Last Thursday and Friday, on May 23 and 24, 15 students each from the sophomore, junior, and senior class of Waterford High School spent the entire day outside of the school to take part in a leadership program, led by Mr. Ellis, Mr. Gamble, Mr. Arnold, Mrs. Virtue, and Mrs. Prpich, five teachers from the school, along with a few other members of the community.
On Thursday, the students walked to the Town Hall, where they spent the day taking part in cooperative activities. Two activities for the sophomores involved going in groups of three to five, and deciding together how to solve a situational problem with several objects that they would not have initially considered using. The idea was to become creative and use any resources available to get the job done.
At the end of that day, the seniors displayed wooden boards, which had a negative aspect of themselves written on one side, and the effect that would occur if that aspect were fixed. They enjoyed themselves when they punched through the boards, which symbolized their willingness to change themselves for the better.
On Friday, the students took a bus to the Waterford Country School, where they took part in other team-building activities. In the morning, they were involved in activities such as trust falls, and in the afternoon, they went to activities that involved more courage and trust between each other. The sophomores, divided into two separate groups, went on the high ropes, and jumped off of the Leap of Faith, side-stepped across a high wire, and were pulled up by the rest of the group to enjoy the view for a short amount of time, among other activities.
The students evaluated their experience at the end of the day. As it seemed, all of the students were extremely happy to have been a part of the experience. They spoke to other students who they did not necessarily talk to initially, and found that everyone there had something in common that they could be proud of having: They all had acquired the skills of a leader, and they all spent those two days pushing themselves past their limits, with everyone else there to help them as they pushed on.
