ommend. In October, the whole
company meets and everybody
presents what he or she saw,
what his or her impressions are,"
Ms. Pappas said.
Last summer, she placed 50
children and teens in programs
and camps. The camp-hunting
season really doesn't begin in
earnest until January, she said,
but she is already working with
30 clients eager for next sum-
mer.
One mother who hired Ms.
Pappas explained that her ninth-
grader's summer-camp experi-
ences hadn't been happy.
Ms. Pappas, 46, got to work
and found Exploration, a "sum-
mer enrichment program" on the
campus of Wellesley College in
Boston. The program includes
workshops in advertising, dream
interpretation, math and college
prep examinations and tours in
the Boston area.
"I talked to her mother during
the summer and she said it was
the best summer of her daugh-
ter's life — she had friends, she
was happy," Ms. Pappas said.
Another popular program is
Where There Be Dragons, which
takes high-school students to
places like Nepal, Thailand and
Singapore for language immer-
sion or home-stays. Some stu-
dents enjoy a community-service
program where they help reha-
bilitate or build homes for the
homeless.
Ms. Pappas' son, Daniel, for
example, went to Tortola in the
British Virgin Islands to help
build homes for the indigenous
population.
She has also helped find
camps geared for children with
special needs and has sent kids
kayaking, mountain biking and
rock climbing throughout the
country.
Ms. Pappas likes to sit down
with either or both parents and
the youngster to discuss sum-
mertime options.
"It's one thing for the mother
to call and say, think he wants
to do this, that or the other,' but
when you sit with the child, you
learn what he wants to do or
doesn't want to do. We have up-
to-the-minute information on
every program we represent. It's
not just giving out brochures;
there's a lot of personal involve-
ment," she said.
Ms. Pappas quit her teaching
job when she started her fam-
ily and has toyed with the idea
of going back to school for a mas-
ter's degree in social work, per-
haps to become a college
counselor.
"But I decided when this op-
portunity came to me that being
able to help a kid choose a sum-
mer experience was a lot more
fun than the more serious situ-
ation of helping him pick out a
college," she said. "I love what
I'm doing. It's not a job to
me." Li

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