Published: March 26, 2008 12:43 am            

Huntsville students up to the challenge

“Imagine a school where every child feels safe, loved and celebrated.”

Creating such an environment was the purpose of Challenge Day, an all-day event held Tuesday at Huntsville High School.

After a full day of sharing and opening up about their lives and similarities, the group of approximately 80 students involved had taken great strides toward that goal, and the future will hold similar events.

“I am fulfilled, and I believe the children are, too,” said Jessie Anderson, HHS assistant principal who participated in Challenge Day as an adult facilitator. “I’ve been really optimistic about this day because I knew it would be right for our kids, and it was everything I thought it would be.”

The Challenge Day program, which is designed to build compassion, empathy and caring among elementary, junior high and high school students, originated in California in 1987.

The program includes one-on-one conversations, family group discussions and group activities which enable the participants to see their similarities, despite the existence of pre-conceived notions or cliques.

In addition to the students, a group of community leaders including teachers, counselors and other professionals participated in Challenge Day as adult facilitators.

“I really feel like the students who participated today were inspired,” said Asara Tsehai, one of two Challenge Day leaders who traveled from out-of-state to lead the program. “Our mission statement is aimed at helping every young person to feel loved, safe and celebrated, and that’s how I feel the young people felt today.

“They felt supported and loved, and now they’re on fire.”

According to Michael Allen, the second Challenge Day leader, the session held at HHS was very successful as compared to sessions he has led in the past.

“This was an excellent day,” he said. “It’s definitely an extraordinary, emotional experience, and the young people were incredibly engaged. The adults did a tremendous job as well, and that’s what makes it successful.”

During the day, Tsehai and Allen led several games and other exercises designed to lower the students’ inhibitions and make them feel more comfortable with sharing their feelings about their lives.

“The games are to get them really relaxed so they’re not just thinking, ‘What’s going on?’ or ‘What are we doing?’ — we want them to be relaxed and feeling safe,” she said. “Using games and music accomplishes that, especially when they see the adult facilitators participating, because then they see the kid in the adult that they can relate to.

“The Power Shuffle is our activity of the day; that’s where they get to see all of the things they go through and put words to it. During the Power Shuffle, they see how many people go through the same things so the don’t feel isolated or separated anymore.”

Among the adult facilitators was Julie Schneider, executive director of United Way of Walker County, the sponsor of Challenge Day.

“I think a community can only grow when it learns to recognize and value its differences than fight them, and Challenge Day is a unique way of teaching our youth to embrace that philosophy,” she said. “Having watched the video, I knew what to expect, but sharing in the event was so much more empowering, informative, healing and enlightening than I could have imagined.”

The students who participated in Challenge Day will be called back for follow-up meetings within the next week, Anderson said.

“We want to hold a ‘Be the Change’ follow-up meeting at least once a month after this,” she said. “It would be nice to have one at least once every couple of weeks, but at this point all we can promise is that we’ll have one scheduled very soon.”

Based on student reaction, Anderson said programs similar to Challenge Day could potentially be held throughout the year.

“The kids are really wanting to bring their friends into this now,” she said. “They don’t want to wait until next year.”

        

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