Trailblazing the National Parks Program

This trip offers a life-changing learning experience in dramatic landscapes from deserts of Texas and New Mexico to deep canyon country of Arizona and Utah to mountains of Wyoming and Colorado. Students will join two instructors with natural sciences and experiential education backgrounds to investigate how humans impact, manage, interact with, and value the natural world. On hikes and tours, in exhibits and historic places, around campfires, floating down the river and riding horses in the mountains, we confront key environmental and social challenges in these diverse natural and cultural landscapes. Using interdisciplinary and experiential approaches, students will explore the significance of aesthetic, ecological, historical, social, and even spiritual forces of our parks and why we need environmental stewardship leaders to protect them for the future. By participating in this program, students will earn a NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) Wilderness First Aid (WFA) certification. This program will also count toward Honors Requirements as an Engaged Living Experience.