Students at Penn High School were challenged to step outside of their comfort zone and build new relationships with their peers this week.
Challenge Day is a national non-profit organization that encourages teenagers to forget their cliques and stereotypes and accept their classmates for who they are.
The organization comes at a time when bullying has become a growing concern nationally.
"Young people feel like they're all alone but in our program they get real for the first time, they remove mask they've been hiding behind and we see these walls fall down throughout the day," said Chris Foster, Challenge Day leader.
Students engage in a variety of activities including team building and getting to know people outside of their own cliques.
"It makes us look in the mirror at each other and help us know there are kids that are alone at our school," said Penn junior Devin Reagan.
The six and a half hour program deals with everything from introducing yourself to a stranger to talking about problems at home or at school.
It also shows the students that they’re all really not so different.
School administrators say last year when the students to part in Challenge Day, the students built new friendships and had an overall positive attitude.
They hope the same result will come from this year’s program.
