BECKLEY, WV – Following the conclusion of the 2014 Leadership Academy courses, Leadership Academy staph members, Jim Anthony (Pennsylvania Dutch Council), Tim Cece (Northern New Jersey Council), Andrew King (Nashua Valley Council), Catie McEntee (Chester County Council) and Dante Rodondi (San Francisco Bay Area Council) departed for the Paul R. Christen National High Adventure Base at the Summit Bechtel Reserve for an entire week. For Leadership Academy staff member Tim Cece, this is a second trip back to the Summit with the team.
Cece was part of a team chosen by Gary Schroeder, who is the head of High Adventure for the Summit. His first team, consisting of Jim Anthony, Tim Cece, Logan Echard (Pennsylvania Dutch Council), Andrew King, Christine Luzcka (Chester County Council), Matt McGovern (Cradle of Liberty Council) and Christina Vogt (St. Louis Area Council) arrived at the Summit to give feedback on the new high adventure program “from an unbiased point of view,” shares Cece. This first visit was meant to create and establish an environment of high adventure that would be constructive to the development of an individual.
During the first visit, Anthony, Cece, Echard, King, Luzcka, McGovern, and Vogt discussed the reason a setting, such as the Summit is important to catalyzing the growth and development of an individual by putting them out of their comfort zone. “[It was] very similar to ‘Special Place’ – we called it ‘tgauchsin’, which means kindness, good nature, in Lenni Lenape,” Cece explains. A ‘Special Place’ is an ideal that is encouraged by the NYLT Leadership Academy which ensures that individuals will be learning in an environment where they can try new things without the fear of failing. “Our first visit also included giving a short training on comfort zones, behavioral risk management, and how to create moments to catalyze change in the future rather than to create a ‘mountaintop experience.”
Cece further explained what a “mountaintop experience” was. “A ‘mountaintop experience’ is something like reaching the top of the Tooth ofTime at Philmont. It’s something you’ve been working towards with your whole team for a week to accomplish. It’s kind of a crowning moment in your Scouting career.” Cece explains, then why the Summit is not the “crowning moment” in someone’s Scouting career. It is “supposed to be one of the first things he or she [one involved in Scouting] does that acts like a hook to [joining] their Scouting program. They’ll have an incredible time and see that it is possible for them to do something they never thought they would be able to do.”
“The development comes from their ability to set a goal and then achieve it over the course of the week through practice and support from their team.” Cece describes that it is the Summit staff’s responsibility to push these individuals going through the program out of their comfort zones, who will be keen in identifying the participants’ accomplishments and encouraging them to try newer and harder things.
During their second visit, Cece describes the changes in the camp as too subtle. He states it felt more like a summer camp than a high adventure base.
For this reason, he and his team are offering two packets of information this year. The first packet to be sent will provide options to fix problems they experienced this year, so they have a basis as to where to improve on and how.
Since the Summit’s vision is to attract people to join the Scouting program, the second packet will include “the writing of three or four programs that we think will help them achieve the Summit’s vision,” states Cece. “We hope these programs will find their way into the Summit programs in the future.” The new programs will involve options that Scouts have seen before, as well as options that will be new experiences for participants and Scouts alike.
Cece then described how his newer team experienced the Summit, while giving them encouragement, and insight on how to develop their participants. “Dante loved BMX, Catie had a great time mountain biking, Jim made friends with literally everyone,” he describes, “and I beat Andrew in a race down the zip line.”
Cece concludes by stating that “We are optimistic for the future at the Summit and are hoping we will have a part in the development of the new centerpiece of Scouting for the next century.”
Cece plans on returning with his team to not only help in the development of new programs, but to also help train the Summit’s staff as Staph members, which means that he and his crew plan to infect them with the new skills to keep an incredible course going.
