News + Events › Annual Student Events › Urban Adventure
Long before “The Apprentice” and “The Amazing Race,” middle school students in Maine were competing in Urban Adventure. This unique learning opportunity involves more than 120 8th grade students who are part of Project Reach. For nine years, Project Reach students from all over the state have converged on Portland – Maine’s largest urban city – to interact with employers and learn about Maine’s work force.
In the spirit of “Survivor,” the students must sleep in the corporate jungle. Students arrive by bus at 11:30 at Unum’s Corporate Headquarters in South Portland where they are treated to lunch by the company and where they will eventually spend the night. However, before the students enjoy their corporate sleepover, they head out on a quest. Using the Maine State Pier as a starting point, the students are divided into teams for a competitive Scavenger Hunt in downtown Portland. A Project Reach Specialist serves as the overall leader and chaperone of each group. The list of items the students need to collect includes job applications, business cards, bank pamphlets, museum schedules and other business-related items.
The Scavenger Hunt gives the students the opportunity to practice the skills they’ve learned in class such as asking professional questions of strangers and accepting a ‘no’ answer respectfully. For many students, even for some students from South Portland, this is the first time they have actually visited Portland. And for nearly all students this is the first opportunity they have had to formally learn about future job opportunities directly from employers. Additional workshops and celebration events are provided to the students throughout the two days of Urban Adventure, and follow-up and assessment of the learning goals are also conducted when students return to the classroom.