On Friday, September 5, Concord Academy tenth and eleventh-grade students participated in a day of class bonding. The school partnered with Grit ‘N Wit, an organization that specializes in arranging fun and inclusive team bonding events. The day included an obstacle course where students had to use their physical and mental strength, followed by an engaging presentation from leadership trainer and speaker A’ric Jackson.
Walking onto campus, students were struck by how Grit ‘N Wit employees transformed the quad, fields, and chapel lawn into a huge obstacle course. The sounds of laughter and cheering could be heard from miles away. For the first part of the event, students were divided into groups of about five or six and competed against other groups to see who could complete all of the strength tests and puzzles the fastest.
At the end of the course, a sense of belonging and community was built between the students. Whether it was cheering on teammates during the physical aspects of the course, or working together to solve the difficult puzzles. When completing the challenges, nobody was thinking about their differences, only that they were on the same team to complete the task at hand. Maura Shapiro ’28 explained that, “It was really fun to bond with new people, and it felt really good to complete something challenging with my friends!”
After the winners were announced, students gathered in the P.A.C. During the first few minutes of his speech, Jackson surprised everyone with his captivating jokes and humorous interactions with the audience. He spoke with a perfect mix of comical moments and serious stories, making sure every student was engaged.
Jackson spoke about the importance of breaking free of your box, in other words, getting rid of whatever is holding you back from being your truest, most confident self. He also taught the crowd about the different personality types, how to figure out which one you might be, and that it is perfectly fine to be a mix of different ones. When asked about what she learned about herself, Sloane Frieze ’28 said, “I learned that I am a socializer, which means that I like to be surrounded by people. It was really cool to see different parts of myself generalized like that.” He explained that it was important to know your personality type in order to identify how you will approach breaking free of your box. After an hour and a half of teaching, CA students left feeling empowered and inspired to be unapologetically themselves.
Overall, Grit ‘N Wit garnered a positive response from the community. Not only did the event encourage students to get to know one another, but it also challenged them to get to know themselves better.