A group of eighth grade students spend time by a pond and look for rocks to skip. In previous years, seventh graders went on their first Arrow Week in Utah using the NOLS program. “We were able to create a custom program for Archer, much like NOLS does for upper school,” Huff said. “[It] really aligns with the leadership, the risk taking [and] decision making, but in a more age-appropriate format for eighth grade students.”

Students walk back to their base camp after hiking to Columbia Rock. Students stayed in cabins instead of tents like on previous Arrow Weeks trips. “I’m not much of a hiker, so hiking was a struggle the first day, but I got used it to because my friends and I were hanging out. We were all having a good time and laughing, so I definitely got over that initial struggle,” eighth grader Siena Fantini said. 

Eighth graders Milan Earl and Beau Cartwright hug in front of a mountain in Yosemite. According to Huff, she worked with other Archer faculty to change the trip from seventh to eighth grade and to have it be in Yosemite so that younger students could have their first Arrow Week in California.

A group of students pauses to take a photo near Half Dome on the way back from seeing and learning about Washington Column. Eighth grader Camden Forster said one of her favorite parts of Arrow Week was seeing different parts of Yosemite. “The most difficult part was probably the hiking because we all didn’t have a lot of energy after the bus drives,” Forster said. “But [the best part was] we were all able to pump each other up for the hikes.”

Eighth graders Gabby Kaplan, Sherry Zhang, Fantini, Chloe Winkler and Pasha Selig learn from their guide about the history of Yosemite. “By far my favorite part was my group, my cabin, because we have so many inside jokes now, [and] we’re all really close,” Fantini said. “I got to meet some people who I didn’t think I’d be very close with until we were actually at Arrow Week… I had a phenomenal time with my cabin, and our trail leader was really funny.”

Students hike on a trail in Yosemite and work together to decide their pace. “I think the most important thing that I learned was making sure everyone’s caught up to speed on what’s going on, like if somebody was falling behind on trail [making sure to] check in,” Fantini said. “We had to make sure that everyone was one group, and I think that can be applied in real life.”

Students walk in a group back to their base camp. Many eighth graders said their favorite part of the trip was getting to know the other students in their group better. “I overall had a really fun time with my group,” eighth grader Lila Morgan said. “[My favorite part] was getting to meet new people I hadn’t spent much time with before.”

Eighth graders Lu Rodriguez, Alex Bridwell and Morgan run together. “I think my favorite part was definitely being able to be in charge of myself throughout the week — having to wake myself up was a good experience,” Rodriguez said. “The most challenging part was definitely agreeing on everything with your group… We definitely all had very different ideas of what we wanted to do.”