nols: notes on a life-changing summer

Between June and August this year, 429 motivated, altruistic, low-income sophomores from across the country stepped way outside anybody’s definition of a comfort zone to spend a month or more hiking, kayaking, camping, and rock-climbing on their wilderness expedition. So what is it that actually happens during, for example, a thirty-day backpacking adventure in the Wind River Range in Wyoming? To find out, we asked Summer Search Silicon Valley junior Jocelyne, her NOLS instructor Eric “Salz” Salazar, and NOLS instructor and high school referral partner, Shawn Benjamin.

Before Summer Search, Jocelyne had never heard of NOLS – in fact, “The teacher who nominated me said there would be an outdoor trip and I didn’t even know what that meant.” Still, she filled out her forms, and prepared for the trip by running three times a week. She also used her weekly calls with her mentor, Megan, to pinpoint and talk through her fears, as well as “what exactly I was excited about, like getting to see a new place, learning new things, and just taking a break from all the problems going on at home.” Even so, when the group finally packed out and hit the trail, “I couldn’t believe we were leaving everything and I already wanted it to be over.”

Hiking, fishing, and rapping

Over the next thirty days, Jocelyne’s group of twelve students and three instructors traveled a total of eighty-four miles and gained 14,000 feet of elevation. They crossed the continental divide, climbed three peaks, and swam in pristine lakes surrounded by snow. Every single day they had two or three classes: some on backcountry skills such as first aid, map-reading, or river-crossing; and some on leadership building, understanding group dynamics, or conflict resolution.

According to Salz, “we spent most of our time around a stove,” cooking everything from freshly caught fish to pizza, backcountry-style. Meanwhile, Jocelyne reminisced about presenting the “Leave No Trace” philosophy in rap form, giving a whole new angle to traditional songs around the campfire.

Communication, cooperation, and teamwork: “We kind of sneak that stuff up on them, like vegetables”

What else happens as a group of fifteen and sixteen year olds wrestle with 50lb backpacks, hiking rations, and persistent mosquitoes? Shawn Benjamin, principal at Summer Search partner school LPS Richmond and long-time NOLS instructor, identifies “learning a whole new way to exist in a group of people” as the main opportunity of an expedition:

            “You are completely thrown into understanding how you work in a group, how you communicate, what pushes your buttons … I think our kids generally come from an environment where you react, and fight to get what you want, and NOLS has very different ideas about group dynamics and conflict resolution.”

Jocelyne agreed, describing her initial frustration as she picked up the slack for lazier members of her cook-group:

            “At first I wouldn’t say anything because maybe people are just having a bad day, and because I wanted to show that I really want to be here, so I’ll do extra work if it needs to get done. But after time, I talked to my instructor and asked what I could do. She helped me figure out how to ask the kid to step it up a bit and still have him be cool with it.”

Finding common ground with diverse people: “You know, not all of us have ponies!”

For a Summer Search student on a scholarship, the challenge and opportunity of teamwork is even more striking, because the other group members come from such different backgrounds. Salz overhead Jocelyne say, “You know, not all of us have ponies!” at one point – but Shawn added that she’s heard all the Summer Search students at her school say “you move through that and you get to know people as people.” Shawn identified another, more subtle benefit to bridging the cultural divide:

            “Something that surprises me in my school is that our students often don’t think past 18—they’re very much in the moment and so much of their life is just surviving. When you hang out with a teenager from middle- to upper-class suburbia, they’re talking about college and traveling in Europe. Just being exposed to that totally different way of thinking helps my kids be able to dream and hope for things that     they want in their lives.”

Self-awareness and leadership: “You can’t lead anyone else until you lead yourself”

One of the lessons of a wilderness expedition is that intentional goal-setting has to be paired with planning and action—“you have a month to go from here to there, so how do you make it happen?” Still, Jocelyne’s decision-making and project-management skills were tested when she was injured (boulder hopping up “Pain in the Ass” pass) after being chosen as leader of the student expedition:

            “Being leader, I knew it was my responsibility to do my best and not give up. Without me, the group could have still done it, but the leader has responsibility to show that example. I knew my limitations, so I stayed in the back and put one of   the other kids in charge of leading the way, because I knew if I was doing that also I’d slow the group down and it was already starting to get late.”

Salz and Shawn agreed that Jocelyne showed true leadership in that moment—the kind that is based on personal responsibility and self-awareness, “starting with what it means to lead your life, and manage your strengths and weaknesses.” For Jocelyne, the experience was revelatory: “I kind of knew I had that leadership in me, but I didn’t know how deep it went.”

The lasting impact: “Woohoo! I did it!”

Regardless of whether they are kayaking in Maine or rock-climbing in North Carolina, Summer Search students all share the same “Woohoo!  I did it!” moment. Jocelyne described reaching the top of her first peak as an almost physically overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride at having not given up: “I was hanging on to a rock the whole time, but I will never forget that feeling!”

That experience of sustained effort and success provides a lasting boost to Summer Search students – the confidence they need to come home and change the course of their lives. As Jocelyne puts it: “This year has been tough on me, but I think hey, I was able to hike eighty-four miles and go up 14,000 ft – and that gives me the motivation to keep going and not give up at school.”

So why does all of this incredible personal growth have to happen thousands of miles away, in the wilderness?

The short answer is that it doesn’t—and can’t—really happen anywhere else. Shawn noted that despite her background with NOLS, she struggles to find ways to develop the same perspective and skills in her students at school: “Leadership opportunities have to be real and meaningful—and that’s tough to create in a forty-minute advisory.” Salz added that by its very “other world” nature, “the wilderness, on my courses, is a safe place to make mistakes and to try to think about them in a way that high school just isn’t.”

For Summer Search students, their first summer program opens up a doorway of opportunity that is both exciting and daunting. Jocelyne is working with her mentor to integrate her new communications skill set, expanded perspective on the world, and boosted confidence in her own abilities back into her “real” life. She’s also studying hard to try to get into Stanford, and is moving into a new role within her family and in school. Her parents and friends are proud and a little shocked at the changes they see. For those of us who make this change possible—referral partners, summer program partners, supporters, and staff—Jocelyne’s growth is the reason we are all part of the Summer Search family.