The Arts and Humanities Academy (AHA), is one of the Berkeley High School small schools. AHA focuses on a community of artists and scholars, prioritizing a strong sense of community. Each grade in AHA has 60 students who take most core classes together. Last month, the AHA 11th graders took a two-day trip to Camp Jones Gulch, a YMCA connected camp near Half Moon Bay that focuses on community building.
The trip, which took place on Oct. 22 and 23, was designed to help students build stronger connections with both one another and their teachers. Students did an array of activities together. such as going on hikes, group campfires, night walks, and spending quality free time with others in their grade. For some students, one perk of the trip was the break from technology since there wasn’t any reception at the camp. “Not having reception was nice, because we weren’t glued to our phones,” said Madi Rosequist, an AHA junior who went on the trip.
Students felt that they could talk to people that they hadn’t had the chance to talk to before on the AHA trip, because of the close vicinity, group circles, ice breakers, and meetings. One of the retreat’s evident goals was to help students spend time with people who were beyond their regular social circles back at Berkeley High. Each student was put into a ‘home group’ where one teacher and around 7-8 students spent time together bonding with people that they didn’t know as well, with the goal that they could expand their circles. “It was really good to get to know everybody on a more personal level because we had a lot of team building activities. Usually, I don’t talk to a lot of these people, so it was really nice,” said Kenny Swenson, another junior who attended the trip. Teachers could see the effects of the home groups as well.“It was really great to see people from different social circles getting to know each other better,” said Candiss Youngblood, a teacher who attended and helped to supervise the trip.
One memorable experience for some students was the artifact share, where participants brought an object or a photograph. The students took an hour and a half to share the backstory behind it and its personal meaning. Additionally, the attendees were also encouraged to eat meals with people that they didn’t usually talk to. At the end of the trip, they wrote appreciations for as many people as they wanted. “[That] was really nice, because then we all got to read them on the bus, and it was like, ‘Oh, cool. This person finds me awesome,” said Rosequist. They also did a game called tapping appreciations, where you can anonymously appreciate people for the ways they show up within the AHA community.
Meal times and open free time were more chances for students to connect with people they knew from classes or before, as well as people they had never spent time with. Some found themselves feeling closer to their friends who they had known previously. “I think my favorite part was the free time, because I feel like that’s when I got to bond further with my own friends, we just learned more about each other…and it was very calming, the setting was really nice,” said Rosequist. Youngblood also expressed excitement about getting to know students better on the trip, because there were a lot of opportunities to have free time to just hang out. Her favorite activity, she said, was the arts and crafts time.
“It was lovely to be out in nature, with the students, enjoying the fresh air, the tall trees, and the banana slugs,” said Youngblood. The trip was also a valuable reminder to students of what makes AHA special. Through a smaller, closer-knit community like AHA, there are opportunities for deeper connections with classmates and teachers. The retreat gave students an outlet to do just that, in both beautiful scenery and stresses from the outside world gone.