On Wednesday October 22nd, the Grade 10’s headed out on a one night leadership camp. The camp was a great Gr.10 retreat at Camp Squeah outside of Hope B.C, where the Gr.10’s had a packed two days full of many activities.

The boys were divided into different animal groups (wolves, salmon, bear, raven, frog, otter, and orca) based on their advisors, and participated in various workshops ranging from low ropes, service opportunities, and other enriching activities.

One of the many workshops was called True Colors, led by Ms. Tutsch (head of the DISCO program). True Colors was first introduced in grade 8 with Mrs. LeBlanc (head of grade 8), and the grade 10’s had a unique opportunity this year to see if their color had changed since two years ago. The activity aims to discover, help, and understand each student’s personality and traits organized in a range of colors including green, gold, orange, and blue. In grade 10, students rediscover and receive a deeper understanding of these colors when doing the test. Interestingly, some students’ dominant colors have changed compared to when they were in grade 8. Overall, the workshop provided a good insight into students’ personalities and changes since first entering the senior school.

Another activity was the low ropes course, a series of rope challenges that required a total group effort. It encouraged students to cooperate with their teams, and take leadership by encouraging others. Among the many low rope challenges, one of the most difficult was the spider web challenge. The task was to get everyone through the holes of the web, but without touching it.

“We slowly realized that it was impossible to solve the challenge without a team effort, so we became more united and worked together.” Alvin Tsuei, a grade 10 student, reflecting on the low rope challenges. The keys to success in these challenges were to cooperate with each other and to work as a team.

The grade 10’s also took part in the initiatives course, where the boys came together to tackle a series of intuitive challenges. These tasks included getting across an obstacle with every team member being successful, navigating through a word puzzle, and lifting plastic monkeys with ropes. Through these activities, students learned the importance of teamwork and taking charge of the situation to ensure success.

When asked what his most memorable experience was, student Jonathan Chiang commented, “Doing the true colours test with Ms. Tutsch was fun. It was very interesting to see the results and how they compared to our own personal understanding of ourselves.”

It was indeed an unforgettable experience, and the grade 10’s will certainly remember the remarkable time they had at leadership camp.