The Good Life.

Byline: Michelle Jana Chan (Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop Anne Underwood Paul Tolme Jamie Huish Alex McRae)

Camp: Beyond Arts And Crafts

By Alex Mcrae

Back when kids were kids, summer camp meant toasting marshmallows and singing around the campfire. Now sleep-away camp--originally an American invention--provides ambitious youngsters all over the world another opportunity to stand out in the sea of college applicants. "The days of bows and arrows are gone," says Missy Cook of Broadreach, which runs high-end adventure trips for teens. "Summer camps have got a lot more exotic."

Teens can dive off Australia's Great Barrier Reef with marine researchers, gaining scuba certification as well as fulfilling the community-service requirement of many U.S. high schools ($5,380; gobroadreach.com ). Academic Treks takes kids on college-accredited sojourns, exploring submerged shipwrecks off Bermuda or trekking Ecuador's Inca trail while polishing their Spanish ($4,180 to $5,180; academictreks.com ).

Other teens prefer to get a head start on their careers. The New York Film Academy runs recherche summer camps for youngsters who want to learn how to direct, edit and act in their own short films ($6,900 for six weeks; nyfa.com ). Youngsters are flocking to Putney Student Travel's Excel China summer program, where they spend four weeks exploring Chinese culture, learn-ing Mandarin and traveling ($5,590; goputney.com ).

Swiss-based Village Camps runs sports and leadership-training programs in various countries, teaching everything from rock climbing to communications skills (up to $4,100; villagecamps.com ). And at the end of Switzerland's ultra-swish Le Rosey school summer program, campers receive a booklet with the addresses of their pals so they can get networking ($3,500 to $7,000; rosey.ch ). With friends like those, who needs "Kumbaya"?