UNH Today

On August 28, students accepted into UNH Manchester’s new Student Leadership Academy participated in the Urban Challenge — a day of adventure-based learning and team-building at three community partner sites across Manchester, N.H.

The 18 students arrived on campus Friday morning with no idea what activities to expect during the Challenge, which was modeled after The Amazing Race. The students were broken into six teams of three, fueled up with breakfast and inspired by rousing speeches from Regina McCarthy, assistant dean of academic student services, and Heather Ramsey, partner and executive coach at Sojourn Partners.

“This opportunity that you have is just the start of your journey,” said Ramsey, who is serving as the mentor for the Student Leadership Academy.

The students were then given a clue card to decipher, leading them to the first challenge site of the day: SEE Science Center. Using a pegboard and items like paperclips, rubber bands and straws, the teams were given 45 minutes to design a track for a magnetic marble, with a goal of having the slowest time for the marble to complete the track. Collaboration was evident, with each team member putting his or her ideas to the test.

The victors of this task were Team 3, made up of Mikaila Bayers, Tyler McFadden and Katie Sarette. Bayers said one key to strengthening leadership skills is not being afraid to ask for help.

“Personally I think you need to ask for help. I’ve been in leadership positions before, and if you ask the people who are following you for help, it’s not a bad thing,” Bayers said. “I think it really helps reinforce that leadership.”

Team 3 received four tokens for their win, with second through fourth place also getting token awards. While the team with the most tokens at the end of the day is the Urban Challenge champion, Director of Student Development Marisa Forti said the leadership experience is what matters.

“Enjoy this experience, get some leadership out of it,” Forti said to the student teams. “You should not be focused on who has the most tokens. You should be focused on taking the experience and really extracting value out of it.”

After token awards at the SEE Science Center, the students received their second clue. While several teams misinterpreted the clue, eventually they all made it to destination two: Radisson Hotel. Their challenge: cleaning a hotel guest room to Radisson quality standards, and passing room inspection.

The students were only allowed to whisper, so the limit in communication caused a shift in leadership style. Unlike the collaboration and interaction present in the marble race, this challenge forced students to delegate tasks. The students certainly gained appreciation for the hard work of hotel cleaning staff: not a single team passed inspection.

“We might’ve failed, meaning we failed to check the clock or we failed to check the temperature,” participant Kristin Boelzner said, “but it was definitely a good experience.”

Team 5 — Sara Clark, Jenna Horne and Jamanae White — took first place for the Radisson challenge, with hotel staff determining their room was closest to passing inspection. After awarding tokens, the teams received the clue to their final destination: Manchester Central Fire Station.

Here teams were tasked with assembling and running a fire hose from the basement to the second floor, where they then had solve an equation to calculate the water pressure needed to reach 100 psi. One team at a time worked together to haul the hoses up the stairs, making sure there were no kinks — each member wearing an item of a fireman’s suit. Meanwhile, the other teams joined the off-duty firefighters to use a fire hose and take a ride up the hydraulic bucket of a fire engine.

Captain Scott Merrill said the Manchester Fire Department was proud to get involved with the Urban Challenge. It not only gave students a sneak peek into the life of a firefighter, but also leadership growth and a deeper appreciation of community involvement.

"You are part of the community, even if you do not know everyone in it," Merrill said.

After completing the final challenge, the teams returned to campus for a group discussion on the day’s activities and the leadership traits unique to each task. And, of course, to tally the tokens and announce the champion of the first Urban Challenge: Team 5.

The student leaders had kicked off the day with a chant, and its message continued to echo when the Challenge ended: "It's a great day to be a Wildcat."