National Outdoor Leadership School

The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, safety and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions. The NOLS mission is to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment. NOLS runs courses on five continents, and has courses for almost all wilderness environments and for almost any age group. Skills taught on NOLS courses include backpacking, canoeing, whitewater kayaking, packrafting, caving, rock climbing, fly fishing, horse-packing, sea kayaking, mountaineering, rafting, sailing, skiing, and snowboarding. NOLS has trained more than 120,000 students. College credit is available for most courses, through either the University of Utah, the University of Wyoming or Central Wyoming College. NOLS also has direct credit agreements with many colleges and universities.

History

Early years

NOLS was founded in 1965 by Paul Petzoldt, a world-famous mountaineer and a member of the Army's 10th Mountain Division, with the backing of three affluent Lander residents (Ed Breece, legislator and Petzoldt's brother-in-law; Jack Nicholas, legislator; and William Ericson, physician). Breece, Nicholas, and Ericson formed the nucleus of the early board of trustees. Petzoldt was also an early Outward Bound Chief Instructor, , and he wanted to establish a school which promoted concentrating on refining outdoor leadership skills.

The first facility opened in 1965 at Sinks Canyon, Wyoming. June 8, 1965 marks the date of the founding and the first trip beginning at the trailhead of Hidden Valley ranch where 100 male students went into the Wind River Range. In the beginning NOLS struggled with finances to provide necessities for outdoor trips so developed the “uniform” made of Salvation Army donations. In 1971 the administrative offices were moved to Lander, Wyoming, where NOLS is still based today. NOLS also has facilities in Alaska, Washington, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Yukon Territory, Baffin Island, Scandinavia, Brazil and India.

"30 Days to Survival"

The school began to grow in the early years and in 1966, women were allowed to enroll. In 1967, The Adventure Courses began for young boys aged thirteen to fifteen.

NOLS grew enormously during the 1970s, due to the publicity gained by an appearance on NBC's Alcoa Hour. The episode, titled "30 Days to Survival", followed a NOLS course through the Wind River Range. The school's focus became more ecological; conservation and preservation began to rank with leadership training in terms of emphasis. As a result of the airing, the school’s enrollment grew from 250 students in 1969 to over 750 in 1970. Also, the article, “Last Mountain Man? Not If He Can Help It”, featured the school and Paul Petzoldt for his commitment to the school in December 1969. The growth continued; by the end of 1976, NOLS had 40 instructors and from 1976 to 1977, had enrolled 1,523 students.

1980s and 1990s

During the 1980s, NOLS continued to evolve, working on elevating the professionalism of its staff and increasing the range of courses. The number of clients also grew, and in 1980 NOLS employed 45 full-time staff members. NOLS partnered with the University of Utah to manage college credit for courses, and helped create the U.S. Leave No Trace program. In 1989, NOLS adopted an outcome-based education model and described a core curriculum that defined what a NOLS course includes.

The changes made in the 1980s occurred due to the leadership of Peter Simer, who in 1984 decided to end his position. Jim Ratz took over and established works with the Alumni Association and built a scholarship basis.

In 1996, NOLS embarked on a 2-year project to define the NOLS leadership curriculum more precisely. In 1999, NOLS acquired the Wilderness Medicine Institute, one of the nation's foremost trainers of wilderness medicine.

NOLS Professional Training ("NOLS Pro") was founded in 1999. This branch of the school aimed at offering portions of the school's curriculum in the form of custom-designed courses. Clients of NOLS Pro include Fidelity Bank & Trust, Google, the International Sustainable Development Institute, NASA, the National Park Service, Timbuk2, the United States Naval Academy, the Wharton School, and Woodberry Forest School.

Recently

In August 2004, NOLS launched a tour on a bus fueled by RVO (Recycled Vegetable Oil, a type of biofuel), to travel the nation promoting the school, leadership, and renewable energy. As of fall 2006, the bus had traveled to all of the 48 contiguous states.

NOLS celebrated its 45th anniversary in October 2010, with a gathering of alumni, faculty and staff in Lander. The school has gone from 100 students in 1965 to more than 120,000 graduates by 2008.

In 2010, Outside Magazine ranked the National Outdoor Leadership School as one of the best places to work. It is number twenty-eight in the September issue. NOLS among the top fifty places to work is the only non-profit educational program to make the list. The school has made the list for the past three years.

Fatalities

The National Outdoor Leadership School currently keeps track of all injury and illness incidents for every course. The goal during the courses use the core values to improve each course through means of the curriculum. The current course finishing rate is 96.1% success rate. In terms of statistics and the fatality rate for the courses from 1984 to 1998 there were 3 fatalities (fatality rate of 0.002 per 1000 program days). Also from 1999 to 2002 there was one fatality making the rate the same (0.002 per 1000 program days). Statistically this means that for future years of NOLS courses for every 3.17 years there will be one fatality. NOLS continues to emphasis the need for risk management to lower the injury and illness statistics for courses while following the educational objectives.

Mission

"The mission of the National Outdoor Leadership School is to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment".

Curriculum

Leave No Trace

National Program which started in the 1960’s as an idea by the USDA Forest Service. Through the decades the program developed, and then in the early 1990s NOLS partnered with the Forest Service. 1994 marks the date of the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoors Ethics founding that is a non-profit organization.

The Principles of Leave No Trace concern social and environmental impacts which have led to ecological degradation. The program serves as an education tool to provide insight into behavior practices for people camping on the backcountry. The principles include “1. Plan ahead and prepare. 2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces. 3. Dispose of waste properly. 4. Leave what you find. 5. Minimize campfire impacts. 6. Respect wildlife. 7. Be considerate of other visitors.”

Wilderness Medicine Institute

This a a training section which is included in courses offered by NOLS. The location of courses which offer such training for students are in India, Mexico, New Zealand, Patagonia, Rocky Mountains, and Southwest. Training includes certification in Wilderness First Responder, Wilderness Advances First Aid, and Wilderness First Aid.

Leadership

The curriculum's goal is to push students to use leadership skills and teamwork to rise up to the challenges. Suggestions for characteristics of strong leadership are as follows. Expedition Behavior means having the right attitude by staying positive. Competence is the potential for growth and being able to gain more knowledge. Communication involves verbal communication as well as body language. Judgment and Decision-Making lead into how the make the better off decisions that benefit the group. Tolerance for Adversity and Uncertainty is an aspect of any group dynamic. Leaderships should keep the positive attitude and work through the issues in a responsible manner. Self-Awareness is taking time for people's selves. Taking care of their safety and health is important to being able to function properly and making strong decisions. Vision and Action is having the initiate and knowing when the lead from behind.

Outdoor Skills

The opportunities on the courses involves improving skills under activities such as backpacking, canoeing, caving, climbing, fly-fishing, horsepacking, mountaineering, rafting, river kayaking, sailing, sea kayaking, skiing, snowboarding, etc. Students gain inside into equipment such as how to choose the best for the elements and about caring for the equipment. Nutrition and hygiene glance one other out. Students learn about the proper foods for the physical activity and strain on their bodies. Proper hygiene is essential for prevention of illnesses. Learning the proper camping techniques with leave no trace principles show how to live simplistically. Depending on the location, keeping warm becomes important to prevent sickness and allow comfort.

Environmental studies

Throughout the courses students lean about the "leave no trace" principles and practice such skills. Students gain insight into the history of their location by reading about and discussing the plants, animals, geology, etc. of their surroundings. Students delve into the environmental issues around the area and humans' environmental ethics regarding the topics.

Risk management

The contact of risk management revolves around health and prevention steps for injury and risky situations. Health wise students leaner about proper body care such as foot care and boy warmth. as a unit on the course the students leaner though past experiences about judgment and group decision making through daily travel. The courses give an overview of the objective and subjective risks involved in the wilderness with step to approach the low risk decision making. Lastly, the emergency procedures are presented to go over evacuation plans and to answer many what if questions involved in injury and risky situations.

Notable alumni

Individuals

• Christine Boskoff, who has achieved more 8,000 meter summits than any other woman
• David Breashears, mountaineer and filmmaker
• Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor
• Kit Deslauriers, first person to ski down the Seven Summits
• Galen Dossin, Alaska hardman, Antarctic softman
• Zach Gilford, star of Friday Night Lights on NBC
• Chip Giller, founder of Grist Magazine
• Jonathan Hamren, entrepreneur, Trustee of Project Redwood, second Executive Director of NOLS
• Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm
• Britton Keeshan, at one point the youngest person to achieve the Seven Summits
• John F. Kennedy, Jr., politician
• William Harjo LoneFight, noted Native American author, entrepreneur and social critic
• Andrew McCarthy, actor
• Tori Murden McClure, first woman to ski to the South Pole and first woman to row solo across the Atlantic
• David Morrell, author of First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created
• Tom Kiernan, National Parks Conservation Association President
• Fred Kleisner, former CEO of Wyndham Hotels
• Candice Carpenter Olson, co-founder of iVillage
• Phil Powers, Director of the American Alpine Club
• Peter Roy, former CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc
• Tom Scott, co-founder of Nantucket Nectars
• Greg Steltenpohl, former CEO of Odwalla

External links

• National Outdoor Leadership School

References

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