Student teams launch bottle rockets.

There was the typical countdown – 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. Whoosh! The bottle rocket sailed high and far above the Campus Green and splashed down into Centennial Lake some 420 feet from its launching site near the sidewalk. The winning team raced the distance to see where its bottle rocket landed.

This one incident in a day of team-building activities highlighted the many ongoing events during the second annual Team Blast Sunday afternoon throughout the Bart Luedeke Center and on the Campus Green for an estimated 130 students from both campuses and another 30 faculty and staff facilitators. The students represented those enrolled in Rider’s leadership program, Westminster Choir College Emerging Leaders, and the second group of Sanda students.

A team working on balance beam task.

Divided into 10 teams, each group of students had to work closely together to successfully complete a variety of tasks in addition to the making and launching of bottle rockets. Other activities included the change wave where teams had to turn over a small mat while standing on it, the raw egg putt across the room, the balance beam, balloon castles, and the half pipe that called for moving pool balls through disconnected half pipes without dropping the ball on the floor.

A team of students building their balloon castle.

The overall objective of the day was to have students observe and practice key leadership competencies while collaborating to jointly earn 200 million “Rider pride” points and simultaneously competing to earn the most points for their individual teams.

“I think this was a great opportunity for the students to put into practice everything they have been studying all semester long,” said Dr. Carol Watson, director of the Center for the Development of Leadership Skills, which sponsored the program along with Executive Edge, a firm that provides team building and leadership programs. “They got to see leadership come to life today.”

Miriam Ricketts, Executive Edge’s managing partner, said, “We really customize the program to students.” In the past the firm had catered to many companies such as Ernst & Young LLP, Foot Locker, Pfizer, Applebee’s Restaurants, KPMG and Moen. Last year, Executive Edge broke new ground when its leadership skill-building program was introduced to Rider students.

“It is interesting to see how students react,” Ricketts added. She cited the change wave activity, which calls for the team to stand on a small mat and turn it over without any team member leaving the mat, as an example. “When we run this particular at a company, people don’t want to get as close to one another. With students, that’s not a problem.”

She also noted that there was an observer from The Peddie School in Hightstown where the thought is possibly have these team-building exercises as part of its new student orientation in the fall. “It would be great to have Rider students act as facilitators at Peddie,” she said.

The students found team blast to be just that, a blast.

“I think it was awesome and really fun to work as a team,” said Tony Butch, a junior marketing major. “There were two Sanda students on my team who are in my finance class. It was good to get to know them. They’re really cool kids and smart. Another girl I was working with on the rocket project is from the Westminster campus. She told me about her campus and how she likes it. It was fun to work together and meet new people.”

Kasie Ryan, a freshman music education major at Westminster, thought some of the activities such as the balance beam were very challenging. “There were four of us in the group, and we were trying so hard just to make it to the one corner. But once we made it to the corner, it was smooth sailing from there. That required a lot of teamwork and strength.

“The rocket launching was also really cool,” she said. “We kind of had our plans from the beginning. We put the duct tape on it just to make it a little heavier. Then we put water in both sides to also keep it weighted. We had a really nice spiral, and it landed in the lake!”

Perhaps Dr. Jonathan Yavelow, professor of biology, summed up the day’s activities best when he noted, “The students came with an awareness of what their strengths were and hopefully they are leaving with a better sense of what their limitations are.”

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