22 Jun The first Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Gold Trip
18th of June, 6 a.m., Transylvania College, 5 students, 1 Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award supervisor, 1 staff member, equipment for 4 days. This is the beginning of the first Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Gold Trip for Transylvania College.
21th of June, 8:30 p.m., Transylvania College, 5 students, 1 Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award supervisor, 1 staff member, equipment for 4 days. This is the end of the first Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Gold Trip for Transylvania College.
What comes in between is the outcome of a very well prepared trip, having in mind the investigation of the maintenance of tourist-oriented infrastructures, such as information centres, camping sites, viewing decks and access routes.
Ruxandra Bratfalean, Maria Bega, Radu Gaghi, Bernard Berari and Matthias Danowsky is Transylvania College’s first Gold Team. They were pleased to discover that Padis has some infrastructure built for tourists, but they encountered difficulties at times with trails damaged by a storm that happened in September. The trails they followed were generally well marked, signs were clear and whenever necessary they took out the compass and the map and quickly found their direction.
Well done to the Gold Team for all the hard work and the successful trip! It was the pleasure of the supervisor, Mirela Moldovan, the new member of the adventure team, Carmen Salagean, and the evaluator, Iulia Bratfalean to witness their preparedness, mental strength and amazing orienteering skills. They are more than ready to discover new hiking trails and we hope that the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award inspired them to do so!
What the students had to say about the trip:
“The program helped me explore the unexplored in terms of charted and uncharted territory, interests, and different people that I never thought I’d come in contact with. it was the beginning of a long self-exploratory journey on which I came closer to shaping myself as a global volunteer, an adventurer and a balanced individual in terms of body and mind.”
“I learned how to commit to a long-term activity. I was motivated to finish each level. It helped me see my value, the skills I had even before starting the program. All of our responsibilities came naturally, we split our tasks according to our skills and helped each other when necessary. I got to enjoy nature and take a break from my life, a break which I wanted and needed for some time. We were already friends so we had no problem in getting along and working together. We reached our objective easily by focusing on all the infrastructure and taking pictures of it.”
“How DofE changed my life:
– Took my passions, hobbies and interests and put them in a framework
– Developed habits and routines which are essential for a fulfilling life
– Developed important team working, organizational and leadership skills
Team:
– Already knew each other well
– Cooperation is so smooth that it comes naturally
– No tension
My role
– Mostly navigation, moral support, Yeti deparasitation, Official Turdu – Expert
Improvements
– Less food, but just a bit
Final objective
– Very productive
– Gathered all the necessary data so far
– Sad but good impact when we saw that so many important key locations are in poor conditions”
“When help was needed, we were there for each other and I am sure that if we would have encountered big problems, we would have to split some tasks between the members. We acted as a single unit through every day of the hike and I have nothing to complain about.
Everybody managed to “live” on his own but we did need to assign people to some task (or they offered). I helped where I could and in case we encountered navigational difficulties, I shared my opinion or helped find signs. I believe that we managed to fulfil our objective.”
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