Local Video
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| Camp an eye-opener for students |
By: SUZANNE ROOK, Managing Editor
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Posted: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 10:42 pm
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NORTHFIELD —Neither Henry Sweitzer or Amelia Schmelzer had high hopes for their camp experience.
Sweitzer, a junior at ARTech, worried that he’d have to talk about his feelings. A ninth-grader, Schmelzer wasn’t sure she wanted to spend several days with classmates she wasn’t crazy about.
But after getting great reviews on the trip from other ARTech students, both Sweitzer and Schmelzer set aside their fears, packed their bags and headed for Wisconsin. Days after their return, the two, who went with their respective classes, say the experience couldn’t have been better — or more eye-opening.
ARTech students have made the trek to Camp Manito-wish in Boulder Junction, Wis., for seven years now. For the last two years, trip coordinator and school advisor Sarah Hale, split the school’s juniors and freshmen by class, taking one class one week and the rest shortly thereafter.
This year, 25 of 26 freshmen made the trip; 13 of 18 juniors joined in on the fun.
Hale compares the ninth-grade trip to a freshman orientation. The juniors’ trip helps prepare the 11th graders for life as upperclassmen and adds in discussions about their aspirations beyond high school.
At the camp, students — with adult leaders — cook their own breakfasts and lunches and work on a number of group activities, including ropes courses, problem-solving and determining their personality style. Each activity began, Hale said, with planning sessions, in which members of each group had to first think through their actions and potential solutions.
Students were encouraged to focus on their natural role in a group and work to move outside their comfort zone.
For Schmelzer it meant stepping back, taking a breath and really listening to others. The result, she said, was greater buy-in from the group.
“It took longer, but at the end there was a good energy around it,” she said.
Andrew Wilson, also a freshman, said the trip pushed him to get to know his classmates better, moving out of the clique he found security in.
Back in school, Wilson and Schmelzer say there’s a different energy among their classmates. Wilson says the group seems more relaxed, more comfortable with one another.
Another benefit, says Hale, the teacher, it’s a good way for advisors to get to see their students in a different light.
Sweitzer says his time at Camp Manito-wish is an experience he’ll hold dear for years to come.
“It makes you look at somebody differently,” he said, “It makes you look at everybody differently after spending four days with them.”
— Suzanne Rook is the managing editor and covers education. She can be reached at srook@northfieldnews.com or 645-1113. |
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