“All right, everyone! Bowser has taken Princess Peach hostage. You all are Mario and Luigi. You have to break into Bowser’s castle, go over to the keypad and touch the numbers from one to 30 sequentially to save Princess Peach and get the kiss on the nose,” instructs Wilson Kerr, vocal performance sophomore and team leader for OKU session’s leadership course.

Filled with ice breakers and critical thinking games, the one-hour leadership course is meant to teach small groups how to act as a unit. In this specific critical thinking game, campers stare at a box outlined on the grass filled with cubed numbers. Each camper has to touch a number going in chronological order. But, no more than one camper can be in the box at a time.

Campers from the Monet small group immediately start to ask more questions, motivated to work together to save the princess. After discussing strategy and coming to an agreement, the campers rush past the starting line toward the square keypad with one goal in mind.

“I want the kiss on the nose!” shouts one camper.

After each camper touches his or her assigned number one by one, they dash back to the starting line to find out whether they successfully defeated Bowser’s challenge in under 35 seconds.

On the first run-through, the campers complete the challenge in 58 seconds with 20 seconds added on for penalties due to multiple campers stepping into the square at the same time.

Encouraged to learn from their mistakes, and shave seconds off their time, the campers once again dash to the square, this time reminding each other to cut down their time by running back to the starting line immediately after touching their number.

By the fourth attempt, the campers have it down to 30 seconds without penalties. Pleased with their time and motivated to beat the all-time record of 18 seconds, the Monet small group makes a fifth attempt at Bowser’s challenge to save the princess.

Now that the Princess is safe, campers have a chance to discuss their strategy and lessons learned from the activity. Team leaders relate the activity to college, pointing out the resources available on campus and the fact that asking questions will lead to success.

“It was cool how they [the leaders] related it [the activity] to college because I didn’t really think of it that way before and just hearing their perspective and how they learned from it was beneficial …,” said Jade White, a freshman from Edmond.

During the discussion, Monet campers describe the activity and lessons learned from it, such as cooperation, communication, perseverance, patience, time management, organization and teamwork, especially.

“As the camp has grown, we still wanted to have that type of teambuilding activity so that the small groups are able to enjoy a group challenge, and [it] kind of pulls them together, helps them get to know each other,” said Dr. Becky Barker, director of the center for leadership development and volunteerism.

After saving Princess Peach, the Monet campers have bonded as a small group and are now ready to take on the rest of Camp Crimson’s challenges.