Fall Trips: Moving Beyond Comfort Zones
September marked the introduction of Principia Upper School’s fall character education trips. In these outdoor expeditions, each Upper School grade spent a week exploring nature and experiencing the challenge of the outdoors—as well as developing and strengthening their spiritual understanding and practice.
Director of Experiential Education Brad Warrick (US’90, C’94) speaks of these trips as a “culture setter,” noting that “the planned and spontaneous challenges they produce build students’ confidence in their ability to turn to Christian Science and apply it together.”
And our students certainly did face—and overcome—challenges, including physical, relationship, and communication issues as well as fear of the unknown. In fact, at the Monday morning chapel immediately following the trips, the vast majority of students indicated they had grown through the process.
At the chapel, Dean of Innovation and Academics Peter Dry “interviewed” a panel of students on the stage and also polled the audience in Ridgway:
- More than 75 percent of the student body stood up to indicate they had “done something for the first time.”
- About 50 percent of the students (and some of their faculty and staff chaperones!) indicated they had felt somewhat apprehensive going into the trip.
- Almost 100 percent of the student body rose from their seats, cheering, to acknowledge that they had overcome an individual challenge and grown from it.
All four trips were designed by Principia and offered in conjunction with the experienced staff of the Leelanau Outdoor Center (for seniors) and Outward Bound (for the other three classes). The destinations and activities spanned the country:
- Freshmen went backpacking in the northern Cascade Mountains in Washington.
- Sophomores went whitewater rafting through Idaho and Oregon.
- Juniors chose between canoeing and sailing in Maine.
- Seniors participated in outdoor activities as well as talks and discussions during the annual Senior Retreat at Camps Leelanau and Kohahna in Michigan.
“I had a lot of fear when I was on the trip,” said one of the juniors on the panel. But during her group’s Wednesday night testimony meeting (under beautiful stars!), two things were shared that helped her: “‘Home is where the heart is’ and ‘Know what is, instead of worrying about the what ifs.’” From that point on, the student said, “I knew I was in my right place . . . and it was amazing to feel the love I was supported with.”
Regarding the team sessions and discussions during Senior Retreat, one student said, “I went into the trip thinking I would learn how to be a leader of others.” Instead, he learned something he found even more valuable: “I learned how to be a better follower—how to support [other leaders] by taking a step back but still being active.”
Warrick, Dry, and other administrators have been receiving feedback on the trips from the Principia chaperones, students, and parents—and also sharing their understanding of the trips' long-lasting value. As Dry points out, studies of this kind of expeditionary learning in other schools show that “the impact of these trips can take as much as five years to fully effect changes. Each child needs his or her own time to realize what has been learned.” In addition, he notes that "outdoor education is one of the few educational ‘interventions’ with increasing (rather than diminishing) aftereffects over time."
Ultimately, Dry observes, “the ‘dotted line’ from these trips to academics shows a link to more grit, more determination, more effort and effectiveness.”