Four WNMU students—Soozy Wollard, Itzela Darkenwald, Devin Larsen (BS ’23) and Abel Lazzell—led teams of high school students on outdoor expeditions in the northeastern United States this summer. The opportunity was organized by WNMU Outdoor Program Manager Will Tracy in a partnership with the Oliverian School, a private, alternative boarding school in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire.
The expeditions were part of a series of three, two-week long learning modules with both experiential and academic components. Students in the program went hiking in the White Mountains, caving in New York and Vermont and paddling in northern Maine. As an example of how the experiential and academic components fused, Tracy said that in the caving module, students learned about geology and then were in “this amazing, novel environment that they would never [otherwise] be in—caving—and that . . . crystallized the learning from the classroom.”
The WNMU students on the expeditions were able to develop their outdoor leadership skills, such as assessing and managing the risk involved in leading students in outdoor adventure activities. The students can then “come back here and take those skills and be of value and service to WNMU and Silver City,” said Tracy. “I am beginning to develop a cohort of students in leadership positions to take [less experienced students] on orientation trips and local hikes,” he added.
Wollard, who is studying art and psychology, said that the experience has caused her to reevaluate where she might be headed professionally. “I would always say I didn’t want to be a counselor because that seems like it would be a very difficult job to have,” said Wollard, “But during this summer I felt very valued, and I felt that I was doing something meaningful, so I gained perspective on that and on where I may be going in the future.”
Larsen, who is starting his Master of Social Work degree at WNMU this fall, also found the trip relevant to his future career. “It correlates to my career path because I want to go into wilderness therapy,” he said.
Wollard, Darkenwald and Larsen all said that it was a challenge to work with high school students, especially given that some in the group were on the autism spectrum or had other learning or social and emotional challenges. Said Darkenwald, “When we are out there in the wilderness, it’s a completely foreign experience for most of these students, so with them having anxiety [or] ADHD . . . it gets to them. We were [guiding them through] a lot of self-coping and methods for them to calm down. We had to make sure they were mentally okay, mentally ready for this challenge that we were putting them through.”
They also noticed a great deal of growth in the students they were working with. “Some of them didn’t even know how to set up a tent before our first trip,” said Darkenwald, “and then they left [at the end of the trip] packing it in their own bags.”
All four of the students involved were glad to have participated. “The summer experience working as a wilderness guide in the White Mountains of New Hampshire was extraordinary,” said Lazzell, “Getting to work in and see a new part of the country was a great experience.”
Eventually, Tracy hopes that students in the Outdoor Leadership program can do outreach with students in Silver City and Cobre schools, as well as with Grant County’s population of retirees. “It’s a chance for WNMU students to practice leadership, [and] it’s good for . . . the youth of the area,” he said.