Camp Kiniya: overnight camp for girls on Lake Champlain

There are no language or academic lessons at Kiniya: the day is built from activity blocks. Each morning holds two scheduled blocks — one of the camper’s Majors and a Team Activity — followed by choice time, and the afternoon brings one more Majors block and an extended choice time. Some activities are experienced in structured lessons, others during choice time, team time or cabin time. The four programme pillars are Arts (acting, production and tech, music, studio art, ceramics, singing, woodworking), Athletics (basketball, soccer, softball, lacrosse, tennis, golf, archery, fitness, yoga), Outdoors (sailing, paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking, waterskiing, climbing, camp craft, challenge course, hiking, overnight camping) and Spirituality.

A stay covers tuition, cabin accommodation, all meals in the Dining Hall and the full activity programme; a camper may come for one session of three and a half weeks or for the full season of both sessions. Tuition is paid to Camp Kiniya, and the camp runs a tiered tuition table together with a Tuition Assistance Program, applied for through the camp office.

Campers live in cabins on the 146-acre campus — 18 cabins among 40 buildings. The cabin group is, in the camp’s own words, “the family unit for campers while at Camp where each camper is supported, valued, loved and accepted”: it grows together through shared living space and chores, daily discussion, meals and events attended together, and each cabin has its own leaders.

All meals are taken together. The day begins with breakfast for the whole camp before cabins return for inspection; lunch, the biggest meal of the day, follows the morning activity blocks in the Dining Hall, and the last meal of the day closes the afternoon choice time. The campus is nut-free.

Majors and Team Activities are chosen by the camper and run on a daily rhythm, with choice time twice a day. On the arts side there are acting, production and tech, music, studio art, ceramics, singing and woodworking; on the athletics side basketball, soccer, softball, lacrosse, tennis, golf, archery, fitness and yoga; outdoors there are sailing, paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking, waterskiing, climbing, farm-to-plate, camp craft, a challenge course, hiking and overnight camping. Evening events add Council Ring and vespers, and leaders plan spontaneous moments and special events through the summer.

The campus covers 146 acres on Lake Champlain with 18 cabins among 40 buildings, among them Coleman Hall and the Dining Hall, playing fields, tennis courts, a challenge course, a Council Ring and a waterfront used for sailing, paddle boarding, canoeing, kayaking, waterskiing and swimming.

Kiniya is built on connection: campers meet face to face without distractions — at Council Ring, out on a sailboat, over meals, watching the sunset behind Coleman Hall — and many say their camp friends are their closest friends. Girls arrive from 21 states and 8 countries, live with their cabin group, sing, dance and laugh a lot, and the older campers take on “big sister” roles for the younger ones. The camp has run since 1919 and keeps its leaders close to campers: about 100 leaders and staff to 170 girls per session.