Youth Leadership Adventures Leadership Track

Youth Leadership Adventures Leadership Track

Final Report

The System Basics

Though it is only a three-month summer program, Youth Leadership Adventures is a year-long process. In the winter and early spring, we recruit students for our two summer programs by visiting high schools around western Washington and marketing on social media sites. Our programs, Outdoor Leadership and Science & Sustainability, offer the same type of experience in two different ways. Outdoor Leadership is an eight-day course for high school students of any grade, and is focused more on leadership skills. Science & Sustainability courses are for older students (those going into twelfth grade or graduating from high school) and spend more time on field science and climate change. They are also 12 days instead of eight.

Spring is devoted to interviewing and accepting applicants: this year, we had over 200 applicants for roughly 83 spots. In early May, we held a “student draft” in which the interviewers put forth their top picks for the program while ensuring that various quotas for the program (i.e. number of students who could pay full price) were being met.

June brings new instructor staff and graduate students to the program. We spend a week and a half training to become leaders for the students we have spent almost six months recruiting. Part of that training is devoted to learning the logistics of the program. The other part focuses largely on student management and mentorship. Arguably the most enjoyable part of training is getting into the field for a shortened, mock YLA course on Ross Lake.

Students arrive by the end of June. From late June to mid August, instructors and students spend a total of 28 days in the field (which works out to just under 1,000 field days for the summer). Each day is devoted to leadership skills, field science, natural history, backcountry travel, social and emotional growth, good food and fun.

At the end of the summer, after wrap ups and debriefs, the program coordinators take some well-deserved time off and the seasonal instructor team of staff and graduate students say goodbye to the program. The rest period doesn’t last long for the coordinators, though: planning for the November Northwest Youth Leadership Summit began back in the spring but becomes a full-time occupation in late September and October. The one-day summit takes place in Seattle and is a free event for students ages 14-22 who have participated in some sort of outdoor program, including YLA.

For YLA students, the Summit serves several purposes. The event is a reunion for the summer courses, and students take the chance to connect with the friends they haven’t seen for several months. The Summit also offers workshops and breakout sessions all day, enabling the students to explore aspects of outdoor leadership and programming that they are interested in. The day concludes with an Opportunity Fair in which outdoor organizations from all over the region set up booths and recruit Summit attendees for jobs, internships and volunteer work.

The Northwest Youth Leadership Summit is the concluding YLA event for the calendar year. The program coordinators complete an overview the year and take note of tasks for next year before taking extended vacations in the late fall and winter months. Come January, the whole process begins anew.

The Purpose of the System

The mission of Youth Leadership Adventures is “to inspire the next generation of conservation leaders.” We accomplish this mission by sending high schoolers from the region who don’t know each other into our public lands together to learn about themselves and the world around them. This strategy of combining new faces in unfamiliar places is remarkably effective, and has been implemented in outdoor programs throughout the world.

To become the next conservation leaders, our students focus on three core concepts while in the field:

1. Ecological Literacy & Field Science: “Gain firsthand knowledge and experiences in ecology, field science and earth systems science.”
2. Sense of Place & Community: “Connect students to nature, wilderness, and public lands while nurturing an emotional relationship to their local ecosystem and community.”
3. Leadership & Communication: “Develop effective leadership, self-confidence, outdoor recreation, communication and public speaking skills.”

During each course, instructors facilitate lessons and activities that address each of these concepts. Each course completes a basic set of required lessons and activities, such as Climate Change 101 and Leadership Styles. Beyond that, the content and structure of the course is largely up to the instructor team. This allows each course to have a unique flavor and focus. When the students return home, they have a better idea of who they are, where they are and how they can affect change in their communities.

Stakeholders in the System

YLA has many stakeholders, possibly many more than a typical outdoor program because of our operation style.

Our most important stakeholders are the students who come to participate in our programs. Without their interest and support, we would have no program, so we work to facilitate courses that are relevant and interesting to our target population.

The instructors and graduate students who lead YLA courses are important stakeholders as well, because staff must be invested in the outcomes of their trips in order for the trips to be successful.

The larger North Cascades Institute staff and community are reliant on the outcomes of YLA. In my mind, no other program NCI offers so thoroughly provides “transformative experiences in nature” as YLA. Many of our other programs offer participants to experience nature as they never have before, but rarely do they have the lasting transformative impact that YLA has on its students.

North Cascades National Park and Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest are invested in YLA because we provide service work and help introduce young people to our public lands. Since public land visitors are currently overwhelmingly older and white, it is important to our public land management agencies that young people and people of color (in other words, people who reflect the changing demographics of the United States) visit public lands and become invested in protecting and conserving them. YLA does this, and has the additional benefit of recruiting young people for eventual careers with the Park Service or the Forest Service.

We rely heavily on individual donations to fund our program, so our donors are major stakeholders in the program. Because of this, we have incorporated Visitor Days in our programs to show donors the positive impact of the program on the students and to allow students to practice their public speaking skills.

Climate Change

As mentioned above, our partners at the National Park Service and the United States Forest Service are heavily invested in our program because we teach students about the value of public lands and the importance of conserving and protecting them. This piece of our program is critical given the globe’s rapidly shifting climate: by showing young people that such places as public lands exist, and introducing the threat that anthropogenic climate change poses, we hope to inspire the next generation to not only conserve the resources and places we still have, but to reverse the damage we are doing to our planet. The YLA system, therefore, works to inspire our students to create positive change in issues of environmental degradation.

Leadership in the System

Working with YLA for an entire calendar year has afforded me the unique opportunity of seeing the system operate from start to finish. Understanding how the system works has mostly helped me when interacting with different stakeholders – I am able to communicate efficiently and appropriately with donors, students, NCI staff and our partners because I understand how each of those parties fits into the system.

Understanding the purpose of the system – to inspire the next generation of conservation leaders – is vital to running relevant, exciting and useful courses for students. This is the most direct correlation between understanding the system and my leadership style: I am able to be a competent leader for my students because I understand how programs like this one are beneficial.

Recommendations

Youth Leadership Adventures is a smoothly-functioning program, but it is growing. In order to facilitate the best courses we possibly can for both students and staff, I have included several recommendations for future program seasons. These recommendations may seem too hard to implement initially, but are ones that I believe would be well worth the effort.

Longer courses are better, particularly with older students

Each additional day we can spend with students in the backcountry results in exponential gains in the students’ growth. I saw this concept in action this summer, when comparing my two eight-day courses with my 12-day course. The students on the 12-day course had more time to get comfortable living in the backcountry. Once their comfort was established, they were able to focus much better on the lessons and activities we did as a group. The students got to know one another better, and as a result, supported each other more strongly than either of my other two groups.

On my eight-day courses, I witnessed my students start to trust each other, work together and master backcountry living systems just in time for the course to be over. These courses have a huge impact on the students, without a doubt, but an extra 24 or 48 hours could result in immense personal and group growth.

The schedule for YLA is already very tight due to staffing constraints: graduate students are obligated to work a certain number of days for other programs offered by the Institute. There are other constraints when it comes to YLA offering longer courses, but this is one that is easily rectified. Removing the requirement for grads to serve other ELC programs frees up an average of 7-8 days that could be spent in the field.

Interns can help with logistics and field instruction

The most competent folks in the outdoor education industry understand all aspects of a functioning outdoor program. Brilliant instructors who don’t understand logistics or logistics staff who can’t communicate effectively with students are simply not as valuable to an organization because they cannot be as flexible as someone who can work in almost any capacity.

Knowing this, YLA can offer internships to college students that develop both instructional and logistical skills. I recommend offering an internship in which much of the time is spent in logistics, but which guarantees some field time (one or two courses, depending on number of interns). I make this recommendation for two reasons. First, manywell-known outdoor organizations simply don’t offer this kind of opportunity to develop a holistic outdoor education skill set. Second, this model would serve the added benefit of relieving the program coordinator of some behind-the-scenes duties while courses are out in the field. From my anecdotal observations, it appears that YLA is reaching capacity with program staff, but we still have room to grow in number of students served. In order to do this, we need more logistical help.

Hiring interns who are both office- and field-based might require changing our hiring requirements. For example, it would be hugely helpful if our interns could drive participants, but they would have to be at least 21 years of age to do so. It might also be necessary to hire more interns (say, four or five) to make up for instructing shortages. The interns might have their own field training that focuses more on teaching how to teach.

A new and improved first aid kit system will be more effective and efficient

Any given outdoor program utilizes first aid kits, and usually they are massive. They are also annoying to inventory and time-consuming to restock. I propose a new system for first aid kit organization and stocking.

The new system that I am proposing has less to do with altering contents (which would remain largely the same, maybe slightly diminished) and more to do with the organization of the kits. Backcountry kits would come in 5L dry bags (example here) and would be stocked with five quart-sized Ziploc bags. A sample of contents of each bag could be:

• 1 Second Skin
• Benzoin
• Trauma Shears
• 1 roll cloth tape
• 2 sheets molefoam
• 2 sheets moleskin
• 2 Blister Block pads

• 10 Alcohol prep pads
• 1 Hydrocortisone tube
• 1 Triple Antibiotic Ointment tube
• 10 Small Band-aids
• 5 Large Band-aids
• 2 rolls gauze wrap
• 7 Sterile gauze pads (various sizes)
• 1 Steri-strip
• 2 Tegaderm
• Tweezers
• 1 irrigation syringe
• 4 Water-Jel burn jel packets

• 1 roll cloth tape
• 1 Ace wrap
• 1 Triangular Bandage

• 10 Ibuprofen
• 10 Acetometaphin
• 10 Diphen
• 5 Aspirin
• 5 Diotame
• 1 sheet laxatives
• 5 packets Smooth Move Tea
• 1 small bottle allergy medicine
• 1 thermometer
• 8 Sting Relief Wipes

• 1 tube Glutose oral gel
• CPR Mask
• 2 SOAP notes
• 1 Assessment Triangle
• 1 Nail Clippers
• 1 Pencil
• 2 pairs M Nitrile gloves
• 2 pairs L Nitrile gloves
• 16 Tampons
• 4 Feminine pads
• Biohazard Bag

This list would be in addition to an epi kit. Each quart Ziploc would have a typed list of the items and quantities it is supposed to contain taped to the front of the bag with clear packing tape. Once stocked, the Ziploc would be sealed shut with masking tape (preferred) or blue painter’s tape. The tape would be dated and initialed by the person stocking the kit. The purpose of the tape is to let the next user know that the kit is fully stocked: if the tape has been tampered with or broken open, the next user knows that the bag is not complete. Initialing the bags serves to make the person restocking the kit accountable: they can be tracked down if they don’t do their job well.

This would likely mean an overhaul of the ELC’s first aid room, and possibly converting the front country kits to the same system, with fewer supplies. The ultimate purpose of the system is to make it easier to find something in the first aid kit, and to properly restock the kit when items are used.