Pioneering High School Student’s Resilience Shine After the Storm

The University of Montana hosts a wide variety of pre-college programs and one of them is the UM Summer Exploration Program, but this year it did not go according to plan.

In the Face of Adversity

The UM Summer Exploration Program gives rising high seniors and recent high school graduates from all over the opportunity to live like a Griz for two weeks. When the 34 students arrived they were met with the heat and the smoke from the Miller Peak Fire. Assistant Director, Becka Simmons, explained that a lot of the activities were outdoors, but they were sure to make sure the students were hydrated and cool.

Students still had the opportunity to go to lectures and live in the dorms, but then on their second to last day, the thunderstorm hit leaving the university without power and the students. UM Advocates act as RAs during these two weeks. Simmons explained that when the storm hit the students were okay, but some were nervous because they had never been in a storm like that.

The Student's Resilience

At the end of the program, the students have an assignment to make a presentation on their experience and what they learned, however, because of the power outage at the University the students were unable to present. However, they came together to make a presentation even without technology.

"It showed a lot of resilience and that was one of the themes throughout the program. Everyone really rallied together, and everyone was flexible.” Simmons said, “It was a situation that was really inconvenient, but they made the best of it.”

This year’s UM Summer Exploration may not have gone exactly to plan, but the program is about resilience and building connects and Simmons is proud of the student’s resilience and how they built connections.