Background: Working in an outdoor career with extensive travel and long hours away from home can pose challenges for practitioners. For women, motherhood can create constraints and impact one's career trajectory. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of motherhood on the career trajectory of women working in Adventure…

Background: One of the core environmental studies learning objectives at NOLS is for students to develop a "sense of place" by experiencing wilderness and exploring relationships with their surroundings. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how students report developing a sense of place after completing a course based out…

Background: Leadership growth during short-term study abroad programs remain of critical interest to educators. No research exists on how a strengths-based study abroad curriculum influences resilience growth for working adult graduate students. Purpose: This exploratory study sought to examine how utilizing a strengths-based curriculum…

Background: College students generally participate in study abroad experiences (SAE) at times of identity and value development as emerging adults. SAE has been criticized as perpetuating colonial acts through the project of globalization. Purpose: This research examined how participants construct meaning about place(s) and how this meaning…

This study examines the effects of outdoor developmental adventure programming (ODA) on college students' self-esteem. Although some previous studies have shown that outdoor adventure programming has positive effects on self-esteem, others did not find any effect. A quasi-experimental study was conducted over 5 months, which included two pretests…

During a summer cruise to Mexico and Central America, students earned academic credit for doctoral-level coursework in qualitative research approaches and data collection and analysis. This study explored how participants, 16 doctoral students at a midwestern university, perceived experiential education and its effect upon their understanding of…

Research of wilderness programs indicates a clear need for additional investigation of specific program components and their influence on participant outcomes. This study examines one component of the Outward Bound wilderness program--the Final Expedition. The Final Expedition is a student-led wilderness expedition and is also referred to as an…

Focuses on risks and challenges of conducting adventure programming in foreign countries. Recommends actions to take before the crisis (involving assumptions, risk evaluation, emergency evacuation plans, awareness of medical-care costs, and foreign communications systems, family procedures plan, briefings); during the crisis (meeting staff and…

As part of an experiential education program, students from Keuka College (New York) traveled to Costa Rica to participate in a service project and to learn about the country's political, socioeconomic, and ecological conditions. Pretrip preparation included studying experiential learning models that emphasized experience, reflection, abstract…