After a long rainy Thursday, the sun finally shone down on Hinsdale, MA today, just in time for the Team Challenge, a perennial camper favorite. Team challenge is a series of activities that campers must complete together in a camp-wide race: a water balloon toss, a quiz game, a game of charades, and a basketball shoot-out, where several members of the team must shoot a basket (assists don’t count!). This challenge is designed to ensure all team members work together to complete each section before moving on, while also encouraging friendly competition among the groups.

I planned to cheer along with the staff and watch the activities from afar, but once they took off I was completely drawn in! In all the excitement, I found myself running along the court to each activity along with the groups, shouting words of encouragement and cheering along with the campers.

As teammates and staffers cheered from the court, groups of teams waiting to compete cheered the competitors on from the sidelines. Ayandeh aims to maintain a strong level of friendly competition that gets campers excited about both the physical activities and cultural discussions. Sportsmanship is a key skill which campers can carry on into their lives outside of Ayandeh.

After some close calls, in the first round of the challenge, group “T-Raqs” (a play on T-rex and one of our favorite breaktime activities – raqs!) won the team challenge while the younger team of “Two Gooz For You” (sorry moms and dads) won the second round of the challenge.

This annual tradition will likely continue to be a favorite and we look forward to another great Team Challenge next summer!

SATs. AP classes. Extracurriculars. College Life. Majors. These are all topics greatly discussed during a high school student’s life. Today, counselors and staff spent the greater part of the day inside – due to the unexpected downpour – and participated in various college workshops. The workshops were intended to ease the stresses our high school-aged campers often face academically, while sharing our own experiences with them.

Campers were divided by grade level: freshman/sophomores, juniors/seniors, and rising freshman in college. Staff members chose which workshop to lead based on their interests, from specific college majors, to preparing for standardized tests, to optimizing studying patterns.

College applications and SATs are often a source of discussion and stress for high school juniors and seniors. Nakkisa Akhavan, a staff member as well as an SAT tutor, led a discussion with campers entering their junior or senior year on how to plan for the ACT and SAT. Luckily finished with that process, rising college freshman joined a conversation on college life and choosing majors.

Having a reputation for pulling all-day study sessions, I chose to lead a workshop for freshman and sophomores in high school with staff member Arya Saniee, discussing study habits and academics. Campers first discussed their personal study habits before Arya and I shared our stories of lessons learned. The older campers in the group shared tips with the younger campers such as going to teachers for help whenever possible and remembering to sleep even before a huge mid-term. Here, we all witnessed a great representation of Ayandeh culture: staff and campers passing on advice and sharing personal experiences. This collaborative give-and-take of information has been invaluable to past participants and we are excited for this year’s campers and staff to be influenced in the same way!