This past week, the 9th grade took their annual trip that RMA sponsors every year for the freshmen which includes: a fun day at the Xtreeme Ropes Course Challenge and guided college tours. The students departed school early Tuesday morning on October 4th, and returned on Wednesday afternoon, October 5th. The students were accompanied by chaperones Dr. Carter, Mr. Tucker, and Coach Ramsey.

The first stop for the 9th graders was the Xtreeme Ropes Course in Monroe, North Carolina. The goal of the ropes course is to promote team building while also having fun outdoors with friends. When they arrived, students were split up into three teams. Within those teams, students were presented with different obstacles including: going across a drawbridge without talking, riding across a platform to get to the other side by using three different methods, going across a long wooden platform without touching it, and lastly, ziplining across a pond while trying to hit Harry Potter quidditch rings with a tennis ball. Vivian Rogers described the ropes course as “challenging because there was one part where we couldn’t talk while we tried to get to the other side of the course.” Griffin Wingfield claimed that the ropes course “helped build our relationships as classmates and friends.” Overall, everyone had a great time and to top it off had a great lunch of subs. After leaving the ropes course, the students headed to the Holiday Inn.

The morning of the second day of the trip was spent at High Point University, a private university in High Point, North Carolina. Once there, the students were lead on a guided tour through High Point’s extravagant campus. Vivian Rogers stated, “I really liked High Point because it was small and all the building were really nice. I also liked how they have a movie theater on campus so the students don’t have to leave.”

The last part of the trip was spent at none other than North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. There, the students were lead on a guided tour of the campus by RMA alumni Ann Claire Roberson and Meg Deyton, graduates of the class of 2015. Because the students were able to experience what college life was like for a few hours, Griffin Wingfield said, “Visiting NCSU was a great experience because it gave me a good idea of what college campus life is like.”

As Haley McCall sums up, “Our class trip this year was really fun because at the Ropes Course, all of our activities relied on teamwork so we had to work together even if we didn’t know each other well. We had to trust each other to literally have one another’s backs and not let anybody on the team fall. That allowed the newer students at school to bond with the students who have been here for years, and vice-versa. While touring the colleges, we were able to get an idea as to what our futures could hold, while spending time with each other away from schoolwork.”