Nearly 60 eighth-graders from Red Hook’s PAVE Academy traveled to Warren County, New Jersey, to spend three days on the campus of the Princeton-Blairstown Center (PBC) last week.
There, the scholars participated in tailored programming designed to increase community bonding and foster teamwork and communication skills.
“We hoped our students would have a stronger sense of community after this trip. They have been together since kindergarten, and we wanted to take a moment out of our normal setting and reestablish the cohort as a team,” said Kara Reilly, PAVE Academy’s Middle School Dean of Humanities.
Daily activities included adventure course and high ropes challenges, hikes, community meals, reflections, and discussions led by PBC facilitators, who helped students process what they learned through each experience.
Discussing his experience of the group’s progress, Wilson recalled a moment that stood out for him. “At one of the high rope elements, one of the students in my group was up in the air for a while, about 40 minutes. Although he was really struggling, his group never once complained about how cold it was outside, or said anything negative about his effort, or about wanting to leave. They just stayed there, supporting him and cheering him on, like he had done for them during their turns.”
Reilly corroborated the students’ progress, noting that “We encouraged [scholars] to listen to teachers, but also to each other, and have already observed a shift in listening in the days since we returned.”
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