Student leaders from Berner Middle School in the Massapequa School District were soaring to new heights as they visited The Adventure Park at Long Island on Oct. 28. The experience, which included climbing and ziplining courses, was about fostering kindness, compassion and respect, and bringing those values back to school.
The experience built upon last year's Rachel's Challenge program. After grade-level assemblies, student leaders took part in a workshop to develop initiatives at Berner that foster kindness, compassion and inclusion.
About 115 students from the Builders Club, Chiefs Challenge, Environmental Club, student government and yearbook attended, along with a dozen chaperones. Teresa Ferreira, adviser of the student council, said the goal was for participants to develop leadership skills through team-building and collaboration. She explained that they had different experience levels with the activities and their mission was to help and encourage each other as they went through the course.
Earlier in the week, students took part in leadership sessions in the library to prepare them for the trip. They each received a blue and gold “Berner Leaders, Making a Difference, Kindness, Compassion, Respect” T-shirt to wear at the adventure park. It also helped them to understand the purpose of their trip.
“This trip is about much more than just going and having fun,” Ms. Ferreira said. “It’s helping them understand their responsibilities as leaders. We want them to bring these leadership skills and values back to Berner and model what we need to be doing in the classroom, in the hallway, in the cafeteria.”