Press

Press

NY Daily News—October 30, 2007

“Long Island City's skyline has a new addition: a 60-foot climbing wall at the New York City headquarters of Outward Bound…’We use adventure elements to enhance what we do in schools,’ said Robert Burke, director of safety and training… NYC Outward Bound began launching the schools in 2004, as part of the city's ‘Small School Initiative,’ and stresses an expeditionary learning curriculum.”

“The wall was made possible by a grant from the City Council. Councilmen Eric Gioia (D-Queens) and Miguel Martinez (D-Manhattan) attended the event.”

WABC News—October 12, 2007

“Outward Bound School in Brooklyn” [Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School]

“A small school like this one has the opportunity to create and promote its own set of principles among the students. Here, those principles are called the five commitments. The five commitments are courage, compassion, respect, perseverance and stewardship. ‘The best thing about being in this school is the small classes,’ said student Fuquan Thomas.

Queens Chronicle—October 11, 2007

“A new outdoor climbing wall—believed to be New York City’s highest—has been erected in Long Island City. .... Robert Burke, Outward Bound’s director of safety and training, said the new wall gives New York City students an accessible adventure outlet right in their own backyard. ‘It’s physical education,’ he said, ‘but there’s character education in there as well.’”

Chelsea Now—May 4-10, 2007

Tony-nominated actor and writer Calvin Levels performed as James Baldwin in “Down From the Mountaintop” at our network school—The James Baldwin School—named for the author.

“It is no accident that [senior Marie Carmelle] Bernard is simultaneously deeply moved by the body of Baldwin’s work and also a student at the James Baldwin School. For Bernard and her high school peers, Baldwin is far from some deceased American literary figure whose name is plastered on the school’s façade. Rather, their being at the school is borne of a fundamental appreciation of the man, author and activist shared by the faculty.”

NY1 News, September 16, 2006

“Some might say that camping and field trips are all well and good, but what about the academics here at Validus Prep? The teachers and administrators who spoke to NY1 said that the students are held to tough standards, they’re learning and they’re headed to four-year colleges.”

WABC, July 27, 2006

NYC Outward Bound runs a summer literacy program for students needing to catch-up to their peers.

“Classes are held on the campus of Bronx Community College. Students come from among the five new small high schools, now run throughout the year by Outward Bound, in partnership with the Department of Education.

The New York Times (Metro), March 20, 2006

“Baldwin, a small Manhattan public school that opened in September in partnership with Outward Bound, embraces the group's Expeditionary Learning model, which treats school as a hands-on, even grueling, adventure. Like campers on Outward Bound wilderness trials, teachers and students at Baldwin are taught to regard each other as crew mates, who are only as strong as their weakest member, who move forward only if they do so together.”