Day in sun provides fishing buddies time to bond

The Global Academy teamed up with the Special Education department to set out for a fun day of fishing and boating on September 17. Academy students were paired up in groups with a Special Education student buddy to take on the waters. 

The Global Academy and Special Education partnership was halted during the Covid outbreak. Global level three Spanish teacher Jennifer Olivares missed the program during the pandemic. 

“The fishing trip was our first interaction,” she said. “We haven’t gotten to have any interactions since Covid hit. Last year, we didn’t get to work with our buddies at all.”

The fishing trip was planned with other community resources. Olivares was grateful for the helping hands in the event. 

“We went to the Oshkosh senior center and fished in collaboration with the Oshkosh Parks and Recreation department,” she said. “The Oshkosh boat club provided the boats and the driver.”

Olivares credits the main event planning to the Special Education department and teachers. 

“Mrs. [Gillian] Pakula, Mrs. [Stephanie] Polak, and Mrs. Schriber planned this out,” she said. “This is something they’ve been doing annually. This is just the first time that the global schedule has worked with the special education schedule so we could all go together.”

Originally, the trip was planned for last school year. Olivares was sad to see it get canceled. 

“It was rescheduled from last spring because it got rained out that day,” she said. “This year, luckily, we can work with our buddies again.” 

Junior Lily Molash and the rest of the group got to know their buddies through short planned activities the day before the trip. 

“We went on a scavenger hunt around the school,” she said. “Every time we got to a station, we received a question and answered it as a get-to-know-you activity.”

Junior Tessa Whitcomb felt grateful for the ice-breaking opportunity.

“I think the scavenger hunt helped out a lot,” she said.

The scavenger hunt was planned as an introductory activity for the students to build connections. Olivares was pleased by the activity’s success. 

“Everyone has specific needs or certain accommodations, so we wanted to familiarize our groups of students together,” she said. “I think it worked out pretty well that they got to get to know their buddies the day before, and then kind of see them in a different capacity in the fishing field trip environment.” 

The fishing trip in total lasted about five hours. Students were able to go fishing or tour the Fox River on boats. Junior Luke Schafer spent the day getting to know his new buddy.  

“I met my friend named Hunter,” he said. “It was really cool. We didn’t fish though; he didn’t like fishing, but we went on the boat four times.” 

Unlike Schafer, Whitcomb had her hands full of sea creatures.

“Catching my fish was one of the highlights of my trip,” she said. “I would definitely do it again and catch more fish.”

Junior Campbell Grey focused on bonding with her buddy, even without success in hooking some fish.

“My buddy and I were actually pretty close to each other and we bonded pretty well,” she said. “We almost caught a fish together, so that was pretty exciting.” 

Molash felt mutual excitement about the trip alongside her new friend.

“It was fun and it was nice getting to know her,” she said. “My buddy told me more than five times that she was very excited.” 

Whitcomb additionally liked the opportunity to meet new people through the fishing trip. 

“Not only did I get to hang out with my buddy, but I got to meet a bunch of others,” she said. 

Olivares was pleased by the success of the trip but recalls some bumps in the road along the way. 

“The biggest challenge is that we were all kind of tired by the end of the day,” she said. “I know people weren’t super excited for the walk back.”

Molash agrees with Olivares, feeling tired after a long day out in the sun. 

“The only thing I would request for next time is a bus to get us to and from because that was pretty rough,” she said. 

Olivares felt that the positives far outweighed any negatives for the day’s devents.

“Patience for finding the fish was a challenge to overcome,” she said. “But I think it went well overall.”

Besides fishing, the Global Academy students stay involved with their special education buddies in different ways. 

“Global level two usually helps out a little bit with Care Days in May,” Olivares said. “Students in the special education program from the whole K-12 district are invited to Oshkosh West to participate in a field day. The plan is that level three will also play a pretty big role in Care Days too.”

Olivares was excited to see friendships and connections form as students became more familiar with each other, and looks forward to more collaborations. 

“I thought it was kind of neat to see how quickly the relationships developed and how comfortable the students in Mrs. Polak and Mr. Schreiber’s room became,” she said. “The goal is we try to do some sort of event with our buddies each month. I’m not sure exactly what that’s going to look like this year but hopefully when the relationships will just continue to grow as we have future events.”

By Hannah Chung

Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue 1

October 6th, 2021