By Camille Cannon
(This article originally appeared in Vegas Seven magazine on August 3, 2016.)
As any suntanned, bug-bitten kid will tell you, there are two types of summer camps. The first is the kind to which children are dragged. Parents need a break from long, school-free days, so they send their kids off to craft, canoe and bring home a few dozen boondoggle keychains. The second is the kind kids beg to attend—the type of warm-weather heaven where you make s’mores with the Beastie Boys’ Mix Master Mike.
“My vision has always been to put the kids in a unique situation, something that you can’t do in the real world,” says Camp Spin-Off founder Tina Turnbull. Every summer since 2010, Forest Home Camp in Ojai, California, has welcomed about 50 13-to-17-year-old boys and girls for five days of DJ instruction, production and music business courses taught by professional DJs. It’s a resource that Turnbull (a.k.a. DJ Tina T) didn’t have when she began DJing about 20 years ago, but one that has already catalyzed new careers.
Two such Spin-Off success stories come from Las Vegas locals Jaelyn Carter (stage name Queen J), 15, and Jessenia Miller (DJ Jiggy Jaayy), 18. Both women discovered Camp Spin-Off through an outreach program led by Turnbull at the Boys & Girls Club and attended on scholarship. It was also their first camp experience.
“I always had an interest in music,” Miller says. “I wanted to be a producer because I used to watch a lot of TV shows about it. But I thought I couldn’t do it. I didn’t know where to start.”
In just a few days at Camp Spin-Off, Turnbull and her team of professionals teach campers the essentials of the music business and production. Teens learn about turntabilism and digital controllers from Scratch Academy staff, and more from guest visitors such as Samantha Ronson. All the while, campers receive side-by-side support from their counselors, a roster that includes Strip residents Crykit, Yo Yolie, Kontrol and others.
What the camp doesn’t offer is any kind of “gig placement program,” and that’s on purpose. “They need to work for it,” Turnbull says.
For Carter, who had DJ’d at First Friday’s Kid Zone before her 2015 camp session, “working for it” meant approaching local businesses to secure her first grown-up gig—and landing one at Pinches Tacos at The Gramercy. “I wanted to take everything I learned [at camp] and push myself,” she says. “I’ve wanted to work since I was little. So it makes me happy that I don’t have to ask my mom for money. I get money doing something that I really love.”
Miller, who attended Camp Spin-Off in 2013 and 2015, has been working at H&M in the Forum Shops at Caesars since May. “I wanted to work there [in sales], but I also noticed that they had DJs. I saw it was two guys. So, I asked one of the managers, ‘Why don’t you have a girl DJ in here?’ And she said, ‘Oh, we’re actually looking for one. Do you want to try out?’ So I got hired as a DJ and a sales adviser.”
Turnbull asserts that turning the tables on the male-dominated DJ industry was an early motivation for creating Camp Spin-Off. “I never thought there was any reason for DJing to be so male-dominated. Women are definitely just as creative, better at multitasking. Having the camp run by women, having female counselors and having so many women there and in an equal ratio to men, [girls] don’t feel like they’re not capable. Even if they don’t DJ, [girls] can see: Women run shit.”
Another principle of Camp Spin-Off is giving back. As a nonprofit entity, the organization aims to offer scholarships to at least half of its attendees. Each year, the number of alumni who want to devote their time as staff always exceeds capacity, Turnbull says. And all of the counselors are unpaid volunteers whose dedication to their young pupils lasts long after the session.
Both Carter and Miller’s eyes light up when speaking about Turnbull and their counselors. They often text and call their mentors, whether it’s to troubleshoot during a gig or share good news. “I feel like it’s a family,” Miller says.
Counselor Lynnie Robbins (a.k.a. DJ Highmaintenance) agrees. “[These girls] are at the age where if someone says, ‘Oh no, you can’t do that,’ they’re like ‘OK.’ And they might brush it off. Just being someone positive that they can look up to … the reward is so worth it. I would do it 10 more times.”
And thanks to Camp Spin-Off staff and volunteers, both campers say they see many years of DJing in their futures. “I want to do it no matter what,” Carter says. Adds Miller: “I feel like I’m on the right path. I’m going to succeed in this.”
Camp Spin-Off resumes Aug. 7-11. For more information, visit CampSpinOff.com.
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