Outdoor Adventure: Southern Europe

May Term Travel 2018 Outdoor Adventure: Southern Europe Andrew Hollis

Enrollment Limit: 12

Course Fee: $3100.00

Features Included in the Course Fee: $3100.00 includes all transportation, activities, food, gear, and in course expenses. $4200.00 includes a flight from LAX to London and Returning from Geneva to LAX.

Estimated Expenses Beyond Course Fee: $150 for 5 personal meals while on course.

Course Description: This course is a hand-on, field experience designed for students who are interested in learning and gaining skills to develop as outdoor/experiential educators. Students will spend the month of May exploring the mountains, lakes, coastline, and outdoor culture of Switzerland, Southern France, and Italy. This course is a combination of backcountry wilderness and front country outdoor pursuits, and will connect students with the strong outdoor alpine culture that Southern Europe has to offer. Each day will offer opportunities to engage in adventures by backpacking, travelling via Refugio, and simply walking along footpaths. Students will also be completing a community service project prior to the course and practice Leave No Trace principals throughout (see www.lnt.org). The course utilizes an experiential education curriculum and employs philosophies and models extracted from outdoor education texts. Students will be challenged through physical and emotional situations using the outdoors as a classroom - learning takes place 24 hours a day. Through taking on different group roles and jobs each day, students will not only experience what it is like to be an effective group member, but will learn how to build community and improve their leadership skills. Students will be challenged to think deeply through nightly group reflection meetings, reading assignments and projects to present to the group. From these projects the group will gain interpersonal communication skills, awareness of group dynamics, personal growth, and gain a sense of environmental stewardship not only for themselves, but be empowered to facilitate this experience for others in the wilderness.

Faculty Contact Information: Andrew Hollis, X8098, Hunsaker 219, [email protected]