“Without self-discovery, a person may still have self-confidence, but it is a self-confidence built on ignorance and it melts in the face of heavy burdens. Self-discovery is the end product of a great challenge mastered, when the mind commands the body to do something seemingly impossible, when courage and strength are summoned to extraordinary limits for the sake of something outside the self-principle, an onerous task, another human life.”

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award was founded by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 1956 and is the general name for a youth award program in the United Kingdom. It has now expanded to 144 countries, with around 300,000 participants each year. The award aims to empower young people to "take responsibility for themselves and their communities". To embody the original intention of the award, the Duke himself successfully led a team to climb Mount Everest.

The students from Merchiston International School embarked on their outdoor adventure during spring break, with plans to complete consecutive practice and qualifying journeys.

This meant several days of intensive training prior to setting foot on any mountain or trail, completing the necessary training to provide the insight into the skills required for successful completion of the journeys.

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Today is the last day of the practice journey with the coaches, and tomorrow marks the beginning of the qualifying journey! It rained heavily today, but the students persevered and completed the designated route on time despite the challenging conditions. Tonight, everyone will stay at a hotel, and they celebrated Sarah's birthday together with a cake at a restaurant.

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The formal assessment of the first day began, and the students applied the skills they had practiced in the past two days to the actual situation. Each group was assigned corresponding tasks, and each person walked at least 15km on foot. The entire journey was extremely difficult, but every student persevered through it. We believe that the students have gained unique experiences and harvests today.

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Today, there was light rain on and off, but the road conditions were much better. First of all, congratulations to the students who won the bronze award for successfully completing the assessment tasks and returning home. Although the students were tired, we believe they gained a lot of skills and grew during the AJ journey. The students should sleep well tonight and leave behind wonderful memories.

The students who won the silver award worked especially hard today, trekking on rugged mountain roads from 8:30am until 5:30pm. Despite the difficulties, they performed exceptionally well throughout the entire journey.

Through this outdoor adventure journey of the Duke of Edinburgh Award, MIS not only provides students with an opportunity to exercise and enhance their physical fitness, but more importantly, it allows students to hone their minds in a challenging environment and cultivate qualities of perseverance, courage, and determination. This is in line with MIS's consistent educational philosophy, which requires students to not only excel academically, but also to improve their morality and overall quality. It is believed that in the future, students will be able to apply these qualities to their lives and studies, bravely overcome various challenges, and achieve even more outstanding results. This also reflects MIS's values of cultivating excellent talents with both academic abilities and comprehensive qualities, making greater contributions to social development.

"如果没有自我发现与探索，一个人可能仍然有自信，但这是建立在无知基础上的自信。

它在沉重的负担面前会轰然垮塌。自我发现是克服巨大挑战的最终产物，当头脑命令身体去做一些看似不可能的事情时，一个人的勇气和力量会被提升到非同寻常的极限。”

爱丁堡公爵奖在1956年由英国爱丁堡公爵菲利普亲王创立，是英国青年奖项的通用名称，现已扩展至144个国家，每年约有30万人参加。该奖项旨在让年轻一代“担负起他们对自己和所在集体的责任”。为了体现该奖项设立的初衷，公爵还身体力行，成功地带领伙伴攀上了珠穆朗玛峰。

来自曼校的学子们在春假期间开始了他们的户外冒险之旅，他们计划在春假期间完成连续的实践和资格考试旅程，这意味着在踏上山脉或小径之前，需要进行数天的密集培训，以深入了解完成户外旅程所需的技能。

第一天的旅程非常充实，学生们上午10:30左右到达了西头村，由三名专业爱奖教练和Colin领队分三组制定计划，时间管理，分析地图，用指南针，任务分配，团队协作，应急状况处理，扎营，搭帐篷，野外生活做饭，最后在连绵不断的细雨中完成了今天的徒步旅行。

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今天是教练陪同练习旅程的最后一天，明天正式开始考核旅程！今天的雨下的比较大，但是同学们都坚持在困境中按时完成了规定路线。今天晚上安排了大家在宾馆入住，大家一起在饭店为Sarah庆祝了生日吃了蛋糕。

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第一天的正式考核开始了，同学们把之前两天练习的技巧运用到实战上。每一组都有布置相应的任务，每个人至少徒步走了15公里的路程，整个路程非常艰辛，但每个同学都坚持了下来，相信同学们今天有别样的心得体会和收获。

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今天小雨断断续续但是路况好了很多，首先祝贺铜奖的同学都顺利完成考核任务回到了家中。尽管学子们都很累，但相信他们都在AJ之旅的过程中获得了很多技能也得到了成长。同学们今天应该会睡的很香，并留下美好的回忆。

银奖的同学今天格外的辛苦，都是崎岖的山路，并且从早晨8:30一直徒步到了晚上5:30，整场表现都非常好。

通过这次爱丁堡公爵奖之户外冒险之旅，曼校不仅为学生们提供了一个锻炼体能、增强身体素质的机会，更重要的是，让学生们在艰苦的环境中磨练了心智，培养了坚韧不拔、勇敢坚定的品质。这符合曼校一贯的教育理念，即要求学生不仅在学术上表现优异，更要在品德和素质方面有所提高。相信在未来，学生们能够将这些品质应用到生活和学习中，勇敢克服各种挑战，取得更加优异的成绩。这也体现了曼校所倡导的价值观，培养既有学术能力又有全面素质的优秀人才，为社会发展做出更大的贡献。