Training

One of the first things I got to do as part of my new position was go to a two day training at the Logan campus for the Student Government Presidents from all of the regional campuses. http://distance.usu.edu/?campuses
This was not only very helpful, but I got to know some great people from the other regional campuses,and it was also lots of fun.
The first thing we did, was to spend the afternoon at the USU Ropes Course. http://ropes.usu.edu/ We had the opportunity to do a lot of fun and challenging activities that were all designed to teach us teamwork and leadership skills. So here are a few pictures...
This is my automatic reaction to looking down for the first time while standing on a log that is suspended about twenty feet in the air.
The objective here was for the two people on the log to hold onto the end of their ropes, meet in the middle, pass each other, trade ropes and continue on to the other end of the log, remember the log is swinging from cables and is suspended 20 ft in the air. (Just for the record, I am afraid of heights!!)
This is how you get down after completing the last objective.
This was a great exercise in cooperation and teamwork that involved two people climbing this swinging ladder made from boards that started about 3 feet apart and progressively got farther apart as you climbed higher. The only way to accomplish it was to work together and help each other. This is Sarah Anderson on the ladder with me.
This is a 40 ft climbing wall, by the smile on my face, I would guess that I am not very far off the ground yet. Here is proof that I actually made it to the top! This is the way down from the top...Totally fun once you convince yourself to jump off the platform.
I don't have any pictures of the scariest activity but it involved climbing a ladder and then a pole to 35 feet in the air where I would stand on a platform roughly the size of a bathroom scale (OK it was actually about 18"wide and 30" long) and then leap into the air and try to grab a trapeze bar that was swinging from a cable. Of course I was in a full body harness and there was no way I could fall, but that fact didn't register to the self-preservation part of my brain that is looking down at how far away the ground is.
So, I don't actually have any proof of this, but I think that one of the objectives in this rope course was to teach us that even when you are scared to death and doubt your own ability to do something, if you will just take the leap and give it your all, you'll find that you've got what it takes.