…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….

…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!…

Meet NCOAE student Robert Fox, who recently graduated from NCOAE‘s 21 day intensive EMT course to begin his career as an EMT!…

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 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…

…When high school students return to classes after summer break, they’re often asked to write an essay on “What I Did on My Summer Vacation.” For many, there’s not much to  write about. Maybe a week spent with the grandparents or binge watching your favorite show on Netflix. Instead, imagine spending a 32-day summer semester…

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

…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…

…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…

We’re pleased to announce that The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE) has received approval from the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services to offer an intensive 19-day EMT-Basic training. And what that means to anyone interested in securing their EMT-Basic credentials is that within three…

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…

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…

…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…

…If Gordon Harrison’s name sounds familiar to you, that likely means one of two things: You either know him personally or you’re a fan of the water sport known as wakeboarding. David “Gordon” Harrison (the third) recently graduated from one of our 19-Day ‘Intensive’ EMT-Basic training courses. And as you probably figured out by now,…

…If you look atop our website, you’ll see a unique diamond-shaped icon to the left of our organization’s name, and that new brand mark is, well, brand new to us. The name “brand mark,” by the way, is just another fancy way to say “logo,” and we’re really happy to tell you how we came…

…Editor’s Note: Below is final part in Stephen Mullaney’s three-part series of essays about encounters with bears in the backcountry. The first essay in the series recants the shock Stephen experienced with one particular bear encounter, while the second essay in this series attempts to find humor in a persistent bear taking up quarters in an…

…The novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic James Baldwin said it best when he wrote: “We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.” Those words guide us here at The National Center for Outdoor & Adventure Education (NCOAE)….