by Malcolm Butler
During her freshman year at LSU, Ruston native Emily Stutzman took a public speaking class.
One of her first assignments was to write a speech about something that had impacted her life; a passion.
The topic for the assignment was one of the easiest decisions of Emily’s young life.
“It was all about MedCamps (of Louisiana),” said Emily, who is finishing her fourth summer as a counselor at the special needs camp located in Choudrant. “The title for my speech was ‘I Get To.'”
For the past four decades, thousands of young people — roughly 500 per summer — facing the challenge of living with various disabilities have rolled through the pine tree-covered hills of the 75-acre footprint that makes up MedCamps of Louisiana.
For many of them, it’s the only week of the year that they “get to.” It’s the magic of MedCamps of Louisiana, where the impossible becomes possible for campers and the routine becomes truly appreciated by counselors.
Emily quickly realized it was a life-altering experience.
“That first summer honestly changed my whole perspective of life,” said Emily, a kinesiology major. “I realized that I get to wake up. I get to be independent. I get to drive a car. I get to walk.
“I thought it would be an awesome opportunity, but it has been more than that. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. I have loved it so much.”
For Emily, those three simple words became much more than the title of a speech. They became a way of looking at life.
Before arriving at MedCamps, Emily said she viewed the world much the way most young adults do. Like most people, she rarely stopped to think about the ordinary routines that filled each day. Things she took for granted.
Then she spent a summer at camp. And her perspective changed quickly as she walked beside children whose lives looked much different than her own.
Emily watched campers celebrate accomplishments many people never stop to consider. She listened to their stories. She laughed with them. She shared so many moments and emotions with them.
And during that first summer, Emily realized she had been looking at life through an entirely different lens then her campers.
“I realized that we get to feed ourselves,” she said. “Even things like going to the bathroom by yourself. I never thought about that not being an option. It’s something that I still think about today.”
The lesson wasn’t one of pity. If anything, it was the opposite. Emily wasn’t inspired by what the campers couldn’t do. She was inspired by what they could.
She watched campers throw themselves into activities with enthusiasm, celebrate victories that might seem small to someone else and embrace each day with a joy that proved happiness isn’t measured by physical ability.
That realization followed her to college in Baton Rouge.
And when her professor asked the students to choose a topic that had changed their lives, Emily didn’t have to search for an answer. She simply told the story of her experience with special needs campers.
She called it “I Get To.”
And in some ways, it’s a mantra for all counselors at MedCamps of Louisiana.
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Emily’s story is deeply personal, but it isn’t unique.
Every summer, dozens of college students arrive at Camp Alabama for reasons that seem practical. Some want patient-care experience before applying to medical or physician assistant school. Others need internship or practicum hours. Some simply want to spend a summer making a difference.
Almost every one of them believes they’re coming to change someone else’s life. But instead, they leave with the campers changing theirs.
Executive Director Caleb Seney knows that transformation firsthand. A MedCamps counselor from 1993-97, Caleb has spent the past three decades watching the same thing happen to hundreds of young adults.
Long before the first camper arrives each summer, Caleb travels to college campuses across Louisiana searching for the next group of counselors. He’s looking for something more important than a résumé.
“We’re looking for people that are willing to serve,” said Caleb.
Every summer, they come. Some have never spent meaningful time around children or adults with disabilities.
Until they step foot on Camp Alabama and experience that first smile, laugh, victory by a camper.
For Choudrant native Trevor Trevillion, that lesson arrived during his very first week.
A Louisiana Tech biology major planning to attend medical school, Trevor came to MedCamps hoping to answer a practical question.
“I really wanted to find an experience where I could grow and kind of figure out if medicine really was what I wanted to do,” Trevor said.
Friends encouraged him to apply after hearing Seney speak to his fraternity. Trevor is a TKE at Tech. He expected valuable experience from the summer job. Instead, he found perspective from a life-altering experience.
One of his first campers was a young boy named Holden. Trevor quickly noticed something remarkable.
“It didn’t matter what event we were doing,” he said. “Everything we went to, he was super excited.”
Swimming. Playing games. Simply moving from one activity to another. Holden attacked every moment with enthusiasm.
Later in the summer, Trevor watched the same joy spread through an entire week of campers attending diabetes camp.
“Seeing the excitement, the screaming, the waterslide … we’re all painting each other, running around laughing,” Trevor said. “That’s what sticks out to me. They find so much joy in the simple things. It was easy to really hone in on that and feel it with them.”
Then, almost without realizing it, he found himself thinking much like Emily.
“All the things I’ve complained about, I have nothing to really complain about,” Trevor said. “Until you can’t walk, or you don’t get the privilege of privacy when you go to the bathroom, or you can’t shower yourself or feed yourself, you don’t realize how blessed you are.
“I’d say I left with a greater appreciation for life and humility.”
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Jordan Vail came to MedCamps searching for patient care hours. He left seeing people differently.
Like Trevor, Jordan’s path to Camp Alabama was rooted in his future career. Preparing for physician assistant school, he wanted hands-on experience working with people in this type of setting.
Instead, MedCamps challenged something much deeper than a résumé. It challenged the way Jordan viewed disability.
“That first week opened my eyes,” said Jordan, a Cedar Creek alum and Louisiana Tech student. “These kids, they’re just kids. They have a disability, but they don’t care. They’re going to be themselves.”
That lesson became personal through a camper named Collin.
Collin uses a wheelchair. Outside of camp, Jordan said, Collin said he often felt like people noticed the wheelchair before they noticed him. At MedCamps, it was different.
“He told me, ‘Y’all treat us like we’re regular kids,'” Jordan recalled. “‘Not, ‘Oh, he’s in a wheelchair. He can’t do that.””
That simple statement stayed with him.
Jordan remembers another camper telling him recess was her least favorite part of school. She couldn’t enjoy the playground like the other children. Then she found MedCamps.
“You just can’t make up that pure joy,” Jordan said, choking back emotions.
Like Emily and Trevor, Jordan found himself grateful for things he once overlooked.
“They’re overcoming their challenge to find happiness,” he said.
For Haylee Shoemaker, however, the transformation wasn’t simply about gratitude. It changed the direction of her life.
When Haylee first arrived at MedCamps in the summer of 2025, she was completing a practicum while earning her degree in Human Development and Family Sciences at Louisiana Tech.
She enjoyed working with children. She thought camp would be a valuable learning experience, but she never expected it to redefine her future.
“It was the most amazing, beautiful experience I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Haylee said. “Coming into MedCamps made me do a full 180 in terms of what I wanted to do with my life. It completely transformed the way I wanted to pursue my life.”
After graduating from Louisiana Tech, Haylee is preparing to begin graduate school in child life – a career devoted to helping children and families navigate medical challenges. She credits MedCamps with helping her discover that calling.
“There’s always something about MedCamps that makes you want to come back,” said Haylee, who hopes one day she can return in a full-time role.
“I think MedCamps gives these kids a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do things that they never get to do anywhere else,” she said. “It really is beautiful seeing how MedCamps can have kids come out of their shell more and help them blossom.”
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For Caleb, these stories are familiar. He’s watched them unfold summer after summer. Counselors arrive hoping they’ll make a difference, and weeks later, most leave realizing the experience has changed them for the better.
It’s a true form of admiration, one that runs both directions.
“Every camper out here wants to be one of these camp counselors,” Caleb said. “We tell our staff during training, ‘You are a hero to these kids.'”
Caleb believes that’s why many counselors return year after year despite the demanding schedule.
Many come hoping to make a difference, but leave carrying something they never expected: a different perspective, a deeper gratitude, a clearer purpose.
Much like Emily Stutzman.
Four years after standing in front of her LSU classmates, she no longer needs note cards to remember the message: “I get to.”
She lives it.
For Emily and Trevor and Jordan and Haylee — and for countless MedCamp counselors who have walked the same trails through Camp Alabama — they’ve acquired a knowledge that the greatest gift they found at camp wasn’t one they gave.
It was one they received.
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As the final week of the summer of 2026 at MedCamps of Louisiana comes to an end, Caleb said one of the biggest challenges begins: finding enough qualified counselors to meet the needs of the campers for next year.
While many counselors are students pursuing careers in medicine, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, education and other service-related fields, Caleb said MedCamps looks for much more than just career goals in its counselors.
“We’re looking for leaders,” Caleb said. “We’re looking for people who have a heart to serve.”
He said previous experience working with individuals with disabilities is helpful but not required.
Instead, MedCamps focuses on recruiting young adults who are compassionate, willing to learn, and committed to creating a positive experience for campers.
“You can make more money working at Waffle House than working out here,” Caleb said. “But you can’t get the same reward.”
Applications for summer counselor positions typically open in early January. Meanwhile, Caleb begins the recruiting process for next year with visits to colleges and universities throughout Louisiana looking for his next Emily, Trevor, Jordan, and Haylee.
Information about counselor positions, volunteer opportunities and the various camps offered each summer is available on the website at MedCamps.org. Interested parties can also inquire by emailing info@medcamps.org.
