Challenge Day may be directed first and foremost at high school students, forming maturing minds to see everyone as equals, but it’s also about community building outside of school, growing connections between a city’s youth and their adult counterparts.
In that vein, Southeast Advocates for Employment has been involved in Challenge Day at the Estevan Comprehensive School since it began. Now preparing for its fourth year of the event that caters to Grade 9 students at ECS, Nancy Zeleny said for employers and employees around the Energy City, the activity has become a professional development day for many.
“As an adult volunteer, you take those tools you learn that day into your own job. Anybody that’s in a helping field, anybody who is in the community-based professions, it’s awesome,” said Zeleny, who noted some employers have used the event as a professional development day.
Zeleny is the transition co-ordinator at Southeast Advocates for Employment and has been attending Challenge since its first year in Estevan.
In previous years, Estevan Police Services members have attended as well as city councillors and others. There is no training or experience required to attend, only an open mind, she said.
Leading up to the event, which runs on Dec. 17 and 18, they are looking for adult volunteers to sign up and attend the conference with the students. It’s not a particularly difficult experience, said Zeleny, who said adults are expected to participate right along with the Grade 9 students.
“The point of having the adult participants involved is that we’re bringing school and community together. That’s so important. Often times youth will see adults in their community as authority figures, but this (provides) an equal playing field. Any activity the students do, the adult participant does as well,” said Zeleny.
“That just breaks down a lot of barriers. It opens up the bridges of communication for adults and youth in the community.”
Personally, Zeleny said that after three years of attending the event, she continues to see the same teenagers that she met at Challenge Day out in the community, working around Estevan. Their shared experience opens them up.
“When you see that person in the community, you have that person you can say hello to, have a little bit of a conversation and catch up with. That’s the real goal, just to make that connection from school to community,” added Zeleny.
Because it’s the fourth year for Challenge Day at ECS, following the December event, just about every student in the school will have gone through the program, which began with Grade 9 students who are ECS seniors this year.
While the event itself acts as a spark Zeleny said she hopes it leads to a torch that can be passed around the community for years.
“Once we leave those doors, we want to keep that momentum going. We want to keep it up and keep it happy. It’s awesome if you go to a restaurant and see a student who might be working there, or they’re out with their family as well, and it’s just that look, that look of commonality that you see in their eyes. They just acknowledge you and you say hello.”
She said she ran into one student who had since graduated high school and told her they were so impacted by Challenge Day that they started taking psychology or sociology classes because they wanted to further study some of the feelings the day brought.
That shows the positive experience of students, while Zeleny noted some adult volunteers have come back year after year. Those people have given about 10 or 11 full days to Challenge Day in the last few years. While some keep coming back, Zeleny said it’s also great for people who can only come for one of the days. There is no obligation to attend both.
Adults interested in attending Challenge Day this year may sign up by contacting Zeleny at 306-634-9554 or by e-mailing her at nancy.transition@sasktel.net
