Colleges & Universities

COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIPS

Voyageur Outward Bound School partners with private and public colleges and universities to serve young adults with customized, inclusive College Expeditions. We recognize the potential in every student and honor the unique qualities of each learning community. We collaborate with colleges and universities to meet diverse institutional objectives:

Catalyze personal potential, growing confidence and discipline for the challenges of secondary education
Support first year college students as they navigate new challenges and begin to exercise greater agency
Build community for college cohorts, bonding students for organizational objectives and team goals
Develop experiential education professionals with courses designed specifically for student Outdoor Educators

On Course for character & community

I was trying to convince them that going without a shower for 26 straight days, or dangling off the end of a rope from a craggy granite rock face over the open waters of Lake Superior would teach them more about themselves than they would learn in any typical college classroom…

-Laura Fredrickson, Director, Gap Experience Saint Norbert College

Saint Norbert College’s Gap Experience is an off-campus, for-credit adventure for incoming freshman. Students launch their Gap Experience with a Voyageur Outward Bound School Leadership Expedition in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This 26 day course builds community and character, setting the tone for a semester of experiential learning and preparing students for success back on campus. Wilderness travel, group adventure and service catalyze learning. As students build technical skills, they also develop leadership characteristics, live group dynamics and experience collective potential.

COLLEGE LEADERSHIP EXPEDITIONS

6-26 days of adventure, challenge, community and character. Canoeing, Backpacking, Sea Kayaking, Hiking, Rock Climbing and Service: College Expeditions take students out of the classroom and into the Minnesota and Texas wilderness for transformative experiential learning.

Experiential education provides the test first, and the lesson second – the opposite of traditional education. Through group experience, the student learns about self and community. Experiential learning creates positive change in the student and grows confidence to transfer on-course learning to post-course life.

-Theo Theobald, Course Director, Voyageur Outward Bound School

3.5 billion year-old basalt cliffs. The Biggest lake in the world. The “Grandest” river. 1 million acres of pristine Canoe Country wilderness. College Expeditions put students on course for adventure in some wildly beautiful places:

Canoe or Dogsled the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (MN & Canada)
Kayak Lake Superior (MN & Canada)
Hike the Sawtooth (MN) or Big Bend (TX)
Canoe the Rio Grande (TX)

STRENGTH OF CHARACTER

Why wilderness travel? Strength of character. Multi-day College Expeditions harness the power of nature to teach life lessons through challenge and adventure over time. The College Expedition is designed to grow and test personal strengths through group learning. Students build courage and skills the challenges of college, career and life.

Expeditions can greatly contribute towards building strength of character ... it is necessary for youth to experience events which reveal the inner worth of the man – the edge of his temper, the fiber of his stuff, the quality of his resistance, the secret truth of his pretenses – not only to himself but others.

-Kurt Hahn, founder of Outward Bound

FEATURES OF TRANSFORMATION

Courage, perseverance, compassion, resilience, agency. Leadership is the result of a transformative experience! College Expeditions move students through our Theory of Change to grow strength of character. Key features of the Leadership Expedition play a pivotal role in transformation, serving as rites of passage and touchstones for deeper learning.

Explore The College Expedition Progression

Change Lives

Contact Group Outreach to customize your Expedition

LET’S GET STARTED!

GROUP PROGRAMS