Western North Carolina is famous for its summer camps — the kind built around mountain trails and forest adventures.
This summer, one new camp traded hiking and nature for the world of work possibilities, giving high schoolers and recent grads a one-week, hands-on sampler of local careers.
The Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina Career Camp took participants into real workplaces across Asheville. In just five days, campers shadowed staff in an IT department, a real estate office, a health care setting, and even a treetop adventure park.
Kristen Kress manages Goodwill’s Next Gen program, which focuses on 16‑ to 24‑year‑olds. She says the camp grew out of that work — helping young people explore careers, connect to resources, and access training that can prepare them for the workforce or further education.
“High schoolers and recent grads just don't know a lot about the options that are out there as far as work,” Cress says. “And what they know — or think they know — sometimes isn’t always accurate. We know there are so many more opportunities right here in Western North Carolina, and getting them out of their bubbles and into local businesses helps them see that for themselves.”
Midweek, the campers traded offices and outdoor worksites for the kitchen at A‑B Tech’s Culinary Arts program in Asheville. Inside the teaching kitchen, the air smells like flour and cheese as they roll out fresh pasta and press ravioli.
Maria Massey, in her early 20’s, signed up to try something new.
“I just wanted to learn something different and see what I might like,” she says. "Baking clicked for me because I like to draw. Using the piping bag to make designs, I realized I wasn’t too bad at it. That could maybe be a side gig I could do.”
For rising high school senior Samantha Sherland, the experience was a chance to think about her next step.
“I already had a plan,” she says, “but this shows me another path I might be good at.”
Camper Miciah Onema says the hands‑on work gave him a view of working life he couldn’t get from the outside.
“You think you know what a job is like, but in reality it’s not at all — because you haven’t done it yourself,” he says. “This gives me a realistic perspective.”
By the end of the week, the campers had rolled pasta, clipped into treetop courses, and spent their days inside workplaces getting a glimpse of how careers unfold — and the steps that could take them there. Goodwill hopes to bring the career camp back next year.
