Darren Pierre

Name: Darren Pierre

Summers as a Camper: 0

Years as a Staff Member/Positions held: 2 (2001, 2004)

• Senior Counselor, Cabin 10

Current Profession and Title/Years in role: Lecturer in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland - College Park

Can you provide a brief overview of your job responsibilities? 

I am a professor of leadership within the School of Engineering at UMD. I oversee our minor in Global Engineering Leadership. In my classes, I see so many remnants of my time as a counselor come through. In today’s world, we are yearning for leadership - leadership grounded in integrity and consumed by character. Sea Gull is where I learned the term “Character Counts.” Fashion trends have changed, musical taste have changed and TikTok was not even thought of in 2004, but what remains constant, what remains needed, and what remains relevant is the notion that “Character Counts.”

Do you have any career advice for members of our Camp community?

 I would say to those who are calling Camp Sea Gull home for a final season or for a first of many is to savor it. Savor what Sea Gull offers, which is a space for young adults to come into their own. Campers and counselors live in an environment where they work together, learn together and thrive together. Sea Gull is a place where people learn we all have responsibility for one another, where we not only speak to the ideals of community, but also live within it. Sea Gull's community showcases that respect matters, kindness matters and that understanding is key. So, enjoy warm summer nights in Arapahoe and early mornings at the Mess Hall. Enjoy disconnecting a bit from the hustle and bustle of school and other responsibilities. Be present at devotion - there may be a lesson not only for your campers, but also for you. Let Sea Gull be a place where you allow your muscle of character to grow, your muscle of integrity to strengthen and your muscle of care for others to thrive. If you do these things, you will leave Sea Gull as I left it: full of gratitude, memories and lessons that will carry over to your career choices whether in business, commerce, education or anywhere in between and beyond.

What do you believe have been some of your greatest personal and professional accomplishments? Is there a goal toward which you are currently working? 

This is a good question! I would say professionally, earning my PhD and writing a book have been two great accomplishments. Personally, it has been working and striving in my work life and personal life to remember the ideals that have served me well: patience over anger, kindness of condemnation and courage over cowardice….so much of that I owe to Sea Gull and the dynamic team of counselors, campers and full-time staff who comprise the community.

How do the values or skills you learned at Camp show up in your everyday work and/or personal life? 

I could write a chapter, book and verse about how Sea Gull shows up for me. When I was at Sea Gull, Lloyd Griffith was Executive Director. To me, Lloyd was a giant - a man beyond measure. Lloyd was more than a Camp director. He was a teacher - he taught lessons the only way a good teacher can, which was by acts. Lloyd showed me what it means to live in integrity, to wrestle the hard questions, to care - to care with all you got - and then go back to the well of care and draw a little bit more out after that.

Barry Posner and James Kouzes wrote the book, The Leadership Challenge and in it, they highlight five effective practices of leadership. One of the five I hold most dear, and I learned best from Lloyd, was “Model the Way.” I can teach my leadership course day in and day out, but if I don't enact the leadership theories in my own life, the conversation is moot, it's limited and the full potency of my effectiveness as a professor is compromised. “When deeds speak, words are nothing.” That's an African proverb, and the manifestation of that quote I learned at Sea Gull and is one of the greatest lessons I carry with me in my personal and professional life.

Is there a person or a situation that had a huge influence on you while you were at Camp? How and why did they/it impact you? 

Oh, there are too many to name. One of my favorite memories is living in San Francisco, getting a call from Sea Gull because a fellow counselor and friend was stranded in San Francisco at the airport and needed a place to stay. That friend was T.J. Wortham and without hesitation, I met TJ at the airport and my home became his “hotel” until he could catch the next flight back to North Carolina. Some would consider it strange to get a phone call from your former summer job, years after working there, but not me - it felt good, it felt like a call from home - because at Sea Gull, I learned we are not just colleagues, we are family.

Favorite mess hall song: Titanic

All-time favorite skit memory: My campers did an ode to one of the counselors at Seafarer - a power skit with dynamic musical talent - we had a boy band, before boy bands were a thing.

Devotion you best remember from Camp: Any that spoke to character and respect

If you had to have an intro song every time you walked into a room, what would it be? I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Whitney Houston

What profession other than your own would you like to try? 

Honest truth. My dream job was to be the Head Counselor of Camp One - I had a vision! We were going to be the Camp One Train Conductors - we were going to have the motto like the Little Engine that Could. “I think I can” was going to be the motto - it was going to be a driving force for getting ranks on land and sea - oh, the dream!