With collections of small cardboard pieces and strips of masking tape ripped in various lengths on the ground between them, pairs of campers sat on the grass outside Vulgamore Hall on the Albion College campus – each with one partner blindfolded and the other with their hands behind their backs. The students who could see provided verbal directions to their blindfolded partners, instructing them to pick up specific pieces of torn cardboard and attempting to guide them to put together a “cardboard cup” using bits of tape. The task they were given: Create a cup that will hold water as it is held over someone’s head, keeping that person dry. The goal that went unspoken: Learn about yourself and how you work with others.
“We intentionally pair the students together based on things we’ve seen throughout the week,” Maddi said. “Different qualities, different ways that they’ve interacted with one another. So it was an intentional pairing.”
She went on to explain why counselors partnered two specific rising freshmen: Hannah and Malia, who will attend Freeland High School and Mercy High School (Farmington), respectively.
“Hannah, initially, on our first day, was one of the students who was a little more vocal. She shared a little quicker. And when we’re talking and having discussions, she’s a little bit quicker to share,” Maddi said. “Whereas Malia, although she does share, when she does interact, it’s in more, smaller settings. And so when she’s in a smaller group, she’s shining, she’s laughing, she’s making jokes, and she’s really engaging with that smaller group, but not so much in a bigger group when it’s time to maybe share out. She’s not necessarily the first person to share out.
“So we tried to pair someone who might be quick to talk to not really talk, and not have much direction – and then our other type of leader who is a little bit, you know, waiting to go ahead and step up and take some initiative and direct.”
She said the counselors weren’t sure if they wanted to pair two freshmen together, but added that it worked out really well in their benefit – in the end, Maddie declared their cup to be the best. The two girls sat across from one another during the activity as Malia coached Hannah through a series of steps.
“I think our communication was really awesome,” Hannah said. “She’s really good at directions and stuff. So she would be like, ‘Stop, stand up, reach your right hand out. There’s a piece of tape right there.’ … So she was really good at communicating where everything was.”
As her partner, Malia wasn’t willing to take all the credit.
“And I would also say, Hannah asking questions while we were building [helped] because it would help me know how to give direction to her,” Malia said.
Having attended Middle School Leadership Camp last year, Malia said the curriculum is different this year.
“High school kids really know more about leadership, like the qualities, and you do more activities,” she said, “you really get to know people more on different levels.”
With encouragement from an older sister who attended the High School Leadership Camp last year, Hannah decided to join her at camp this summer.
“She would not let me pass up going to camp this year. And at first I was kind of like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I’ll like it,’ but now I’m here and I’m like, ‘It’s a lot of fun!’ So, yeah, I mean, everything’s super fun,” Hannah said.
She gestured toward the Baldwin Hall steps, outside of the cafeteria where students had gathered waiting to head in for lunch.
“You can hear that over there,” she said. “It’s all chanting, all screaming and stuff. And you get really close with the people in your council, and you feel like you can really talk about whatever you need to.”
Both girls said “Of course!” when asked if they plan to attend next year. Their Senior Counselor has been coming back for, she estimated, nearly a decade – as a camper for four years, a junior counselor for three and now back as an “SC.”
“I believe so much in this curriculum and in this program, and it’s meant so much for me as a high schooler and in college, really,” Maddi said. “So I wanted to definitely pay it forward, come back. I have different perspectives now. I have a little more knowledge and wisdom, maybe. So it’s nice to share it with these young folks and have some fun, too.”
Years ago, Maddi was a camper with the first group of freshmen who were allowed to attend camp. She said there was a small group of ninth graders, and it was “like being thrown into the wolves.”
“Although I have, like, you could call, natural leadership qualities, I’ve never been shy or soft spoken or anything, but it’s a different level of coming into an environment like this and having to say, ‘OK, go be a leader.’ ‘Are you a leader?’ ‘Are these leadership qualities?’ And then come back again and again – and so it gave me a lot of confidence” she said. “I would say I came in here a little bit nervous, and then I left knowing that I was filled with all the qualities needed to be successful, if that makes sense. And so I went back to high school and was able to take some stuff I already knew. So that really helped, and it also encouraged me to be really involved in my school.”
She was in the student council and other organizations at her school, then joined the Michigan Association of Student Council & Honor Societies Board of Delegates.
“I think [attending camp] just propelled me,” Maddi said. “I mean, it took me on this path of being a student leader, also living leadership as a lifestyle, which is something we teach to students and really try to promote … I was actually just talking to some other SCs, and the shock of getting to corporate life and realizing that people are OK with, like, everybody doesn’t want to be a leader. And I thought I was surrounded by people who wanted to be leaders for so long. And I was like, ‘Oh, you guys are OK with being in this position, like, forever. And I was shocked.”
She said that experience has shown her that she has a whole different mindset, possibly from being involved in Michigan Student Leadership.
“I want to be the best at what I can be. I want to be inclusive. I want to be collaborative. I want to inspire shared vision,” she said. “I want to be someone people can ask for help and also learn from others. And I love feedback, just things that helped me in so many other ways, helped me throughout college, really getting along with professors, working in teams.
“[Michigan Student Leadership]’s really just been impactful in every aspect of my life, and that’s why I continue to come back here. It was transformational for me, and that’s why I tell all the students I can, ‘Come to this camp.’ It was a big turning point for me. And my brother came, my cousins came. So it was a pivotal moment – for all of us. So I love it here.”