Building Tomorrow’s Leaders at DP1 CAS Camp
Over the two years of the Diploma Programme (DP), all students must maintain a portfolio of experiences that balance the three strands of CAS: creativity, activity, and service. While DP1 CAS Camp has existed for many years now, serving as a foundation from which students can begin to develop their CAS portfolio with experiences around camp, what has steadily grown since its inception is the focus on leadership skills.
In the weeks leading up to camp, the DP1 (Grade 11) students spent time in their DP Core classes reflecting on how they see themselves as leaders and where their strengths lie. During this time, not only were our students preparing for a typical summer camp experience, they set individual goals for themselves as to what they hoped to take away from CAS Camp.
On the first day at Camp Kintail, the DP1 students participated in a series of team-building activities led by their teachers, knowing that in two days they would be leading the Grade 6 students through the same games. During this time, the students experienced and reflected on what it means to follow a leader.
On the second day, the DP1 students divided themselves into “group leaders” and “game leaders,” based on reflective work undertaken in Core class. Once divided, they participated in collaborative planning sessions led by SJK faculty. It was during this collaborative time that Upper School teacher Ms Rogers-Hern sat down with the team leaders and asked them to consider the following:
- Who are you as a leader? And equally important, who do you want to be?
- In experiences where you are asked to step up, how do you play to your strengths and embrace your goals? And equally important, when not center stage, how do you let others be the leader that they want to be?
- What do you bring to those around you? And equally important, how can you support what others bring?
- How do we make space for others? Be this the other leads, the members of your group, and the others that you interact with.
It is these questions that are left with the students to ponder their place in a group. Not everyone can be on the podium, nor does everyone approach the podium in the same way. Ms Rogers-Hern continued with these observations:
- Sometimes we need quiet leaders. CAS Camp is “challenge by choice”, but how do we set everyone up to feel involved and accomplished, even if they weren’t comfortable with doing 100% of a challenge? (Challenge by choice is our goal but how do we set everyone up to feel involved and accomplished?)
- We need leaders who are peacemakers; these leaders excel at navigating social dynamics. This could be between groups, between members, and even between groups and their leaders.
- We need “rah-rah leaders”. These are the cheerleaders who carry themselves with a loud and proud spirit. These are the leaders who get people excited and make people smile.
After this, the students began to prepare for Wednesday’s task.
On the third day, the students jumped right in. It’s a huge benefit to our DP1s that a few days of our time at camp overlaps with the SJK Grade 6 trip. Small groups of Grade 6 students were assigned to our self-selected team leaders and together they traveled between stations led by our self-selected activity leaders. This day was an amazing snapshot of our DP1 students in their element. They had fun, got playfully competitive, and made connections with the younger students.
Upon returning from camp, the DP1s will again meet in their Core classes to debrief and reflect. The hope is that they come home with an appreciation for their own leadership skills and those of their peers. These are skills that will be essential as they move forward as leaders at SJK, in their wider community, and beyond.
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