River Navigation, Service, Whitewater Canoeing, Rock Climbing
PRICE
$10,995
PROGRAM
Outdoor Educator
AGES
18+
LENGTH
50 Days
SEASON(S)
Fall
CERTIFICATIONS
Wilderness First Responder
SKILLS
TECHNICAL
Knots
Leave No Trace Methods & Ethics
Navigation
Outdoor Emergencies
Safety and Risk Management
Sailing Techniques
Tides and Currents
Water Safety and Rescue
Wilderness Medicine
INTERPERSONAL
Character
Communication
Conflict Resolution
Independence
Leadership
Positive Risk Taking
Problem Solving
Resilience
Responsibility
Self Awareness
Self Confidence
Service
SHARE
This 50-day expedition will take you through the remote parts of Maine’s rivers, mountains and coastal areas, while preparing you for the exciting world of outdoor leadership and wilderness education.
Through training, practice, feedback and reflection, gain the teaching and technical skills necessary for working in the field of outdoor education. Immerse yourself in Outward Bound history, tradition and teaching methods, while simultaneously exploring group dynamics, experiential education theory and methods and wilderness activity management. Act as both student and educator as you learn to prepare and cook food, navigate, manage risk and safety, read tides and currents and practice water safety and rescue. Alongside a community of peers, work to develop relevant skills, enhance teaching abilities and earn a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certification.
NOTE: For the health and safety of students and staff in the COVID-19 pandemic, students may be required to travel to course start by private transportation. Please work directly with your Course Advisor for your course for the most up-to-date and regionally-focused travel options. All students and staff must provide a current negative COVID-19 viral test result before arrival to course and/or consent to having a COVID-19 test administered at course start. Outward Bound requires students and staff to follow COVID-19 protocols for 14 days prior to course start and while traveling including physical distancing, wearing a mask in public, and frequent and thorough handwashing. For complete “Health and Safety Practices for Outward Bound Expeditions,” click here.
This course starts within the next week. Please call us at 866-467-7651 to assess the possibility of applying for this course!
Most College Savings Plans, including the 529 College Savings Plan, may be used to attend an Outward Bound expedition, thanks to a partnership with Western Colorado University. Anyone can register – you do not have to be a current Western Colorado University student. Registration is easy! Click here to learn more.
Outdoor Educator Courses
Are you motivated by the never-ending discovery in the adventure of the outdoors? Are you passionate about sharing knowledge and helping future generations become comfortable and confident appreciators of the natural world? Working as an outdoor educator requires deep technical expertise in outdoor skills alongside hands-on training in the science behind experiential learning and how to create lasting impact for students. Outward Bound leads the outdoor education industry in both areas, providing a coveted foundation to jump-start an outdoor-involved career.
Build skills, form connections: Refine backcountry, technical, and interpersonal skills - and practice teaching them. Help students evaluate options, manage risks, and learn to engage people of different ages and backgrounds in an environment where they are “crew, not passengers.” Master the outdoor knowledge, strengths and skills that can’t be found in a traditional classroom.
Value strengths and strengthen values: Absorb the technical prowess you’ll need to master multiple outdoor activities and potentially help others do the same. Discover the power of reflection and how to create lasting impact behind every adventure, challenge and opportunity.
Demonstrate mastery: Learn from the best outdoor educators in the industry and add your own strengths as you design and lead courses, as you take on physical and mental challenges in numerous wilderness environments and as you become responsible for the creation and fulfillment of life-changing lessons.
Train in basic first aid and wilderness medicine: Learn the principles and techniques of patient assessment, care and treatment in remote and extreme environments. Earn Wilderness First Responder (WFR) Certification on select courses.
What you’ll learn: Return home with the knowledge and skills necessary for teaching and leading field-based wilderness education programs. Depending on the course, you’ll have expanded knowledge and skills relating to a variety of land and/or water-based activities. You’ll be a conscientious safety and risk management leader and you’ll have a solid grounding in the Outward Bound philosophy and methodology for teaching and facilitation.
Outdoor Educator courses allow you to work in and through the widest variety of wilderness environments and develop high level skills in each. Beyond preparing you for career opportunities in the outdoor industry, you may also earn academic credit in the field of Recreation and Outdoor Education.
Outward Bound is accredited with the American Gap Association and is the longest running program in this elite group dedicated to providing safe, meaningful and high-caliber educational experiences to students.
Sailing
Traditional 30-foot sailboats encourage teamwork and leadership like no other classroom. On an open boat with no cabin and no engine, the group will live closely together using only wind and oars to power their way. As they rotate responsibilities during this expedition, students learn the crafts of maneuvering under sail, coastal navigation, rowing and living aboard a small open boat. At night, students sleep on deck under a tarp, taking turns at anchor watch under brilliant night skies.
On this course, students:
Learn to navigate using a map or a chart and a compass to arrive accurately at the day’s destination over mountains and across open water.
Adjust sails properly for sailing at different angles to the wind, and execute sailing maneuvers like tacking and gybing, which turn the boat through the wind
Move the boat under oar power, coordinating all of the rowers' movements so that the oars splash as one, precisely maneuvering in and out of secluded anchorages
Live (cook, eat, sleep, work and learn) with the group in the backcountry, contributing energy and ideas, sharing tasks and responsibilities and relying on each other.
Canoeing & Whitewater
Wilderness canoe expedition skills are essential to the outdoor educator. Students learn the skills of portaging (carrying the canoe on one’s shoulders) and lining (guiding the canoe down un-runnable rapids) as they travel through some of the amazing waterways of Maine. In learning to work and communicate well with their paddling partner each day, students discover the power of truly working together.
Expedition canoeing in Maine also means paddling white water. During the canoe expedition the group learns how to scout, paddle and manage open canoes safely in Class II rapids.
Students learn the following skills:
Canoe paddle strokes
Tandem open canoe maneuvers
Identifying river features
Scouting rapids
White water management
River rescue
Wilderness First Responder Certification
Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certification is recognized as the standard level of expertise in backcountry first aid. This nationally recognized program trains participants to respond to emergencies in remote settings. Half of the 80-hour curriculum students spend completing practical skills, case studies and scenarios designed to challenge their decision-making abilities. The other portion of training includes standards for extended care situations. In this phase of the course, students develop the following skills:
Patient assessment
Knowledge of body systems
Equipment improvisation
Trauma management
Remote medicine
Responses to toxins
Wilderness protocols
Wilderness rescue
Backpacking
Backpacking is a great combination of team and individual elements. In the mountains, students learn map reading, cooking, how to pack and adjust their pack, foot care, hydration, knots and navigation on- and off-trail. The mountains of Maine and northern New Hampshire are rugged and wooded, at times muddy and steep, with bold granite summits and views that stretch to the horizon.
Rock Climbing
Rock climbing sessions take place at the many granite crags and cliffs that make northern New England a world-renowned climbing destination. Students learn how to properly use harnesses, helmets, ropes and belay devices. They start with the basics of tying into the rope and safely belaying each other, and practice efficient movement over rock using techniques of friction, edging and crack climbing. As the group builds experience and skills, they learn to build anchors, rappel and develop more advanced climbing techniques. Students will practice setting up ropes and climbing at various sites.
Service
Service projects are often incorporated into Outward Bound courses through coordination with local land managers, conservation groups, government agencies or social service agencies. While in the wilderness, students are encouraged to practice service to the environment and their team by sharing responsibilities and following Leave No Trace ethics throughout the expedition.
Photo courtesy
of Amber Bolduc
Solo
The Solo experience provides an important break from the rigors of the expedition to give students quiet time to reflect on the Outward Bound experience. With the basics of food and equipment, and with safety a top priority, students will take some time away from the group to be alone at sites of their own, using the wilderness skills learned during the first parts of the course. Often located along beautiful lake shorelines or peaceful rivers, Solo sites are chosen to offer as much solitude as possible (yet be within emergency whistle-signaling distance of other group members). Most students spend their Solo time journaling, drawing or just thinking and resting as they process lessons learned and focus on their goals for the future. Instructors check on each participant at regular intervals. The time students spend on Solo depends on the length of the course. On courses longer than three weeks, Solo is up to 72 hours long.
Outcomes
This course focuses on developing the leadership and technical skills necessary to begin a career as an Instructor or expedition leader in wilderness environments, or to take on challenging and versatile roles in a variety of other fields. Outward Bound’s leadership curriculum is based on over 50 years of leading expeditions. Students will refine the way they meet challenges and opportunities, relate to others and view their world. Technical skill development is a robust and challenging component of this semester program. Whether students want to pursue a career as a guide or outdoor educator, or strive to become more proficient and safe when traveling alone or with friends and family, or aspire to develop the capacity to lead in an adventurous setting, this course will expand their skill base through the instruction of experienced specialists in these skill sets.
Photo courtesy
of Hannah Baker
Photo courtesy
of Hannah Baker
Course Area
With its intricate and indented shoreline, the Maine coast is a unique segment of the North Atlantic seaboard. It is renown among sailors for its picturesque beauty, abundant bays and harbors, rocky islands and quiet coves. The Outward Bound course area covers nearly 200 linear miles of the Maine coast, with countless rivers, bays and islands to explore. The rocky, spruce-covered islands are the summits of a prehistoric mountain range and generations of inhabitants have made their livelihoods here. Evidence left behind on the islands reveals the historic presence of indigenous Abenaki camps, pre-colonial fishing communities, post-colonial timber and farming operations and early 20th century granite quarries. Cold, nutrient-rich waters flow from the Canadian Maritimes and make the Gulf of Maine home to a wide range of sea birds, harbor seals, porpoises and whales.
The latter part of the course will take place in the mountains of western Maine and northern New Hampshire which comprise the northern end of the Appalachian mountain range. Within this region, the White Mountain National Forest, the Appalachian Trail, the Carter-Mahoosuc Range, the Grafton Loop Trail and the Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness all offer classic backpacking terrain. These spruce-fir and hardwood forests are home to hundreds of species of birds as well as moose, deer and black bear. Rushing waterfalls, clear twisting streams and spectacular views from rocky summits reward backpackers ready for adventure. These regions are the ancestral lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which includes Abenaki/Abénaquis, W∂last∂kwiyik (Maliseet), Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy nations.
SAMPLE ITINERARY
DAY 1
Course start, Wheeler Bay, Maine; meet the group and load boat for the sailing expedition
If you are ready to enroll on a course click the enroll button next to the course you wish to select or you can enroll over the phone by speaking with one of our Admissions Advisors (toll-free) at 866-467-7651.
To secure your spot on a course you must submit an enrollment form and $500 deposit that is applied toward the total cost of the course and includes a $150 non-refundable enrollment processing fee.