On Thursday September 25th, the Albemarle Peer Tutors went to the University of Virginia to conquer the low ropes course and visit a Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, Valerie Gregory, to get some insight on what an outstanding college essay would look like.
Leaving school at 9:30 a.m., we piled onto a bus and traveled a measly ten minutes to UVA. First things first after arriving, we all wrote our names on a name tag and formed a circle to listen to the leaders of the field trip on safety requirements and rules. We then paired off into groups of ten students or so and went with our group leader to our first destination. At the low ropes course, there were two options we could have chosen to participate in. One was called the swing, where in your harness, you were hoisted up to the tree tops and then unhitched so that you swing like a pendulum for a couple minutes. The other choice was a ropes course that you got to climb on. There were three ways you could climb up. Each section started with a cargo net and then branched off into different obstacles. The climber is supported by three other people on the ground who had to ensure that the climber wouldn’t fall to the ground.
After that, we went to Ohill and ate lunch like real UVa students. We then walked to meet Valerie Gregory and sat and listened to her talk about college in general and more specifically, college essays. She read aloud a couple of essays that had outshined the rest and that reflect someone who would be a UVa student. The trip was a great way to get the energy flowing between all of the tutors and create a sense of community and even family amongst the tutors. I personally really enjoyed this trip partly because it was outside and we all could talk out solutions and partly because each person in writing center seemed at ease and no one had an attitude about being active and working as a team.
-- a guest post by Mattie B.
