One of the hallmarks of a great outdoor education program provider is its ability to become accredited by the leading trade group for the industry. Another sign of a top-notch outdoor education organization is a willingness to align its courses and trainings such that when students successfully complete a course or training, they can apply to receive college credit for their efforts.

Late last year, the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) bestowed upon us a three-year accreditation for The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education’s (NCOAE) wilderness and adventure programs. Now, as we enter 2016, we’re pleased to announce that Keystone College — a private liberal arts and sciences college located in Northeastern Pennsylvania — has found an alignment of course competencies with NCOAE’s experiences and specific coursework offered through the college.

As a result, starting spring ‘16, NCOAE students who complete very specific requirements associated with select NCOAE courses and/or trainings (see below) may apply for and be considered for college credits through assessment by Keystone College. What this essentially means is, the time you spend on the following NCOAE courses or trainings may earn you credits toward your college degree:

Spring & Fall NCOAE Semester courses include:

Those of us who work here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) are taking some time off for the holidays this week and next, and we’re also taking this last-chance of-the-year opportunity to seek donations, gifts and volunteer time from our partners and friends.

First, we want to tell you about our holiday schedule, which will see us closed this Thursday through Sunday (Dec. 24-Dec. 27), reopening to normal hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) on Monday, Dec. 28, through Wednesday, Dec. 30, and then a half-day schedule ( 8 a.m. to noon) on Thursday, Dec. 31. We will be closed on New Year’s Day and open up shop again on Monday, Jan. 4.

Next — and we are always enthusiastic about end-of-the-year donations — here are some actions you can take to help underserved youth this holiday season. In addition to that warm feeling you get from helping a very good cause, you should remember that NCOAE is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, and all donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law.

Here are some ways you can help us help others:

After years of hard work and preparation, we are pleased to share that we’ve been accredited by the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) — a Boulder, Colorado-based not-for-profit organization, with roots in adventure-based education, that exists to connect the global community of outdoor educators and expand our collective capacity to enrich lives through experiential education.

According to AEE’s website, The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) is one of only 14 wilderness-based adventure programs in the U.S. to meet the organization’s strict standards for wilderness/adventure programming, and the only such program to be accredited thus far in 2015. AEE’s Accreditation Council voted unanimously at the end of October to grant us a three-year accreditation term, adding in a letter sent to our executive director by the organization’s Director of Accreditation:

“You and your staff are to be commended for engaging in the accreditation process and committing the time and resources to operate such an outstanding program.”

Based on an AEE accreditation peer review team site visit earlier this year, which took place at NCOAE headquarters in Wilmington, N.C., as well as field observations and a deep review of our administrative and field operation documentation, the Accreditation Council found NCOAE to be in compliance with AEE Standards for the following:

• Program Governance
• Environment and
  

It’s long been an objective of ours to partner with a college or university to offer college level credits for National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education training. Now, just a year or so after commencing the search for a higher education partner, we’re just weeks away from being able to announce that we’ll soon be offering college credits for select NCOAE backcountry experiences.

This forthcoming news means we’ll soon offer both high school and college level credit, placing our values-based outdoor education curriculum into a class of its own. Specifically, we expect to be able to offer college level credit for the following NCOAE experiences:

• Outdoor Educator Training Blocks
• Wilderness First Responder Training
• Advanced Outdoor Educator Training
• 19-Day ‘Intensive’ EMT-Basic Training

So how exactly are we able to offer college credit for our trainings?

One thing we don’t do here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education is work within a vacuum. We depend heavily upon many organizations that went before us or that help us realize our mission and full potential.

Today, we’d like to shine the light on one of those groups that works behind the scenes to ensure that our efforts in outdoor education, adventure travel and backcountry guiding continue to benefit from standards that keep us and our clients safe and sound in the wilderness.

Specifically, we’d like to tell you briefly about the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS), which was formed in 1983 by three California physicians — Drs. Paul Auerbach, Ed Geehr and Ken Kizer — who integrated the sound principles of medical practice within a wilderness setting.

The specific purpose of the Wilderness Medical Society was to encourage, foster, support, and conduct activities or programs concerned with life sciences, which may improve the scientific knowledge of the membership and the general public in matters related to wilderness environments and human activities in these environments.

As envisioned by these three physicians, WMS evolved into the world’s leading organization devoted to wilderness medical challenges. What challenges? These include wild animal attacks, wilderness trauma, expedition and disaster medicine, dive medicine, search and rescue, altitude illness, and weather-related illnesses.

This society explores health risks and

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education, we’re expanding our outdoor educator-training program on a global scale and announcing a month-long training expedition that culminates in a Thanksgiving celebration in Patagonia — a remote region at the southernmost end of South America that is shared by Argentina and Chile.

That’s a large leap from our outdoor educator training programs in North Carolina on the Eastern seaboard and Oregon and California out West. But we’re excited to be spreading our wings, and we’re even going a step further by planning a second overseas training expedition next spring — this time to Kenya for a 33-Day Outdoor Educator Instructor Training – East Africa.

But first, back to our Patagonia training. The 31-Day Outdoor Educator Instructor Training – Patagonia is co-ed and targets college students, classroom teachers and novice outdoor educators who are 18 years and older. Tuition is just $6,600. We fly from Houston, Tex., and land in Santiago, Chile, where our local team has already worked out an invigorating itinerary.

Chile is a land of extremes, from the snow-capped volcanoes of Patagonia and dizzying heights of the Andes, to the driest desert on earth and the extensive southern glacial fields. We’ll be exploring some of the most beautiful mountains and rivers in the world, and we’ll see it with fellow explorers who have the same enthusiasm and zeal for the outdoors and education that you do.

And when it comes to gaining the experience and knowledge to become an outdoor educator, there are few better “classrooms” than Patagonia and the

Two National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) instructors recently guided an international group of high school students on a 16-day custom outdoor education program in the Alaskan wilderness.

The teens, all of whom were enrolled in a youth leadership program in South Korea, got their first introduction to Alaska’s glaciers, jagged mountain ranges, coastal islands and mudflats as their flights neared the airport for Day One of their adventure. Stepping off the plane, the teens immediately grabbed their backpacks and headed out toward uninhabited remote wilderness.

NCOAE course director and lead field instructor Matt Seats said the students had mentally prepared themselves for 10 days of backpacking, route finding and living in the wild. Following a week of wilderness medicine training and some basic training in how to live and travel safely in the wilderness, the group was ready to start their adventure.

Though each of them had their own set of apprehensions, the students arrived at one of their first destinations by foot hours sooner than expected, which prompted these novice explorers to literally dance, jumping and shouting at the top of their lungs in joy about their accomplishment.

That evening they enjoyed the hypnotic effects of a sweetly scented campfire, fueled by the steady Alaskan wind in a dry riverbed. For some of these teens, it was the first campfire they had ever built.

The backdrop for this adventure — Wrangell-St. Elias National Park — is the least visited national park in the United States, and it’s where our group of teen adventurers found themselves 10 miles into the