Whakatāne year 10 students have returned from a 19-day wilderness adventure with a new-found confidence and a desire to give back to their community.

The students are taking part in Project K, a Graham Dingle Foundation programme designed to help young people step outside their comfort zones and build confidence.

The group travelled to the Coromandel for their Wilderness Challenge, taking part in sea kayaking, bush walks, water activities and climbing.

Their final expedition saw the students spend seven days in the bush, camping, swimming and kayaking without their phones.

Programme leader Talei Bryant said the difference in the students after the experience was noticeable.

“When I first met these kids, they were all quite quiet, shy,” Bryant said.

“They came home and they were just full of energy.”

The students then moved into a three-day community challenge, where they learned more about the organisations and services operating in their community.

They helped redo planter boxes and plant vegetables before working with the Whakatāne Kiwi Trust at Kohi Point, where they learned about queen wasp trapping and how to set the traps.

The group also cooked spaghetti bolognese at a marae before helping Wairiki Whānau Mentoring deliver meals to whānau in need.

They visited a social supermarket and learned about its point system, as well as visiting Orange Sky, a service providing portable washing and drying facilities for homeless people.

The students visited Tūhoe Hauora, where they took part in games and got to see a podcast studio.

Bryant said some of the students had already found areas they were interested in.

“Some of them seemed quite interested in the Kiwi Trust stuff and then some of them had really good questions for the social supermarket,” she said.

A few of the boys were also inspired by their time at Hillary Outdoors and were interested in potentially becoming instructors themselves.

The community challenge ended with cleaning activities, an escape room and a graduation, where the students gave speeches to the group and their parents.

Bryant said seeing the students stand up and speak was a highlight.

“They all got up and did a speech in front of their parents and it was just so cool.”

The students are now moving into a year of mentoring, with the next stage designed to continue building on the confidence they have developed.

“That’s the whole point of the programme,” Bryant said.

“It’s like they’re here and they’ve got the potential to be like just more confident and out of their comfort zone, and they just need the extra support.”

She said she hoped the mentoring would help the students become more confident not just within their groups, but in themselves.