Working in outdoor education is incredible rewarding and fulfilling! Learn more about what it takes to get started on your courses today!…

…Thanks to a $25,000 grant from the National Park Service (NPS), 10 students enrolled in our Education Without Walls program will participate in a 21-day summer 2017 backcountry adventure in southeast Alaska. The funding for the trip, which is designated as an NPS Challenge Cost Share Program Grant, covers nearly all the costs associated with…

…It’s pouring rain, and some of North Carolina Central University’s custom outdoor education program participants slip into the knee-deep mud, briefly Wilderness orientation programs for transfer students and incoming freshmen are gaining in popularity at historically black colleges and universities….

…Meg Young joined the staff team here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education late last year as office manager and was swiftly promoted to director of admissions. She works closely with our students to ensure their registration and enrollment process goes as smoothly as possible — something she believes sets them up…

…For anyone interested in a career in the outdoor education, adventure programming, and guiding sectors of the outdoor industry, there are many trails to reach your destination. Among these are university recreation programs, internships, seasonal employment and more.  Not all pathways in this wide and diverse industry necessarily require a recreation-specific degree. However, an associate’s…

…Applicants to our nationally renowned EMT training courses often ask us if they can taketheir new EMT credentials to the state where they live, and the answer is mostly yes.The National Center for Outdoor and Adventure Education’s (NCOAE) campus islocated in North Carolina, where we offer 21-day “Intensive” EMT-Basic and 23-day“Intensive” Advanced EMT training courses…

…As 2016 comes to an end, we’re honored to take a moment out from our end-of-year activities to say thank everyone for their continued support and encouragement of The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE). When our founders Zac & Celine Adair started this organization in 2009, their mission then for NCOAE was…

…If you’re a regular reader of our blog, you may recall that Education Without Walls (EWOW) began more than a decade ago here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE). Today, EWOW has become a successful organization — a self-sustaining not-for-profit complete with its own administrative staff, board of directors, programs, and…

…Tina Currin, an avid hiker and outdoor enthusiast, recently completed NCOAE‘s W-EMT course. Learn more about how her journey led her to us!…

…A few weeks ago, we published Part 1 of this series, which covers what we here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) view as the trending best practices to know about in outdoor and adventure-based experiential education.  Here, in Part 2 of this series, we introduce you to Restorative Practices, and…

Here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) we’re not very big on endorsing products or brands. In fact, if you were to research our blog all the way back to the first entry at the end of 2013, you probably won’t find more than two or three posts chatting up products…

…If you follow us on Facebook, you may have read about a Community Outreach grant we recently received from the Vertex Railcar Corporation — a startup that’s focused on building the next generation of safe rail tank cars. Vertex and The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education’s (NCOAE) are neighbors here in Wilmington, N.C….

…It’s been a while since Zac Adair and his wife, Celine, co-founded The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE), and while it would be nice to think they jumped into this challenging not-for-profit enterprise with eyes wide open, that wouldn’t be completely accurate. Yes, going into it they had a great game plan….

…Here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE), we offer a wide range of outdoor education and adventure courses, ranging in length from a week to an entire semester. And what that does is offer our students a choice based on their particular circumstances, interests and needs. By offering dozens of adventures from…

…Late last year, the staff at Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington, North Carolina, asked for our help in creating a unique and meaningful 10-day, outdoor and adventure-based out-of-country expedition for a handful of its high school students. In particular, Cape Fear’s educational leaders were looking for a diverse destination that would enable their students to…

…When planning a backcountry-based experience, you want to be sure that the people leading the outdoor program know their stuff!…

…If you’re thinking about enrolling in a Teen Adventure Course and you’re wondering how to prepare, then this blog post is for you! It’s a daily occurrence here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE). Someone calls or writes to ask how should they prepare for one of our courses. And while…

…Say what you will about global warming, climate change and other hemispheric anomalies, but there’s no question in anybody’s mind that a Category 4 hurricane is making a direct bullseye run at Wilmington, N.C., and The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) headquarters facilities. The good news is that our staff have all…

Editor’s Note: Stephen Mullaney, NCOAE’s lead instructor, recently returned from our first-ever program abroad — an expedition to the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. Stephen led a group of South Korean high school teens on a six-day expedition through portions of this mystical and spiritual country. Below are his reflections on what he describes as…

We have a formula here at the National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) and it reads like this: Self + Community + Action = Impact. In fact, self is the backbone of what we do at NCOAE. It involves our esteem, self-actualization and the decisions we choose to make — all of which…