JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A new team building exercise on the University of North Florida's campus is helping students learn how to work together while overcoming fears.
The Osprey Challenge Course is designed for groups to go through as a team.
On Thursday, a class of Doctor of Physical Therapy students took their nerves 60 feet off the ground onto the ropes course designed to push the limits and challenge their fears.
"It allows them to get to that growth zone where they can really develop themselves and understand how strong they really are," explained course manager Tomas Marentes.
There are no instructions. No map from beginning to end. It's up to the students to work as a team to master the course.
"If you try to do it yourself it's not going to work it isn't going to happen so that's what's great about it, it really brings you together," said student Ryan McCoy.
Team building. Pushing your comfort zone. Delegating leadership. The goal is to garner skills necessary to succeed in the real world.
"Hopefully one day that will translate out into the workforce when we are working with patients and other health care providers," said student Laurie Dickenson.
"Because ultimately when you're out in the working field, it's not about you," added McCoy.
And at the end, if they make it, students get a little piece of euphoria -- a zipline glide over the water.
"It's a sense of kind of releasing anything that you have with you that day and being excited and having that sense of weightlessness as you leave the course and the experience that you had today," said Marentes.
Right now the Osprey Challenge Course is only available to UNF students. But it will be opened to the public in January.
