Blog: March 2022

Just before the UrbanPromise Academy’s Family Week break, we had enjoyed a long weekend trip to Camp Jumonville in western Pennsylvania with five students on our Winter Outdoor Leadership Training. The goal of this trip this year is to mentally prepare students for the big steps ahead of them for the rest of the year. For some of these students, that next big step is college, for others it is their first year as an upper class student. While we usually use these blog posts as a space to talk about our thoughts on the trip.We thought it would be really special to quote our students' thoughts directly with some of the pictures that we all took of the trip. So the rest of this post will be drawn directly from the journals that they had written in and shared with us on the trip.

Journal Question: Have you ever been on a multi-day trip to the wilderness before?

“No I have not.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, I have been on a multi-day trip.”

“No I have never been on a multi-[day] trip.”

Journal Question: What are your current thoughts on being in a forest? (as of the first day of the trip)

“It’s something new”

“Peace, happy thoughts, making new relationships”

“It’s alright”

Journal Question: Reflect on this moment. What are some thoughts you have, feelings you feel, things you see?

-I think this trip …has energy and knows they will have fun. I want more people like this to be in more trips, meaning energy…and just being themselves. I want this…because I love trips like these. Hope there are more people like these …”

”Day one, kind [of] scared. Don’t know who roommates are so ya!”

”During this time I’m looking at beautiful hills on the mountain tops, the big cross and snow. There is also beautiful weather.”

“Noises around, birds, winter, cars. I think about how I feel.”

Journal Question: What are your current thoughts on being in a forest? (as of the last day of the trip)

“It's amazing seeing nature. Powerful moments.”

“It’s alright.”

Peace and enjoying nature

The forest was so nice

What were some highlights from this trip?

“The waterfall we saw during our last hike.”

“Day 3 was my favorite day!”

Good food, good games, and all amazing times

I really have fun, and I really enjoy the trip, I like the hiking to the cross. 

Any other thoughts on the trip?

I am proud of myself. I did the hike and rock climbing. 

I’m happy we are going home but I wish we could have stayed.