What inspired you to work for Warriors Academy?
I fell in love with the way Warriors operates on a professional level. After the 2 years I had already spent growing and learning with Warriors, I still felt that Warriors had so much more to teach me about life and how to be a great facilitator as well as a great person. So, when they offered me the opportunity to stay and work for them I took it.
Describe a typical day at work.
Wake up at 6 am for exercise at 6:30 am which takes about an hour. Between 7:30 am and 8:15 am is shower time and at 8:30 am is breakfast. After breakfast, the day's activities begin.
At 1 pm is lunch break and after lunch, the activity will resume. Then at about 6 pm, the activities conclude for the day and it is dinner time. Not all staff are required to be in the activities all the time, so select staff will be with the students and the remaining staff will continue with any admin that needs to be done.
Guiding the students on a little 32 km cycle while biking in Magoebaskloof.
What challenges do you often face and how do you overcome them?
I am an Introvert so facilitating and looking after the students can be a challenge for me. But Warriors has given me the tools and knowledge on how to save my energy and make the most of what energy I have. Then they taught me how to use that energy in the most economical way possible to achieve the greatest results with the students and to help myself grow even more as a person and a facilitator
What are some current projects you are working on?
I am currently working on getting Warriors Academy completely paper-free, by using online storage and file sorting programs. I'm also in the process of making multiple templates for documents we use often to help other staff save time as well as help the company be more efficient. I'm also working on myself for the future, figuring out what I want in life and how I'm going to achieve it.
This is a picture of all the great staff that helped with a 16-day school group.
What advice would you tell your pre-travel self?
I would tell myself never to give up, and that failure isn't a bad thing. If you fail you learn and if you learn from those mistakes then you won't make those mistakes that caused you to fail in the first place. So just keep going and never give up. I would also say that breaks are mandatory, pushing yourself hard is great but continuously doing so can lead to burnout, which isn't a good thing, so manage your time wisely.
Why should someone choose Warriors Academy over competitors?
Warriors is devoted to changing the lives of young adults for the better by giving them the necessary skills to thrive in life. These skills allow them to be the best version of themselves by pushing the students to their breaking point using adventure and guiding them on how to overcome this and push past this point to grow stronger.
This is me with one of my coworkers after completing an intense 40 km triathlon!
What is your organization's mission and how do you continue to work toward it?
The main goal of Warriors is to help young adults with personal growth and development of themselves to be better versions of themselves. All staff at Warriors are dedicated to coaching and guiding these individuals to achieve this, we strive to better the students and ourselves all at the same time by using adventure as the tool to allow everyone to face difficult situations and conquer them
What do you hope participants take away from your programs?
I hope that the students take away the valuable life skills and guidance so that they can be the best versions of themselves, by being able to conquer everything life has to throw at them with passion, perseverance, mental grit, and a great attitude. However, I want them to do this without any complaints or negative thoughts that will hinder the progress.
Me and some students cleaning the bus after a 17 hr drive to the Wild Coast
How do you help support participants?
The way I support students is by guiding them to the answer they need and letting them figure out how to solve the problem. I let them be more independent and learn how to find the answers on their own, even if they can't figure it out, I will continue to guide them to the answer until they figure it out. Guidance to the answer is always better than just answering directly
Why is it important for people to travel abroad and experience new cultures?
Traveling abroad will allow you to experience a new way of living and thinking, this means that you will learn new ways to conquer life or solve problems that you never knew had an answer. Being able to experience new cultures also aids in social skills development, being able to adapt how you speak and do things to be able to thrive anywhere you go is an incredible skill
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
Meaningful travel to me is to travel with the purpose of learning, not just traveling for fun. It is not just learning about the cool things they have there, but also the way they live and how they do things. These are great skills to use and adapt into your own daily life.
