The Outdoors Leadership Development Series, sponsored by the UW Outdoor Program, provides a foundation for leading others in a wilderness environment. OLDS enrolls only 12 students each year, allowing for a more intensive and intimate learning experience.
“It’s a chance for students to come into who they are as leaders and learn how to use and navigate their skills. They progress and learn through their experiences throughout the year,” said Bekah Taylor, the graduate assistant in charge of instructing OLDS leadership classes and assisting with the operation of the outdoor program in general.
“All the OLDS students go through the Leave-No-Trace and Wilderness First Responder certifications, are enrolled in Spring leadership classes and design their own backpacking trip,” she said. “It is an environment that gives opportunities for students to be trained in outdoor leadership.”
OLDS students are often incorporated into the Outdoor Program as leaders of programs they hold every semester.
“On average, we offer around 50 trips, clinics and other programs each semester,” Daniel McCoy, the Assistant Director of Campus Recreation, said. “Every program we offer has a safety and an education aspect and they also teach leadership development. We have a really awesome group of student leaders and they’re the ones who lead the trips.”
Trips include a vast variety of outdoor activities from introductory rock climbing to backcountry skiing, ice climbing to canoeing. All these focus around engaging students and involving them in experiences unique to our region. Students must pay a fee to go on each trip, which are designed to accommodate at least six participants.
“All of our trips are based on fixed and variable costs are based around six people. Anything less than that means we lose money,” McCoy said. “Unlike most other programs, we don’t charge for using sleeping bags or other equipment. We provide everything we will need.”
Unfortunately, participation in trips in the Outdoors program falls off during the latter half of spring semester.
“We have more cancels this time of year than any other. Students are kind of done doing things with the university. They want to do things on their own,” McCoy said. “But another contributing factor is the unpredictable weather. We had to cancel almost every trip in the spring semester four years ago because of it.”
