offers both group classes and private study primarily to children. She is in the process of adding more adults to her student roster. Her love of modern as well as jazz are a focus yet it is the history of Black dance culture that she stitches throughout her classes in hip hop and other dance forms. Pearl began dancing at age three and attended high school at The Taft School in Watertown, CT. The focus was equally on academics and dance; Pearl focused on choreography. These years required great dedication as one must commit oneself to spending hours dancing in addition to academic classwork. As Pearl puts it, “You have to love it and push it physically and mentally.” She credits her study of choreography for making her a good educator. That study combined with teaching campers has proven essential in her dance studio.

After high school, Pearl studied behavioral neuroscience at Tufts University, although in part, she decided on Tufts because it has a rarely offered Equine Veterinary major. She found that the combination of biology and psychology was what she wanted. Pearl minored in Child Studies and Dance. It sounds like her dance company combines much of what she has learned and taught.

Why Mohawk in the first place? Pearl attended a day camp prior to Mohawk and there she viewed a promotional DVD made by Mohawk. (Pearl actually appears in a later video made about Camp.) The riding program at Mohawk was a big draw and Pearl started Camp as a Jawak at age 9. She feels that this program is high quality from which she benefitted as a camper and she wanted to continue as a riding instructor. She learned so much as a camper and was able to parlay that into expertise as an instructor.

Camp offered a “tester week” which Pearl attended. Not surprisingly, the next summer she went for a month. Pearl was a CIT in 2016 and a JC in 2017 and 2018. She could not be a “real” counselor in 2018 because she had not quite turned 18; in 2019 she was finally a counselor  in Oscadees. After waiting so long to be a Counselor and excited to return to Mohawk, COVID hit and the 2020 sleepover camp at Mohawk was not held. Of course, Pearl was incredibly sad.

Fast forward to 2023. Pearl had really been missing Camp for some time and was in the midst of school and jobs. Out of the blue, Patrick Marchand called Pearl to tell her about this new Board position called YAB and informed her that she was one of two who were being offered this position. She remembers that when he called, it was cold outside and that she could not say yes fast enough!

The rest is history. The position of YAB was filled by two women whose experiences at Mohawk were more recent than those of other alumni Board members, providing different perspectives and fresh ideas. The addition of YABs has proven invaluable and will continue. Pearl has spent a large part of her Board work on the Diversity Committee. She and Emma helped ensure a very basic need is met: availability of feminine hygiene products. Amazingly, this had not been readily provided at our girls camp. The Facility Committee has been addressing the renovation of the barn. Who better to advise on these needs than both Pearl and Emma?

Pearl wants to encourage counselors because the job of counselor at a sleepover camp is really hard. “It is a tasking job; we have so many coming from a place of love” and the role of counselor at Camp Mohawk meets a “higher standard.” Pearl wants to make sure that Counselors are thanked enough. She believes that one must be a “loving person to be a Mohawk Counselor.” Too often, summer jobs are viewed as inconsequential and just fun. The impact of a counselor and the responsibility held by this position are truly great. Emma also focused on this. Encouraging Counselors and honoring their potential influence can only strengthen the overall experience of both staff and campers going forward.

In entirely separate conversations, both Emma and Pearl used the words “magical” or “magic” describing Camp and their experiences each summer. Both of these young women are giving their time and energy to the future of Camp. Pearl wants “Camp to stay as amazing as it is or better so I can send my daughter.”

Thank you, Emma Manderville and Pearl Young, for forging the way in a new endeavor with such dedication. Your focus on the future while honoring the past is an important part of the magic that is Mohawk.