On a recent weekday, pool noodles, hula-hoops and foam balls covered the stage of the Black Box Theatre at the University of Northern Iowa campus. Pairs of Waterloo high school students, one blindfolded and one not, were trying to cross the floor without touching anything - one student guiding their blindfolded partner with verbal instructions. The air was alive with laughter, good-natured groans during the team-building workshop, part of a new partnership between UNI’s Department of Theatre and its Classic Upward Bound program that seeks to prepare low-income and first-generation Waterloo high school students for college. For program directors, the workshops are a way to expose students to important skills beyond just textbook knowledge.