Duke of Edignbrough practice journey

The Duke of Edenborough (DoE) Award is an international is a non-formal educational program designed for teens to develop leadership and other important life skills. It has 3 different levels, each with varying completion time and developing leadership and independence to different extents; these levels are Bronze, Silver and Gold. Each of these awards requires participants to persevere in a voluntary service activity, a physical activity, the development of a specific skill, and the attendance of a multiple-day-long adventurous journey; all of which are logged in a record book.

After having nearly completed my DoE Bronze Award last year, I am aiming to complete my Silver Award this year. As of yet I have not started with my service, skill and physical activities but we have been on a practice adventurous journey. For this years adventurous journey, OSCs DoE group plans on going on a 3 day long sea kayaking expedition. To this end, the group and I went on the Silver Award practice journey on September 1-3, where we developed our kayaking, water safety, map reading, camp building, cooking and teamwork skills which will be essential for the completion of our final qualifying journey.

My time in the camp at Weligama was very valuable to me and a great learning experience. When there, as well as learning a lot about maneuvering and using sea kayaks, I strengthened social bonds and teamwork with my peers. During the first day of the trip I wasn’t very close with any of my peers and was very busy with the setting up of our camp. Later on, as I spent more time and working together with the others, I found myself growing much closer to them socially. By the end of the trip I felt much closer and at ease with everyone there and also found it was conducive of a much more efficient and entertaining teamwork dynamic.

Learning Outcomes:

• LO1: Demonstrates awareness of strengths and areas for growth.
• LO3: Demonstrates self-challenging, learning development of new skills.
• LO5: Demonstrates collaboration and working with others.

Featured Image: Group photo of DoE students after kayaking (source: Ms Kamila Sahideen)