“We’re very excited to add this new chapter to our story,” said Mark Hyatt, CEP President and CEO. “For nearly 20 years, we have focused on helping K-12 schools implement these vital programs. But the character development journey does not end with a high school diploma.”
On the contrary, the college years often serve as a crucial period during which students, often living away from their parents for the first time, must refine their morals and values on the fly and put them to the test in the real world. For this reason, institutions of higher education are in a unique position to foster a deeper commitment to ethical behavior.
“By pairing each high school student with a trained college mentor relatively close in age, the camps will make character-related concepts more accessible and relevant to teenagers,” Hyatt said. “At the same time, the camps will also demonstrate first-hand to the college students how their position as role models requires them to continuously develop and refine their own core values.”
Both the college students and the high school students worked closely with experts in leadership and character development. The goal was to inspire all students involved to take ownership of their identity as leaders of character and to dedicate themselves to honesty, respect, responsibility, and integrity in all areas of life.
Over the course of the week, the students stayed in the cadet dormitories and attended sessions led by college students trained for this purpose and heard from motivational speakers. Along with their cadet mentors, they participated in team-building and role-playing exercises that focused on a wide range of topics, from rational decision-making and conflict resolution to differentiating right from wrong and developing habits of ethical living.
Challenged by the ropes course at the Academy, the campers had to remain very attentive to what they were doing and what the other campers were doing as well. Many of the campers had a fear of heights and decided to turn back on the higher ropes course exercises.
However, they were surprised by the support and encouragement from the rest of the campers, so the few who turned back surprised everyone by harnessing back up and slowly making their way to the top of the exercise aided by enthusiastic support of the rest of the campers. This physical display of courage went a long way for the campers’ confidence and made them feel that there was nothing they could not do for the rest of the camp. While that was a great lesson for the campers, the real highlight was that campers learned the virtue of courage.
The campers are back home now, but they will undergo more weeks of character coaching by their high school character coach. It is hoped that the high school students who attended the camp will take what they learned over the course of the week at the camp and spread it to their teammates and fellow students.
CEP hopes other colleges will host character camps next year, and several sent representatives to observe this first model at the Air Force Academy.
Making this first camp a reality has been a collaborative effort. CEP is particularly indebted to San Francisco-based S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation for their support and the Air Force Academy for its partnership.
