Kat Barber ‘23 | Elizabeth Boruff ‘23
Outward Bound, an important bonding experience for EA’s classes in years past, has been another pandemic loss, but a group of EA faculty created a team-building program for this year’s freshmen in the hope of filling the gap.
Izzy Rozes ‘24 says of her freshman year, “I think without Outward Bound, it was definitely harder to get to know all the new kids. [A leadership program] might have helped. I think it would have brought us closer together earlier.” Kelly wanted to avoid this, saying, “When I found out we had to move Outward Bound to the following spring because of COVID, we wanted to make sure we still offered an opportunity for the class to get together.”
Photo courtesy of Olivia Corrato ‘22.
Kelly highlights the contribution of William Forbes, EA’s Technical Services Coordinator, in generating ideas for the program. According to Kelly, “Mr. Forbes and I have talked in the past about May-term courses regarding leadership, and immediately my mind went to talking to him about coming up with an obstacle course to help develop the kids’ skills in not only leadership but also communication and trying to be a team player”
Kimberly Piersall, EA’s Experiential Learning Coach, also assisted in the development of the leadership and team-building course. Kelly says, “I connected with Ms. Piersall because of her ability to come up with great activities to bring groups, especially large groups, together.”
Michael Whalen, a US History Teacher, was also directly involved with the program.
Not only did faculty members contribute to the leadership course, but seniors who are Esse Quam Videre (EQV) members also helped lead the freshman. Kelly met with Whalen to “talk about how [they could] get EQV to help lead different groups around the stations and to help lead those ice breakers and other group activities under Ms. Piersall’s direction.”
Ashley Tang ‘22, EQV member, worked with Piersall to make the course run smoothly: “On the first day, we met with Ms. Piersall for an hour, and she outlined the different activities that we would be doing with our groups that day. EQV members were paired up together and we ran a group of around 18 kids. For the second and third days, we were just in charge of them after they’d completed the activities.”
The obstacle courses, ice breakers, and games were designed to facilitate qualities similar to those developed at Outward Bound, such as “resilience…, excellence, integrity, inclusion, and above all, compassion,” according to the Outward Bound Website. The activities ranged from building a bridge, with various boards in order to get across the pool, to Capture the Flag. Kelly explains, “[Piersall and I] were able to figure it out: we had the obstacle course to break them into small groups, similar to Outward Bound with their crews based on their advisories, and also do more general, big class activities.”
Kelly also shares that a unique aspect to these activities was that former military veterans gave evaluations and helped students discover “what it takes to be a good leader, what it takes to have good communication, and what it takes to execute and adapt.” He says that “to have that combination of fun activities, but also those types of experts giving that feedback was definitely a rewarding experience to see.”
The class of 2025 has mixed opinions on the course but ultimately agree that it helped them connect with their peers. Gray Collins says, “I think it was a good idea, but it could have been executed more efficiently. I definitely connected with the people in my advisory more.”
Carter Yearley ‘25 says, “I think the problem with the leadership course was that we had to be with our advisories the whole time, and we didn’t get to meet any other new kids. On the other hand, I feel like I also really got to bond with the new kids in my advisory, which was great.”