People bade farewell and watched as staff and students boarded the buses that took them to Silicon Valley Conference for Community and Justice (SVCCJ) Camp Everytown, which is dedicated to reducing stereotypes and eliminating biases. Sixty-nine selected students, along with nine faculty members, attended the four-day retreat, on Nov. 28 to 31. Camp attendees become more aware of biases through activities and discussions. “It’s a camp that helps kids address issues that center around stereotypes,” Camp Everytown coordinator Roni Habib said. “It’s one of the most important academic programs that we have.”

Camp Everytown, now more than 50 years old, was first established in Southern California. There are 20 major sites across the country and more than 300 schools participate in the program. “The leadership program is based on diversity,” Northern California Camp Everytown Director Richard Valenzuela said. “It’s for self-development, and for delegates to influence their schools. It’s basically an empowerment program.”

Principal Noreen Likins, who previously worked at Saratoga High School with what was then the National Conference for Community and Justice (it was later renamed SVCCJ), introduced Camp Everytown to Gunn when she became the Assistant Principal in 1998. Prior to her arrival, in 1997, a school accreditation organization found that minority groups felt they were not comfortable or valued at Gunn. “The Student Support Task Force created a student survey that was given, and it found that some students did indeed feel alienated and African-Americans and other minority groups felt that they didn’t fit in,” Likins said.

As Student Support Task Force Manager, Likins was in charge of finding a solution. Some students from Saratoga High School had attended Camp Anytown (Camp Everytown’s former name) and came back with positive thoughts, Likins said. She invited Valenzuela to tell her about the camp. “He described the program, and I thought that it was exactly what we needed,” Likins said. Gunn’s first camp took place in 2000.

The student selection process, created by SVCCJ, begins with sending letters to staff members asking them to recommend students to go to Camp Everytown who are leaders or have the potential to head peer groups. “We send kids who actually are leaders and who aren’t afraid of those issues,” Habib said. “The selected students have to be able to handle the issues [brought up at the camp] and they have to have a certain level of maturity.”

Likins said that staff members take nominations seriously. “Some teachers put one name, some 30,” she said. Students can also nominate themselves for the camp. A list is then compiled of all the potential candidates.

For this year’s camp, Habib and Student Activities Director Lisa Hall selected a diverse group of students based on gender, race, sexuality and interests. “We usually look for a good balance between each gender and each race, based on our school’s ethnic breakdown,” Hall said. “The idea is to have the camp reflect our school community, so the invited delegates should match.”

Gunn, which usually plans two trips to Camp Everytown each year, only sent students and staff once this year. Habib said that having two trips exhausts the school faculty. “It’s hard for the staff,” he said. “It tires out teachers, and then they need to catch up with a sub when they come back.” Likins said that after school sports were also an issue. In previous years, people had to skip the experience due to sports commitments. However, this year the school planned the timing of the camp so the trip happened after fall sports ended and before the winter sports season began.

Students participated in a variety of activities at the camp. “There isn’t much lecturing, no movies, but there is more dialogue,” Valenzuela said. Campers participate in an activity about stereotypes on the first night and one that deals with gender on the second night. The third night is dedicated to cultural pride. Other camp activities include a disability exercise and a privilege and advantage activity.

Some say that the exercises are unexpected. “The activities were much more intense and emotional than I expected,” junior Rachael Fleischmann said. “It hits you really hard if you’re not ready for it.”

Attendees say that the issues brought up are not unfamiliar, but the experiences are new. “It was a real eye-opener,” Likins, who used to go to Camp Everytown yearly, said.

Students and staff members often bond during the camp, Habib said. “I became more open with kids in general,” he said. Likins agrees. “[The students] can call staff members by their first names,” she said. “Students get to know the staff in a very different way.”

Campers keep activities at Camp Everytown quiet so that they won’t spoil the experience for those who haven’t yet attended. Valenzuela said the secrecy may also stem from peoples’ reactions during the activities. “Some of the exercises are surprisingly emotional,” Valenzuela said. “We don’t tell them to keep it a secret. To me, it doesn’t matter. They’re supposed to be spreading what they learned.”

Likins said the camp has improved the campus environment. “I think that the school climate is very different than when I first came here,” she said. “I hope and feel that all students feel that they have a voice here. An example of this is when the Black Student Union came up to me and told me, ‘we don’t want the n- word used here.’ To me, they wouldn’t do that unless they felt that their voice mattered.”

Habib added that Everytown gives students experiences they do not normally have at Gunn. “It’s also important that we teach [the students] how to use their education in a way to better humanity,” Habib said. “We need to educate caring people and not people who can become destructive.”

Likins said the camp helps students discern right from wrong. “It sets up in your mind a little voice so when you hear things or see things that aren’t right, that little voice is telling you that what’s happening is wrong even if you don’t act upon it,” she said. “I hope, however, that Everytown gives people the courage to speak up.”

Valenzuela said that Everytown alumni have told him the experience was positive. “A lot of people have told me that it’s made them more welcoming, friendly and accepting,” he said. “A lot of kids that come to camp become more open. They talk more in class, and then teachers come and ask me, ‘What did you do to these kids?’”

Some recent camp attendees have absorbed this lesson. “When I first meet people, I won’t prejudge them,” sophomore Abhishek Verma said. “You’ll have differences and similarities, and all people come from different backgrounds.”

Habib said he’s glad he participates in Camp Everytown. “I feel fortunate to be doing this,” Habib said. “I feel like I’m making a real difference in the world.”