Source: SunLive
A group of 12 Te Puke High School students has just returned from a 19-day wilderness challenge – the first part of their Project K experience.
Project K is a Graeme Dingle Foundation programme for year 10 students. It lasts 14 months.
The 12 students were selected in September.
The programme aimed to help young people realise their potential and that what they have inside is greater than any obstacle.
Its three components were a wilderness challenge, a community challenge and a mentor journey.
The wilderness challenge was based at the Hillary Outdoors Centre and included canoeing, hiking, camping and kayaking.
One of the students, Jodi Deacon, 14, said the five-day canoe trip on the Whanganui River was the highlight.
Each evening the students set up camp and cooked.
So, what was the high point of the wilderness challenge?
“Probably all hanging out after being in the canoes, we made dinner together and hung out and slept in tents,” Jodi said.
She hadn’t known many of the students on the programme before the challenge but said getting to know them was all part of her learning experience.
“I think I learned to be more patient with people I don’t really know.”
Deacon had similar thoughts about the team-building challenges and said she also learned a bit more about looking after herself in the wilderness.
“I’m probably mentally a bit tougher now.”
The wilderness challenge included a five-day canoe trip along the Whanganui River.
With phones not allowed, one of the first things Jodi did on her return was to catch up with friends and then she spent the weekend with her family.
She said the experience meant she would now like to take her family on a canoe trip on the Whanganui River.
The other two parts of Project K were the three-day community challenge involving working in the community and the mentor journey where each student is paired with a mentor until the end of the programme.
Jodi said now she knows the other students better, she’s looking forward to the community challenge and thinks it will be fun.
The students will soon meet their mentors.
Mentoring helps develop the skills and strengths that the students learn on the two challenges.
Project K Co-ordinator Ange Davies said students arrived back from the wilderness to a huge crowd of excited and teary parents and school staff, and “a loud applause as they were acknowledged and congratulated for their achievement, probably one of the hardest things they’ll ever do in their lives”.
There was then a graduation ceremony where students spoke about their journey.
Hiking – in all weather – was part of the Project K Wilderness Challenge.
“[That was] telling of the confidence they had already developed, as many students would not have been able to do a public speech before Project K.”
Jodi was also part of Te Puke Volunteer Fire Brigade’s cadet programme.
Davies said mentoring was a great way for people to give back to the community and she can be contacted on angelena.davies@dinglefoundation.org.nz by anyone who might want to find out more.