On Saturday October 22, 2016 our new cohort of BEETS (Band of Environmentally Educated and Employable Teens) spent the day at Ft Miley/Lands End in San Francisco doing a ropes course from 9-4 PM. The event was hosted by the Pacific Leadership Institute of the Recreation, Parks, & Tourism Department of San Francisco State University. 
Our goal for the day was to have fun, learn something new about ourselves & others, challenge ourselves, and develop trust & teamwork skills. It was a great event to bond the new BEETS and get them ready for the rest of the year! 
The ropes course was a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which consisted of high and low elements, taking place on the ground and also in trees. 
The morning started out with team building and working together to solve problems. 
These fun activities were all intended to build trust and create team work. 
In the afternoon the teens got to use belays for safety when they were instructed carefully by the Ropes Course crew. 
Belaying refers to a variety of techniques climbers use to exert tension on a climbing rope so that a falling climber does not fall very far. 
A climbing partner typically applies tension at the other end of the rope whenever the climber is not moving, and removes the tension from the rope whenever the climber needs more rope to continue climbing. 
Here are some reflections of the day:
“Going from rope to rope felt like me taking a risk in real life. It was there in front of me, but I was too scared to let go of my safety line. But I eventually did it and I hope I can do that in real life with my goals, as I was able to go farther when taking the next rope.”
“Before I would do mostly everything by myself because I believe that I can get by with anything without anyone. Today I learned that I actually need people to support me to keep going and friends to help me reach the goal.”
“Today’s course taught me that we should never give up and always face the challenges we will meet in our life…”
It is hoped that the teens will keep talking about their experiences from the day and revisiting the learning they took away. Hopefully they will incorporate these experiences into their daily lives. For many more photos, check out our Flickr Photostream here.