our team
welcome!
Camps that are personally created and experienced by an extraordinary team.
Day after day in our Camps Office in Salzburg and in the youth hotels on location. During the whole year we work to create 11 perfect weeks for our participants from around the world.
VINCENT ACKERMANS
organisational director of ya! camps
Vincent is a qualified teacher, responsible for organising and scheduling all tasks and activities of our counsellors. He uses a multi-level recruitment process to choose our counsellors and carries out personal interviews with those shortlisted. Counsellors must be able to demonstrate a sense of responsibility, social competence and a flair for working with children, before they are offered training for the role of "young austria" camp counsellor. Many of our over 150 counsellors have worked for ya! CAMPS for many years, seeing their role less as a job and more as a passion.
SOPHIE MÜLLER
travel expert ya! CAMPS Office
Sophie is in charge of the booking administration, the customer centre with all the important documents for the trip and is involved in the creative process of further developing our camps. On the phone and via email, she answers your questions and ensures that every concern is taken seriously and treated with the utmost attention. Her studies in tourism management and several years of experience as a receptionist in a youth hotel have prepared her perfectly for the work at the young austria camps.
Jeannine gruson
ya! camps office
Jeannine supports our Camps Office with booking administration, organisation and bookkeeping. As a mother of 3, she can empathise well with the questions and concerns of parents. Her experience in the hotel industry makes her a good support for ya! Camps.
clara schaefer
ya! CAMPS coordination
Clara joined young austria as a counsellor in 2018 and has been actively involved in various ya! projects since 2021. She was responsible for updating and expanding our counsellor handbook as well as developing our child protection policy. With her English teaching degree and her longstanding camp expertise, Clara is in charge of the topic areas quality and counsellor training with a special focus on our English language camps. During the summer, she takes on her coordinating role, always ready to assist our counsellor teams in case of any challenges or questions.
johanna ruhm
ya! CAMPS coordination
Johanna has been part of our young austria team since 2019, starting off as a counsellor teaching German in our camps. As a qualified German teacher, she is currently responsible for coordinating the German youth camps in cooperation with the Goethe institute. Johanna is our specialist for child protection, playing a vital role in developing our child protection concept and updating the counsellor handbook. With her expertise and encouraging spirit, she ensures that our camp participants have a unique and memorable summer.
florian paulik & LUkas hirsch
TRAVEL logistic TRAIN, BUS AND AIRPORT TRANSFERS
young austria works closely with the German and Austrian railway companies. For decades, we have been transporting our camp participants safely from A to B: from all over Germany and Austria. We also offer a comprehensive airport service in Munich. This requires efficient planning, flexibility and an excellent team. Florian and Lukas coordinate our supervised arrival and departure to and from the camps and personally select around 100 travel counsellors.
ALICE KALTNER
Trend scout and quality manager
Alice is an experienced mountaineer, certified sports scientist and Alpine educator. Thanks to her expert knowledge and personal experience she knows exactly what safety entails. Alice chooses all of our external sports partners and checks their equipment, their professionalism when dealing with our participants and requires evidence of licences and insurance. She doesn‘t miss a thing – no one can pull the wool over her eyes when it comes to sport.
CHRISTINA KALTNER-KRONLACHNER and KATRIN LENGAUER-KALTNER
managing directors
Our team ensures our camps are of the highest quality. It is our job to create the ideal conditions and ensure constant further development and innovation. We are personally there for our participants, their parents, colleagues and service providers. All the time. Day and night. Being able to lead the best summer camps in Austria for thousands of participants from over 50 countries makes us both happy and proud. Being responsible for it all is a pleasure.