November 2026

NCOAE to Welcome Wilmington Outdoor Microschool Into Its Family

By By Zac Adair, MA, W-EMT, Co-founder & Executive Director

We have some exciting news to share with our community and families throughout Wilmington, North Carolina. The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) has announced plans to acquire Wilmington Outdoor Microschool (WOM), an outdoor-centered school founded by Travis and Mandi Adams that shares our belief in educational opportunities available beyond the traditional classroom.

For our leadership team, this acquisition represents an opportunity to bring NCOAE’s experience in outdoor and experiential education to elementary and middle school students in our hometown. It also offers an opportunity to support the educational approach that Travis and Mandi developed while introducing Wilmington-area families to the benefits of outdoor and experiential education.

The acquisition is expected to close by year’s end, after which WOM would become part of NCOAE, with plans to open Grades K-5 in the spring of 2027 and Grades 6-8 in the fall of 2027.

Bringing Outdoor Education Into the School Day

Since launching our first courses in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest in 2009, we’ve built NCOAE around the belief that direct experience plays an important role in education. Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of watching students develop new skills while navigating unfamiliar environments, working with cohorts of varies ages and sizes to overcome challenges, and applying what they’ve learned to situations outside the classroom.

Those experiences have helped shape our approach to education, which can found in our Educational Framework. They also explain why we’re interested in (more…)