Judson challenge course builds confidence

Confidence and team building are two skills Judson University aims to instill in those who step foot on campus.

A new team challenge course provides a novel - and endorphin-producing - path to those goals.

Elgin resident Tom Kohler, by day a physical education and health teacher at Wredling Middle School in St. Charles Community School District 303, earned his master's degree in outdoor education from Northern Illinois University in 1995.

Team challenge courses, where groups must work together to overcome a series of physical obstacles, "are therapeutic and found to be very productive. You learn your strengths and weaknesses," Kohler said. "The benefits are huge."

When Kohler moved near the Judson campus two years ago, he began dreaming up ways to bring such a course to the university.

After consulting with university President Jerry Cain, Kohler began in 2006 to lay the foundation for such a course.

From August 2006 through this spring, Judson's Student Organization raised $6,500 to help build the campus course, Kohler said.

Last fall, Kohler began working on the designated wooded area south of Volkmann Hall, clearing brush and getting it ready.

Cliffs and Cables, run by Northeastern professor Bill Quinn, completed the construction.

"This was kind of an unusual project for us," said Quinn, whose Chicago-based company has built challenge courses around the region.

"Tom designed the course - we just helped out with a couple of the specialty kinds of things - like hanging the cables and things like that," Quinn said.

Judson's course features eight elements - which include a "whale watch," "zigzag" and group wall.

The "whale watch" element, Quinn said, is a sort of large-scale seesaw that can hold a dozen or more individuals trying to balance.

The "zigzag" is another group activity where individuals follow one another on a maze of two-by-four boards.

At the 12-foot-high group wall, "the idea is to get the group up and over the top by working together," Quinn said.

Indiana University, the University of Iowa, Purdue University and Michigan University all have challenge courses that have been used to promote team building.

Locally, there are courses at Maine West High School, at Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54's Nature Center, and at the Wheaton Park District's Lincoln Marsh.

Judson's course, already used by fall semester students who traversed it with their residence advisers, is available for many uses, Kohler said. He hopes eventually that outdoor education classes will be incorporated into Judson's curriculum.

It will also, in time, be available to the public through Judson's Conference Services Area, to use under the watch of a trained course facilitator.

"It could definitely be a source of revenue," he said. "Scout groups, church groups - maybe we'll be able to take the (Chicago) Bandits through it," he added referring to the professional softball team that now plays at Judson.