Sometimes, all a young person needs to change their path is the right rhythm.
Offered through Guelph’s Upper Grand District School Board, Cadence is an alternative education initiative designed to support high school students facing challenges such as chronic absenteeism, difficulties with traditional classroom settings, family issues, and other social or emotional obstacles. Identified by their teachers as having significant potential for growth, these students — who are taught in a non-traditional classroom environment inside Hope House in downtown Guelph — participate in Cadence to foster personal development and resilience.
Through the Cadence program, students also embark on three-day retreats to the Muskoka Woods’ Leadership Studio. Here, they take part in challenging, achievement-based, age appropriate, experiential, leadership development opportunities. The Leadership Studio is a space that inspires creativity and innovative thinking.
We recently caught up with Rob Conroy, a teacher at the Cadence program, to ask about his Muskoka Woods experience with kids from Cadence over the years.
In your experience, why is it important that Cadence students get to experience The Leadership Studio at Muskoka Woods?
The Muskoka Woods experience is absolutely critical in the success of our school program. It allows us to build a sense of community amongst our students. The studio itself provides a beautiful, safe learning space that, in my mind, is second to none.
How do Cadence students specifically benefit from their time at The Leadership Studio?
The Leadership Studio is a worldclass facility as are its experiential learning activities. Our students do not do well in a typical school setting (that’s why we have them!). The key learning for our students while at the studio is our definition of leadership: “A Leader is someone who looks at their world and says, ‘it doesn’t have to be this way’ and does something about it.”
Can you recall a success story or special moment from your time with Cadence students at Muskoka Woods?
Wow, a success story? There have been so many and almost impossible to narrow down to one.
Along with the idea of building community, I will always remember our very first trip to Muskoka Woods: 15 students scattered amongst a bus that would typically hold 50 students and eerily silent the whole three-hour trip from Guelph to Muskoka Woods. I mean silent.
After our three-day trip, the same bus driver picked us up and as we pulled out the front gate and headed west on Highway 141, the bus driver said to me: “Well, I don’t know what you did to these kids, but I have never seen such a change in a group of young people.” I turned around to see them almost sitting on top of each other, crowded into the last two or three rows of the bus. By the time we hit Rosseau, the music was on and they were singing at the top of their lungs.
As I turned around and sunk back into my seat, I reflected with the thought: mission accomplished. I knew we were well on our way to making a difference in the lives of some young people who needed a break.
As an educator, what is your favourite part of The Leadership Studio experience?
For the purposes of our program, it is the idea of building community. As a teacher, The Leadership Studio experiences are great in helping to build a leadership skill set for our students so that they can be inspired to start to shape their own world. However, the teambuilding piece is essential to our success.
In your opinion, why should people give to the Muskoka Woods Youth Foundation and support programs like Cadence?
Our partnership with Muskoka Woods, and some very dear friends, has been a wonderful relationship to help some of our most vulnerable students in our system. We have successfully helped to re-engage hundreds of at-risk students and get them back on the track to graduation from high school. We simply could not do it without this partnership.
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Visit the Muskoka Woods Youth Foundation site to give a child the gift of growth, confidence, and unforgettable summer memories.
