The Overnight Challenge
Dealing with Adversity, Change and Risk
TSA offers an overnight, experiential “off-campus” program to help create a sense of purpose, community and adventure. The program hews closely to TSA’s commitment to providing opportunities for students to get to know each other in unique situations, to value each other’s strengths, and to providing challenges for students to tackle in a safe, supportive environment.
“Overnight Challenge” begins with Academic Coach Tom Canfield and Science Teacher Rob Stainton deliberately assigning the students to a group of up to eight. These groups work together for the duration of the experience as they engage in team building challenges used in outdoor education and leadership programs. They are given the necessary materials for setting up their camp, locating one of three campsites in the Lingelbach Woods on the TSA campus, cooking dinner together, and then sleeping under tarps and under the stars.
TSA ’21 training in Emergency Rescue for Overnight Challenge
The program began as a single overnight experience in the Spring of 2015. As with many programs at TSA, the seed of the idea was planted several years earlier during a brainstorming session in which staff and faculty discussed students, their needs, and possible programs and activities. While 9th graders feel the excitement of adapting to high school, 11th graders are immersed in college and post-secondary preparations, and 12th graders are full of anticipation for graduation with all the attendant celebrations, 10th graders seemed to go through a “sophomore slump”. Exploring this problem, Rob Stainton described his experiences with outdoor adventure and the idea for Overnight Challenge began to take shape. Spike Carter and Christa Wurm then joined Tom and Rob to spearhead the program each year.
Feedback from students each year led to various modifications. For the Class of 2021, TSA introduced two additional stages leading up to the overnight in May. The first stage, a winter rescue program, was just completed on February 10. The challenge was to locate the accident victim using a map of our woods, assess the injury, and transport the victim to base camp. The tools given included a yoga mat and a tarp. At the debrief the next day, many students commented on aspects of the team-building experience. “The right team member can make all the difference.” “I learned that we all have different ways of handling situations and it’s difficult at times to work together.” “It’s important to collaborate and make decisions as a group.””Having a plan beforehand is very important.”
There will be one more program at the end of March to prepare for the ultimate overnight in May. Each year the program varies slightly, but always with the objective of teaching an important skill to manage the challenge of outdoor living, while providing an engaging shared experience for this phase of high school.
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