sheltonchallengeIn just a few days at Shelton I have learned enough to last a lifetime, such as the different styles of leadership, how to motivate others, the leadership practices, public speaking, and much more. But, I could not have done it alone. I have met so many friends, and even role models. From my team, I can name who will be voted ‘Class Clown,’ their senior year, ‘Best Smile,’ and even ‘Best All-Around.’ But besides their outstanding personalities, I was able to understand these people as leaders. I know who will always have a good strategy in times of desperate measures. I know who will be the first to take the lead, and who will always have something positive to say in negative situations. I have learned so much about them that they seem like family.
- Sydney Mance
Coming to the Shelton Challenge has been a challenge. I have learned leadership types and skills that I otherwise would not have become aware of, and have already begun to see how I can apply it to activities and clubs I am involved with. The values and morals emphasized here are the values and strengths that I have found in my Granddaddy and that I hope to possess. Being hours away is extremely hard, especially since we are so close, but knowing that I am becoming a better person by being here, I know that he would be proud. I have learned that in life, things don’t always work out as planned, like in team building activities or getting behind schedule, or in the case of close family members becoming very sick. This week may have not worked out as planned, but I have learned skills at the Shelton Challenge that will better me as a person and as a leader and will help me develop as the kind of person my Granddaddy is as well as the kind of person the Shelton Challenge hopes to motivate others to be.
- Molly Graham
Through my own personal experience at Shelton Challenge, which provides a variety of view points, a unique environment to make friends, and the resources to make a dramatic change, I would definitely recommend this program to my peers.
Shelton allows me the privilege of meeting some amazing people. Has anyone here felt alone or felt like they have hardly anyone to relate to? Believe it or not, that used to be the story of my life. Many students would put me down and constantly joke around because I am always so vivacious and bubbly. No one ever seems to notice my smile had become the barrier between the pain I felt and the people who saw just a smile. This program has provided me with much more than knowledge but the ability for me to meet people who share common aspects. Furthermore, my new friends helped release the pain I have held in for so long.
Lastly, this amazing program allowed me to grow and change. Not only have I learned so much about leadership but what kind of leader I am. These activities we endured aided me in strengthening my weakness as well as my strengths. My body physically and mentally grew with the amazing tasks that laid ahead.
- Kiara Martin
The Shelton Challenge is a great program for those who are already leaders and those who are not. The program consists of a week of classes and challenges that reinforce various abilities associated with leadership. During the week, on gets opportunities to lead their peers as well as plan activities. One’s confidence is boosted through different activities. The virtues of honor, integrity, diversity, and compassion are reinforced and are a central part of the program. You meet people that you will never forget and you will greatly enjoy yourself.
The program instills important virtues on its participants. Honor, integrity, diversity, and compassion are the pillars the program is built upon. These virtues should be a part of everyone’s life, and the program shows the good in people that can still be found even in this new age. I would strongly recommend the program to anyone who can attend.
- Cameron Matheny
As for the classes, they are no less than spectacular. The most outstanding thing about them is that we get to actively participate as leaders in team building exercises. Not only are these exercises captivating, we also gain much needed leadership experience. All the knowledge and experience I have gained from my instruction here with the Shelton Program will most certainly come in handy later in life, even things that may have not seemed to sink in may come to mind under pressure.
The underlining program/curriculum can best be described by an oxymoron: relaxfully aggressive. This camp is aggressive because there is a rigorous approach to gaining leadership skills. Everyday is packed with activities that foster the foundations of leadership. Participants are involved from 7 in the morning to 10 at night, fifteen hours, in leadership training and practice. Participants have opportunities to reflect upon actions, behaviors, and consequences after each leadership activity. This gives ones a deeper realization of how one is participating in leadership in everyday tasks. Reflection also provides insight from various students. By the end of the day I am exhausted, both mentally and physically, by the many hours of leadership practice. However, I know that leadership does not come easily. Only hours of practice will garner improved leadership skills. I have learned so much about what a leader is, what a leader does, and how a leader acts. Yet, I know I am only at the tip of the iceberg. There is still much to be learned about leadership. The relaxful components of this camp are the fun activities and friendly mingling. The night activities are a chance to relieve one of all the new information one has obtained. I have greatly enjoyed all of the interactions I have had with participants of this camp. I know that I can have fun with each passing day. This camp has a challenging aspect as well as a relieving aspect.
The contributing factor of my ability to have fun and to relax at the Shelton camp is the environment. This camp has a warm and welcoming environment. Because I am a relatively shy individual, I am hard to get involved. However, within the first day I was able to open up. My group has become what can be best described as a close family-unit. On the first day we were awkward but by the third we have all been able to speak freely and express our feelings, opinions, and even criticism. Our group reaches across racial, social, and economical boundaries. We truly express the diversity component of leadership cornerstone. Outside of our teams, I felt that all the participants were easy to get along with. The camp helps fonder friendship with many mingling activities. Everyone is here not only to gain leadership skills, but to also have some fun. The Shelton camp contains both. From the first day I have felt welcome here. This acceptance, in my opinion, is crucial in becoming good leaders.
I have grown unbelievably in the past week. I see myself as a bigger man, a more beneficiary citizen, and most importantly a better leader. This camp helps individuals achieve the confidence and skills necessary to emerge into a leader in today’s ever-demanding society.
I am the perfect example of the kid who was weary about coming to Shelton camp-unsure of what it held for me. But now that I am involved, I know it has changed me for the better. I am amazed at how much fun I am having while still retaining all this knowledge that I learn everyday. I am now an advocate for the Shelton program and all the positive teachings it instills in teens today. Not only has this program helped me to become a better leader, but it has led me to become a better person. I know that may sound crazy that a couple of days have changed me, but it is the absolute truth.
The lessons learned here will be carried with me forever. As a teenager these days, I feel that we lose focus on the life-lessons instilled in us early on. I myself lost sight of many, but being here at Shelton camp, they have definitely been reinforced. It would be a shame for someone to not get the chance to experience this amazing opportunity. I am so grateful I came to the Shelton Challenge and hope to come back next year.
As I’m sure everyone here knows, the Shelton Challenge helps leaders grow in many ways. Coming here, I had been through a couple of leadership Programs and positions. I thought I knew what there was to know about leading. Just in the first day alone though, I found out how much ‘growing room’ I had left. I am extremely grateful that I have had the opportunity to learn all that I have from such accomplished leaders.
Not only are there many knowledgeable staff members to help Shelton students learn, teammates help teach, too. In my team, there are many different personalities and leadership styles. In the beginning, our different leadership styles-directive, coaching, supporting, and delegating-seemed to hold us back. We were all confident in our own style and didn’t exactly sprint towards the idea of doing a complete 180 within 3 hours of coming to camp. However, as time went on, we learned that each person’s difference brought something new to the table. We bounced ideas off each other until we created what we thought was the best plan. Working with such a strong group has changed my outlook on approaching a problem in uncharted territory.
I have learned that throughout life I’ll be in circumstances that will require that I interact with people of different personality traits, beliefs, and levels of commitment. Many times, reaching my goals will mean that I need to work with these individuals. Individual achievement is an easier rate as self motivation is simpler than motivating a larger group with diversified thought processes, methods and ideologies. Though I will not always hold the title or position of authority, I have learned that my contribution to the group dynamic need not be one of simply following the pack, in certain instances, speaking at and voicing ideas are necessary.
Throughout this week experience at the Shelton Challenge, my team and others have faced and took on many exciting, difficult, and teambuilding challenges. Together as a whole, we have learned many aspects of leadership, such as teamwork, time management, patience, and planning. My team members faced all of these day by day, but the main thing that I, myself, learned from this awesome experience was the proper way to work as a team, as one, as unity.
Compassion is a big factor in what we are learning ourselves, which no book can really make you learn or understand. Nevertheless, this is a leadership camp which no one can really know what campers have gone through. Although one thing I can say is the Shelton Camp has made me a stronger, more confident person who instills the four qualities of the General. Integrity, Honesty, Diversity, and Compassion. Not to mention, the instructors and staff have made us become better leaders of today but most importantly tomorrow.
If pressed I could easily sum up my Shelton experience in one word: learning. But this institute, and my experience here, deserves so much more than just one word. So, I should elaborate on my one word. What have I been learning exactly, here at Shelton? I have been learning about myself, what are my tendencies, strengths, weaknesses; I have been learning about teamwork, when to lead and when to follow in my group, but most importantly I have been learning about how to go about my life with honesty and integrity, modeling the way, and encouraging others’ hearts.
When exactly in this whole crazy process did I learn this? I learned about myself when I asked questions and was answered with shrugs, I learned about teamwork when I was put with a group of people I didn’t know and asked to do seemingly impossible tasks, and I learned about life when I sat, in confidentiality, with my teammates and heard their reactions to the things I said and did.
Throughout my Shelton Experience I have been muted, blindfolded, ran, rushed, asked, followed, lead, and muted again. I don’t know exactly where, but somewhere along the way, I have been learning.
- Alexander Karsten
The Shelton Challenge has enabled me to grow as a leader by challenging both my leadership style and conflict resolution skills. The Shelton Challenge has attracted many great minds. With those great minds come diverse opinions and personalities. As a team, we can either use our different backgrounds, opinions, and leadership styles to strengthen the team or hurt it. Through it all, this week has taught me to appreciate diversity.
The Shelton Challenge has helped me grow as a leader by enabling me to appreciate other’s leadership styles and opinions in order to create a thriving, diverse group of leaders. Furthermore, the Shelton Challenge and my diverse group have challenged me to grow in integrity in all I do, appreciate diversity, show compassion for those with differing opinions, being honest with my team, and myself when problems arise, and take social responsibility while leading in any form.
This week at the Shelton Challenge has been a great one, and has taught me things about myself that I had never thought I could do or accomplish. I think that we would all agree that this week has taught us more about ourselves than any other week of our lives. But today, I am not going to speak on that aspect of this incredible camp. Instead, I am going to remind us of an element that we might have forgotten or never really examined for all it’s really worth. This is an aspect that I, personally, have spent all week focusing on, and that focus has been directed towards building a family out of my team mates.
We have given each other something that most would have never given away in our life time. Our trust. Through honesty this was achieved. We did this on the first day. That in itself is something we can all be proud of. We have held each other responsible for our actions. This represents our moral code and our adherence to it through integrity. Next, we all have gone through some sort of diversity and we have learned to overcome it through the trust that was given on the first day. We have learned about our social responsibility to, not only one another, but to the rest of the world.
These are all very important things, and things we have accomplished this week as a family, but if you notice that I am leaving one crucial part of the code out of the equation. This is because I feel that it deserves special recognition and acknowledgement.
This concluding part of my speech is dedication to compassion, because I feel that there is more to be grasped than what is at the surface of this camp and all the people involved. It’s all about taking every little thing that we have learned not only physically and mentally. But it’s more about what we learned about ourselves and each other on the heartfelt level. I am talking about that special bond that we have all created with each other. Compassion is that special love we have for each other through all the things we’ve been through, from day one teamwork trust exercises to this graduation. These are a few of the things that have brought us together as a true Family.
The Shelton Challenge has taught us things about ourselves that we had never known, but also has brought us together in a way that very few in this generation have experienced. The Shelton Challenge is “The leadership experience for the next generation.”
