Program inspires local teens to ‘Be the Change’

Nearly 400 students at H.L. Bourgeois High School and Evergreen Junior High got a day out of class last week.

But their time was not all spent playing games, listening to music and engaged in primal screaming – only half of it was.

The rest of the day was an exercise in sharing their experiences – both good and bad – and challenging their presumptions about others.

Students revealed dark secrets to complete strangers, exposed emotions they had kept hidden and channeled negative thoughts into positive energy.

That was the purpose of the California-based non-profit Challenge Day, a powerful, high-energy program where youth and adult participants are guided through a series of experiential learning processes.

The goals are to increase personal power and self-esteem, shift dangerous peer pressure into peer support and eliminate the acceptance of teasing, violence and all forms of oppression. The program is designed to unite members of the school and community and empower them to carry the themes back to the greater school population.

“This is not just something that happens one day and you forget about it,” said Berenice Meza-Aguiar, 26, a third-year Challenge Day leader. “We have to remind not only the kids but also adults that this is possible. Role modeling is our best tool.”

This was the first time Challenge Day had come to Terrebonne Parish schools and only the second time in Louisiana.

Nearly 400 students and over 100 faculty members and community leaders voluntarily participated in the program over four days (Monday and Tuesday at Bourgeois; Wednesday and Thursday at Evergreen).

The program focuses on teenagers and the issues they deal with in and out of the classroom.

“They open up their hearts and share their deepest thoughts,” said Khayree Shaheed, 48, a second-year Challenge Day leader. “Suicide attempts, drug use, bullying, their relationships with their parents.”

The key to getting students comfortable enough to be candid is a combination of games, sharing in small groups and exercises that demonstrate they are not the only ones who have dealt with whatever problems they are facing.

For Meza-Aguiar, a hair stylist, and Shaheed, a musician and producer, that means telling students about their own painful memories.

“Sometimes it’s difficult for me to keep retelling my story because I don’t like dwelling on that, but I know it helps them, and it’s therapeutic for me,” Shaheed said.

“I feel like I’m telling my story to a new friend every day,” Meza-Aguiar said. “I have the same kind of vulnerability and insecurity if they’re going to like me.”

Challenge Day founders Rich and Yvonne Dutra-St. John created the makeup of the 6 ?-hour program.

“They came up with the structure of icebreaker activities and then teaching and sharing in between to bring us high and then down and high again,” Meza-Aguiar said. “If you just bring them low all day, their attention span is going to be short. If we play all day, we’re going to get tired. They figured out a pattern.”

The fun starts the moment students enter the gymnasium through a corridor of high-fiving adults as the music blasts.

Later, the gathering is split into groups of five to six students – none of whom are friends – and an adult facilitator to encourage students to share their experiences.

It is common for teens and adults alike to shed tears after disclosing things they had never shared outside of family and close friends.

“I never thought I would have talked to strangers as much as I talked to 135 of them today,” said 17-year-old Bourgeois junior Brenna King. “I wouldn’t have just opened up with my personal stories and my life story like I did today. I didn’t think I would be nearly as emotional as I was.”

The first time participant admitted she came into Challenge Day a closed-minded person and did not expect anything serious to come from it.

But she was one of the most inspirational students – breaking down into tears during her group session, consoling others in another sharing exercise, and vowing to “Be the Change,” the organization’s motto.

“I’m leaving here with 135 friends I can trust,” she said. “I’m going to be really open-minded about a lot of things, and I know I’m not alone. I have people I can count on. Everybody should have taken part in this.”

Houma Rotary Club member and Bourgeois teen leadership teacher Karen Ellender had been trying to get Challenge Day funded and brought to the school since spring of 2007.

After being denied a grant by the Terrebonne Foundation for Academic Excellence in Public Education, Ellender got word from fellow Rotary member J.B. Daigle that parish District Attorney Joe Waitz Jr. had donated $15,000 to bring the program to Terrebonne Parish.

Daigle helped raise money from the Houma Rotary Club and others.

The club offset other costs by receiving food and drink donations from Cannata’s, Domino’s, Coburn’s and Coca-Cola. Danny Doiron of Fabregas Music donated 50 folding chairs and a vehicle to load equipment. The Rotary Club bought 100 folding chairs that were used at Challenge Day, and will be donated to the Dulac Community Center.

“We’ve had Challenge Day painted on every window since school started,” Ellender said, who was also an adult facilitator. “It took time to build it up. We had teaser posters, banners and display windows. We started with five students and six adults on the ‘Be The Change’ team and grew it from there.”

Challenge Day programs are coming to Ellender Memorial High School on April 22 and 23.

But Daigle and Ellender would like to see the program implemented in all the parish high schools and junior high schools.

Administrators must approve having Challenge Day at their school and some have been reluctant, according to Ellender.

“They don’t want to give up a day of academics to do this,” she said. “If you do something that will help students be less stressful and better behaved, they’re going to want to come to school and learn more. The school would obviously benefit from that.”

That is exactly the reason Evergreen principal Mark Torbert decided to allow the program at his school.

“It may be one day now, but if it keeps us from dealing with bullying or fights later on, it will hopefully keep kids in the classroom.”

By the end of Challenge Day at Bourgeois, numerous students were vowing to “Be the Change,” apologizing to the peers they had teased and put down and thanking those who helped them get through the hard moments.

The experience seemed to be every bit as rewarding for the adults as the teens.

“It was way past my expectations,” Ellender said. “My biggest fear was that we’d open the door and there would be 10 kids waiting outside.”

“I loved every minute of it!” said Tim McNabb, Pinnacle Computer Services owner and an adult facilitator both days at Bourgeois. “The first day I saw it, I was like, ‘No way!’ If I tell people you’re going to open up and share your life experiences and issues, nobody’s going to volunteer for that. So I just say, ‘You want to help out kids?’ All of a sudden they’re involved.”

The commitment Meza-Aguiar and Shaheed make to Challenge Day is not just as leaders and participants. They live it, constantly reestablishing the principles they ask others to follow.

Their reward is changing young people to better themselves and their communities.

“The biggest feedback we get from kids is just gratefulness,” Meza-Aguiar said. “Young people say, ‘I didn’t even know I could cry. I’ve been bottling it up,’ or ‘I’ve been told not to for so long, I didn’t know what it felt like to let my emotions out.'”

“We see the best of the human race every single day,” Shaheed said. “When they can finally talk about things they did and how they’re ready to live life in a different way, I see that as a way of healing. That makes what we do worthwhile.”

H.L. Bourgeois students and facilitators enjoy an “ice-breaking” exercise during last week’s Challenge Day. The program seeks to increase personal power and self-esteem, while shifting peer pressure into peer support. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF