Dubai Women's College launches World Challenge Program

Attended by Sheikha Shamsa Bint Hasher Bin Mana'a Al-Maktoum, Head of Women's Volleyball Committee in the United Arab Emirates, and several representatives from World Challenge and DWC, the launch of the new program highlighted DWC's leadership in introducing programs that meet students' needs and encourage healthy lifestyles.

The program, run by DWC's Health and Physical Education staff under the auspices of World Challenge, is designed to bring student and faculty teams closer together and make them aware of the overall strength of a team by giving them a joint experience they will take away with them.

Introduced at DWC for the first time, Adventure Quest comprises of five elements with students choosing to use a few or all of the elements depending on the time they have available.

These consist of Action Zones, Climbing Walls, Low Ropes, High Ropes and Initiative and Problem Solving Tasks.

In Action Zones, teams are challenged to solve a group of both physical and mental problems which are chosen specifically to meet students' training needs.

Requiring teams to work together to complete their task, time limits are set to put the student under pressure and enhance decision making.

After each task the team undergoes a review to learn from what they have just done. This is initially led by the facilitator but as the day progresses it becomes more student led.

At Climbing Walls, students use two twelve meter high climbing walls designed specifically for beginners and intermediate climbers with over twenty routes.

This medium of climbing is used not as a sport to test the individual, but as a team challenge requiring the whole team to get just one person to the top.

Blind folds and memory games are involved to increase students' learning outcome.

Students also have access to Low Ropes where over seventy meters of roped problems have to be solved involving balance, coordination and trust.

This element requires safety awareness for all team members as it is a real hands on element with maximum student involvement.

Low Ropes requires that students trust their colleagues and respect who and what is around them.

At High Ropes, teams climb to the top of a giant ladder where success heavily depends on good team communication and leadership.

Students' self-esteem is also emphasized during this element involving team mates to support and egg-on each other to climb to the next run of the ladder.

In initiative and problem solving tasks, students have to provide solutions to complex situations based on collective decision making.

All DWC Health and Physical Education faculty are fully qualified in the activities they are running and have under gone an intensive training program to deliver Adventure Quest as well as being First Aid trained.

"Throughout the Adventure Quest we use the policy of 'Challenge by Choice' where students are offered the opportunity to participate and challenge themselves fully," noted Suzanne Trease, Chair of the Health and Fitness Programs.

"DWC's Health and Physical Education team will push students' comfort zone. But like every job in life it's not all about standing out in front. The supporting roles within a team, like the observer, time keeper, and coordinator are just as important as the lead role. There is nothing wrong with making a mistake as long as students learn from it. Therefore we use the model of Plan-Do-Review-Apply to all tasks involved. All tasks are full risk assessed with our facilitators to mark sure the students are not only safe at all times, but also aware of the risk," noted Trease.

On completion of the event students will be involved in a detailed review of the day looking at the journey they have undergone and its learning outcomes with feedback from both the students and the facilitators.

To emphasize this, a one day excursion follow-up event will be held in March at World Challenges Base Camp where the teams are tested with solving problems and pushing home the skills learned during the Adventure Quest event.

"Adventure Quest is a unique program that allows participants to learn new team building skills and apply them not only in their personal life, but also at the workplace," said Phil Durrell, UAE Program Manager, World Challenge.