Da Vinci Challenge Rocks!

The same team of students who went through the LIFE program together experienced what’s called the Da Vinci Challenge. It was awesome! We reviewed problem solving and decision making skills which we learned through Kepner-Tregoe by putting them into action. We were broken into three teams, and had a full day of mental and physical challenges on the low ropes course here on campus. First up for our team was “The Wall”, which is similar to the obstacles used in military training. Our objective was to get every member of the team over the wall as quickly (and safely) as possible. We indeed did it quickly, but many of us came out with bumps and bruises for love of the challenge! Our biggest advantage was the fact that we had Professor Roy Pettibone on our team. Roy is an ex-marine and ex-college football linebacker. It took five of us guys to hoist him up the wall, but once he was on top it was go time. He basically pulled our entire team one by one over the wall like we were rag dolls. Go Roy!! Next was a mental challenge involving getting our team from one platform to another using only two boards. The ground was “molten lava”, and we treated it as such. Only two limbs were lost in the process, God help those soldiers. The “Spider Web” was our last challenge. We were to get every person through the web of a killer monster spider without waking it from a slumber. Meaning we could not come into contact with the web without risking painful death by spider. (No animals were harmed in this demonstration). We made it through in record time, lifting team members through gaps smaller than we ever thought possible. We are now considering a promising future in the burglary/heist business. To finish the day, we did the “Trust Fall” which included falling backward off of an 8 ft platform only to be caught by teammates…thanks guys! Also, we put our rock concert experiences to good use in the “Human Conveyor Belt” in which we crowd surfed every person down the line and backflipped them at the end. The entire day was lots of fun, and was made possible by great instructors. Professor Milan Pagon was the leader, and he kept us entertained all day with his dry European humor and fascinating stories. He and the other three instructors are from Slovenia, so it was cool to work with folks from yet another diverse background. Great guys. After our full day of activity we were showered and packed in 30 mins to jump the bus to Interlaken, Switzerland! This is where I will let the suspense build, and say “to be continued”. Interlaken upcoming!