Spring Break Trip Allows Urban Students to Learn About the Wildnerness
Being a school focused toward at-risk youth who have grown up in an urban centered environment we wanted to design a program that would allow students to experience a meaningful lesson outside of the typical classroom structure. A program director was able to contact CampTown which specializes in taking at risk youth into the wilderness on a hiking and backpacking trip for an extended amount of time. The goal of the trip is to allow students to focus on themselves internally as well as with other students. To try and encounter experiences that they are not used to in their normal setting and learn to work with their peers and adults in trying to achieve their goals. The students were given responsibility of themselves to a certain degree to make sure that they were fully prepared for each day’s hike and that team work was needed to allow a full success in each day’s goal.
Implementation was evident throughout the experience when the students were able to take on more rigorous hikes and responsibilities as each day passed. Success was measured in successfully completing the twenty-four mile hike and backpacking trip which 100% of the students were able to finish the trip.
Challenges or Obstacles:
- Challenges and Obstacles were evident from the beginning of the trip. The physicality of the trip was an obstacle to many of the students from the very beginning. Many of the students were not prepared for the vigorous exercise and hiking that they were going to embark on. The first day the group took a four mile hike without the backpacks and a few of the students had difficulty completing the first challenge.
- Another challenge that would take place would be the students mastering self control. The food during the trip has to be rationed and many of the students went through their rations too fast. Self-control had to be exercised throughout the trip and this was a obstacle that towards the end became a skill.
- Mental toughness was another challenge that many people would confront on this journey. At the beginning of the trip the kids were not mentally prepared for the toughness of the journey, as each day passed you could tell the students were increasing their mental toughness and prep for the day’s upcoming activities.
Benefits and Successes:
- The benefits were self evident throughout the trip. Towards the beginning the students doubted that they would be able to finish the hike. The second day of our hike was the most strenuous. It was a seven mile hike through numerous cold water creeks and swampy lands. Many of the students fell or stumbled along the way. One student could not physically carry his backpack anymore. One of the teacher’s had to take on the responsibility of taking his backpack to finish up the rest of the journey.
- The next day that particular student finished the rest of the day with his backpack. He took pride that night during our campfire in that he could finish the trip on his own without allowing another student or adult having to take on the extra burden of his pack.
- Our success was measured by having each of the students complete the twenty-four mile journey and each had a sense of accomplishment that they were able to achieve the unknown and navigate the hike and terrain both mentally and physically.
Additional Information:
Here is a picture of the group during their most recent trip.
Submitted by: Aaron Wallace, Options Charter School