Cognia

The year 2024 was another great one for The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE). From groundbreaking program launches to prestigious accreditations, we’ve continued to grow, innovate, and strengthen our commitment to education and adventure. Here’s a look at our top milestones from 2024:

Celebrating 15 Years of Excellence

In 2024, we celebrated a major milestone: our 15th anniversary. Over the past decade and a half, NCOAE has grown from a vision into a leading outdoor education and adventure programming organization, impacting thousands of lives through our innovative programs. This achievement reflects the passion, dedication, and trust of our community, as well as the vision of our founders and faculty and staff that continue to buy into the NCOAE educational framework. 

Here’s to the next 15 years of adventure and growth!

Cognia Accreditation

This year, we learned that our accreditation from Cognia — an esteemed global organization representing the largest network of accredited institutions — is in its final stage of approval. Cognia is (more…)

Here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE), we are known to be among the best in class among providers of outdoor education and wilderness-based adventures for youths and adults, and wilderness medical and EMT training for adults.

To that end, we are excited to announce that we are currently in the final stage of seeking accreditation with Cognia, a globally recognized nonprofit organization acknowledged by the U.S. Department of Education, that provides accreditation, certification, assessment, and professional learning services for continuous improvement to public, private, and independent postsecondary schools, among others.

NCOAE attributes its success to several qualities that set us apart from others who offer the same or similar services and experiences. These include our highly knowledgeable, experienced, and passionate leadership team and staff and our unique core curriculum, carefully crafted to positively impact each participant’s self-confidence, interpersonal relationships, and commitment to fulfilling their civic and environmental responsibilities.

But we don’t expect you to take our word for it. Several highly reputable, independent organizations have given us their seals of approval through their accreditation programs, including the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) and the Commission on Accreditation for Pre-Hospital Continuing Education (CAPCE). Further boosting our street cred is that fact that both the North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services and the State of North Carolina have approved us to offer an intensive 21-day EMT-Basic training curriculum.

Why Cognia Accreditation Matters

Since 1895, Cognia, most well-known as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools-Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS/CASI) rebranded about five years ago, offers research-based performance standards that are created with one end in mind — to ensure high-quality learning. They define the practices that are essential for (more…)