Adventure Programs

"It's amazing to see first-hand how young people respond to the challenges presented to them by Outward Bound… You never know truly how much you can achieve until you are forced to dig deep within yourself. I now know from personal experience how Outward Bound helps tap that inner strength and drive."

—Gifford Miller, Former New York City Council Speaker 

Some of the most important lessons are learned outside of the classroom. Drawing upon Outward Bound’s 60+ years of experience in the field of adventure education, NYC Outward Bound offers a range of customized and challenging field-based programs for students and/or educators designed to address needs such as teambuilding, leadership development, and academic enrichment. These programs range in length and can take place over a weekend, during the week or in the summer. All Outward Bound adventure programs are led by skilled instructors who have extensive training in teaching, risk management and group facilitation. As the leading adventure-education organization in the United States, Outward Bound has pioneered standards in safety, technical expertise and experiential education.

Activities include:

Climbing NYC Outward Bound’s 60-foot Outdoor Rock Wall in Queens teaches a set of skills that can be applied long after the experience is completed. Balancing on steep faces, pulling through overhangs, or holding the rope as others climb, students discover the importance of focus, commitment, tenacity, and trust. Students learn knots, rope systems, belaying, and movement techniques so that they can rely on their own skills and those of their partners. They are also taught to support and encourage each other so that each is able to put forth his or her best effort.

Structured Group Activities provide excellent tools that permit participants to be challenged, reflect and learn—whether the day’s focus is on developing community, confidence or leadership. Offered at school, at the NYC Outward Bound Center or in the field, “initiatives” require participants to work together to achieve a common goal and to use new, unfamiliar, and possibly uncomfortable ways of behavior and communication in order to succeed, such as trust falls, raft building or launching an egg intact over extreme distances using bungee cords, sticks and ingenuity. Our instructors use thoughtful facilitation so that participants can analyze their customary role in the group and at the same time take risks, try new ideas, learn new skills and have fun.

Retreat Programs help groups recognize and discuss their pertinent issues, explore challenges, set goals, and give one another meaningful feedback. New York City Outward Bound retreats include components such as high and low ropes courses, problem-solving initiatives and orienteering. They usually take place off-site as the time away in a natural setting enhances focus and reflection. Arrangements can be made at several different facilities in upstate New York and New Jersey, from rustic cabins to full service retreat centers. Retreats typically take place over three days and two nights.

Urban Explorations draw on New York City’s diversity and the richness of its human and physical resources, which provide unparalleled opportunities for learning and adventure. On NYC Outward Bound urban explorations, students travel New York's streets and neighborhoods and discover firsthand the social and economic forces that shape our city. They offer students opportunities to see and experience neighborhoods of the City and aspects of life in the City that are outside of their everyday routines. For example, students eat in ethnic restaurants and sleep on a boat at South Street Seaport or at a local community center. They conduct interviews on the streets of neighborhoods such as Chinatown and the Lower East Side and visit cultural institutions there. And they engage in service projects, such as teaching English in Flushing, or participating in a tree-planting project. These explorations can be designed to focus on a particular theme, such as ethnic diversity or community leadership. They can also be used to enhance academic skills such as literacy—for example, students may be asked to write poetry about their experiences while they are having them, spend evenings revising their work and on the last day participate in a poetry slam sharing their work publicly.

Paired Youth-Adult Programs bring together students and adults for a shared adventure that breaks down age, racial, and cultural barriers. Adults such as teachers, parents, or corporate volunteers are paired with middle and high school students for one to three days of exploration and adventure.

Climbing the Alpine Tower at Gateway National Park is a unique urban experience.

Utilizing Outward Bound’s 55-foot Alpine Climbing Tower, New York City Outward Bound offers participants a truly unique urban experience in Gateway National Recreation Area, which straddles the Brooklyn and Queens border. Climbing on the tower offers an appropriate physical and mental challenge for participants of every age and physical ability. It builds confidence, perseverance, compassion and trust. After being taught to keep each other safe with a belay system, students are encouraged and supported to climb as high up on the tower as they can possibly go.

Rock Climbing at Minnewaska State Park. Placing climbing in a beautiful natural setting on real rock enhances the powerful lessons learned on our Climbing Wall or at the Alpine Tower. Situated along the Shawangunk ridge 80 miles north of NYC, this program offers participants some of the best climbing on the east coast. Rock-climbing has been used by Outward Bound as a medium to educate students for over 60 years.

Backpacking in Harriman & the Catskills is a dramatic change of pace for most students. Strapping it all on your back and setting out into a local wilderness is a dramatic change of pace for most students. Living in this small self-reliant community offers a fresh perspective on some of the attitudes and behaviors we bring to our larger communities at home. Students are taught to pitch tarps, cook meals, read topographic maps, purify water, build fires, navigate in the wilderness, and keep themselves and each other safe. Through these activities, students build self-reliance, community, self-confidence and trust. Students increase their understanding and appreciation of the environment, whether they are looking at tracks in the snow or camping up high to find a cool breeze in the summer. Working on a trail project or doing an overnight solo are elements that can be included in this course.

Canoeing in Harriman State Park offers participants opportunities to work in teams, take turns leading and strengthen their communication skills. Just a little over an hour from New York City, Harriman offers a beautiful setting for an outdoor group experience.

Customization

New York City Outward Bound’s many years of experience and its well-trained and diverse staff, enable New York City Outward Bound to customize its programs to meet the needs of individual schools or groups of students. For example, the entire 9th grades of several New York City high schools participate in a 5-day orientation backpacking course focused on building school community and setting norms among incoming freshman students. Students from the Coalition School for Social Change in Manhattan participated in an Outward Bound retreat to enhance their leadership skills.

These programs provide opportunities to integrate recreational and enrichment programming with academic study. In all NYC Outward Bound adventure-based programs, students are first taught new skills and then are placed in real situations where they must exercise leadership and teamwork. Because of the exciting and challenging nature of the programs, students quickly become highly engaged and achieve a sense of accomplishing more than they thought possible. After completing an Outward Bound course, students are able to, through the use of metaphor; apply their successes on course to hands on experiential learning activities in their classroom and to their everyday lives.

For more information on these programs, contact Badari Ambatti.

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