STRIVE

During term 2, the Year 8 STRIVE program involved students cooking for Loui's Van, orienteering, participating in a City Rogaine activity and fishing at Marieville Esplanade. Each activity encouraged us to use different strengths to that address the core elements of the program: 

• Spirituality: Nurturing the spiritual growth of our students.
• Teamwork: Fostering collaboration and cooperation.
• Resilience: Building the ability to bounce back from challenges. 
• Independence: Encouraging self-reliance and autonomy. 
• Volunteering: Instilling a sense of social responsibility. 
• Empowerment: Promoting self-confidence and personal growth.

During cooking for Loui's Van, we worked collaboratively to make pumpkin soup for homeless people throughout Greater Hobart. This activity encouraged us to think about people less fortunate than us and to help others.

In orienteering we were split into groups and given a map to help us independently make our way around a course located at Cascade Waterworks. This activity required us to use many different strengths, such as teamwork, communication and map reading. 

The City Rogaine utilsed many of the skills from orienteering, except we were navigating our way through the city. Again, we provided a map of Hobart with specific important buildings that we needed to locate. This activity relied heavily on the core elements of our program.

Our last activity was fishing at Marieville Esplanade. When we got there, we were greeted by Robert, who taught us how to properly cast fishing lines and how to catch fish. When someone in our STRIVE group caught a fish, there was a lot of hype within the group. Although not many fish were caught, we still enjoyed it, and give special thanks to Robert for using his own time to teach us some valuable skills. Strengths that were required for this activity were patience and determination.

The STRIVE program in Term 2 was a fun and enjoyable experience for everyone, that taught us many strengths and skills to support us through the rest of the year. We have also learnt more about our personal strengths and weaknesses, especially how we can focus on overcoming them. We look forward to the experiences planned for Term 3 and how these might assist us in our personal and combined development.