On our Year 9 Kalbarri camp, we were challenged and required to use our teamwork and leadership skills in order to enjoy camp to the fullest and get the best experience out of it. We used our college’s values of ERIC (Empathy, Respect, Integrity and Courage) to help guide us through the camp and used them to help us adapt to the extreme change of situations between camp and home.

I demonstrated teamwork and leadership on camp by being cooperative and helpful. There were many times we worked as a team on this camp. An example of this was when we had to work in cooking groups each night for dinner, as well as setting up and taking down tents. Cooking itself required us to use a portable stove and chop up all the vegetables ourselves. We were also required to clean up for ourselves and make sure no scraps were left behind. With so many roles for just a simple job of cooking dinner, teamwork and collaboration was a key feature of the camp overall. Something that I did individually to contribute to our team was trying my best to catch up when we went hiking through the gorges. Since hiking like this was a challenge for me, doing this demonstrated teamwork because it showed how I was trying my hardest in order to benefit others, even if I wanted to slow down and stay in my comfort zone. In one point of our hike out of the gorge, I even led the group out. This allowed me to demonstrate leadership skills as I had to remember how we made our way into the gorge in order to lead the rest of the group back out.

Throughout the camp, I also demonstrated the college’s values of, empathy, respect, integrity and courage. These values are strongly intertwined with teamwork and leadership as they are a guide of what to do in situations that require teamwork. I demonstrated empathy on camp by being there for people if they needed someone to talk to and by understanding how they feel and then trying to help them feel more comfortable about the situation. As we were around the same people for the whole camp, sometimes it was hard to practice respect all the time, but I tried my hardest to and I think I succeeded in doing so. Another one of the college’s values that I used was integrity. As we were out in nature the whole camp, we had to constantly keep in mind not to leave any trace. This means leaving no rubbish or food scraps behind. I used integrity and made sure that at all time of the camp I had all of my rubbish with me. I used courage a lot throughout the camp by pushing myself. This allowed not only me but also the people around me to have a good experience as most of the time I wasn’t slowing the rest of the group down.

All of these values that I demonstrated throughout the camp were part of my leadership skills, even just by not littering, it encouraged other people to do the same thing as me and make sure not to make a mess at the campsites. These skills and other ones that I have acquired during year nine camp, are ones that I will carry with me for a long time.