How do you face your fears and become courageous?  On February 16, Mr. DeBoer's class of jubilant sixth graders stopped by the Luke Center to participate in a "Burning Fears" activity, taking their first steps in the right direction.

Fears written on slips of paper were safely burned inside the confines of a ceramic pot.

How do you get over the fear of death? The fear of failure? Or even the fear of bugs?

Three Luke Leadership & Design Team (LL&DT) members, Mia Farinas '16, Leeya Kekona '16, and Julia A. Kim '17, volunteered to lead the class through the activity.  After a quick welcome and debriefing, the sixth graders were split into three groups for discussion.

Mia Farinas '16, Leeya Kekona '16, and Julia A. Kim '17 oversee Mr. DeBoer's class as students write down their fears on slips of paper.

The LL&DT volunteers had their respective groups sit down in a circle and write their fears anonymously on slips of paper.  Fears were then collected and shared aloud to the group.

Leeya Kekona '16 shared, "We talked about their fears.  Why someone would have a particular fear, what someone could do to overcome that fear, and how friends could help each other to overcome a fear.  I think the class learned that no one is alone.  We all have similar fears and we can fight them together."

Leeya Kekona '16 aids sixth graders as they drop their fears into the fire.

Students connected with one another as they burned their fears in a small (safe) fire outside of the Luke Center. Holding onto their fears written on slips of paper, students approached the fire one-by-one, lit their slip of paper, and then released their fears to watch it burn into harmless ash.

Leeya Kekona '16 remarks, "We learned that courageousness is not only bound by our individual actions, but can be created together. We all took the first steps to conquering our fears."

The three LL&DT members may repeat the activity with other lower school classes in the future.

Mr. DeBoer, Chaplain Hayashi, and LL&DT members debrief after the activity.