JULY 29, 2010 ISSUE
Rolling Academy Returns From Western Expedition
The 2010 Rolling Academy group got to see natural geysers at Yellowstone National Park during their expedition.The Rolling Academy, a two-week long advanced leadership program, returned from its 2010 expedition on July 25. The Rolling Academy’s return to the High Country was celebrated with a student-directed and student-organized symposium composed of photo and video presentations and student speeches.
The Rolling Academy is an educational expedition that uses a bus as a classroom, base camp and vehicle for service and adventure challenges that give students skills to grow as leaders both in school and in the community.
The Rolling Academy encourages students to focus on six guiding principles: community, environmental awareness, communication, service, craftsmanship and leadership. Students are challenged to gain confidence and grow as leaders. Trip leaders do not inform students of what they are doing each day until they wake up each morning.
“Out of learning to take each day as it comes, [students] see that they can succeed in anything, no matter how it happens,” Rolling Academy Director Todd Nolt said. “Students feel more comfortable doing things in the future that are new or unfamiliar to them.
“For students even to apply for something where they don’t know where they’re going is a huge leap of faith,” Nolt said. “For the students that are selected, I think it’s a real honor to be chosen, and it speaks of them too for their willingness to take a chance and challenge themselves.”
The 10 students on this year’s Rolling Academy are Natalie Deuitch, Olivia Horton, Emily Hinshaw, Cheyenne Underwood, Chelsea Bercaw, Ashlyn Henson, Day Gryder, Mason Lowrance, Chy Bryant and Kathryn Wheeler. These 10 students are a mix of rising sophomores, juniors and seniors.
This year’s journey was the first time Rolling Academy went West. The 2010 Rolling Academy began with a 23-hour bus ride to Nebraska where the bus overheated. After “Fran the Van” got back on the road, students hiked in the Grand Teton National Park, visited the Climber’s Ranch to do service work and go for a bike ride, and went to Yellowstone National Park to view the geysers and learn about the land’s history. From Yellowstone, students went to the Carroll Ranch in Montana to work with the ranch caretaker. The next stop was Cody, Wyo. where students helped to prepare the arena and the animals for a rodeo. The group’s last adventure took students canoeing down the Missouri River, the same river Lewis and Clark canoed on their westward journey.
Students were divided into groups to put together material to summarize their trip at the symposium when they returned. One group created a photography slideshow and the other created a video presentation. The video presentation closed with the voice of a student saying, “Each of us can surely say we have grown far beyond our expectations.”
This sentiment was echoed in each of the student’s speeches about their own personal experiences on the trip. Many students mentioned finding a home and a family with the other members of the trip. Ashlyn Henson, a rising senior, recounted an important bonding moment in which the group cuddled up under the stars in the 30-degree weather of the Grand Tetons while waiting for dinner.
The expedition taught students about the West, but they took much more away from the trip than just knowledge about a new region.
“I feel like I have learned more about myself in two weeks than some people learn in their entire lives,” said Emily Hinshaw, a rising sophomore.
Chelsea Bercaw, a rising senior, found inspiration to write poetry while in Grand Teton National Park.
“It kind of set me back in balance,” Bercaw said. “I guess with school being out and everything, I was just kind of sitting around through my summer, and it brought me back to myself.” In her personal speech, Bercaw said she was “fortunate enough to be forever altered.”
Out of the 10 students, Dan Gryder, a rising sophomore, and Mason Lowrance, a rising junior, were the only male students on the trip.
“It wasn’t too bad,” said Lowrance. “[Dan and I] got really close. It made things easier for us…we looked out for each other.” Gryder and Lowrance did not know each other before the trip.
Shelly Crandall, Allison Huckins and Jesse Simpson are the Mountain Alliance staff members that led the trip. This year was Crandall’s third year staffing Rolling Academy, and Huckins’ and Simpson’s first years.
“[Compared to past trips,] this one was definitely beautiful and challenging in its own ways,” Crandall said. “…A lot of time was passed on the bus, which in a sense was challenging, but it also made us closer as a family and a community. That bond feels a little stronger than I’d seen on other trips.”
Crandall said eight of the 10 students had never been west of the Mississippi before this trip.
“A big part of the trip is gaining perspective to other kinds of people and their ways of life or regions in the country that operate differently,” Nolt said. “The more unique experiences we can put students in, the more prepared they will be to succeed in any situation.”
This was Rolling Academy’s fourth year in existence. Rolling Academy is a branch off of Mountain Alliance, an organization at Watauga High School committed to providing high school aged youth with opportunities to explore and develop their leadership potential through experiential learning.
“Four years ago, we started with an idea to create an opportunity for youth to take part in a learning experience that was different from any other involving adventure and service,” said Nolt. “We started out with our first group three years ago, and it’s continued on a shoestring budget ever since.”
The Rolling Academy is supported by private donations and local businesses that care about community and youth. Sponsors include Mast General Store, Footsloggers, Wal-Mart, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, Walk The Talk, Owens Realty, Holton Mountain Rentals, Hardee’s and many individual donors.
Last year, a sustainable fundraiser was created that Nolt hopes will continue to fund Mountain Alliance and Rolling Academy. The fundraiser, “Pancakes in the Park,” features local food ingredients. A plate of sausage, eggs and blueberry pancakes comes with coffee for $6. The next Pancakes in the Park will be Saturday, August 7, from 7:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the Watauga County Farmers’ Market at Horn in the West.
For more information about Rolling Academy, click to www.rollingacademy.org.
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