The overall goals of Outdoor Pursuits are to strengthen each student and to involve each student in caring service to the group and community.
Specific goals are many; their diversity suggested to us that listing some of them might be helpful to future leaders, students, and passersby. None of us can achieve all of them in each of our groups; we may focus on some one time, others the next. It depends on us, our groups, and the experiences we share. Here is our list, from students and faculty:
Environmental Goals
- To help us find environments where we are directly affected by forces of nature in the hope that this may rekindle or reinforce respect for the natural world that exists beyond human control.
- To savor the elemental sensations of a mountain climb, a silent night on an island in Maine, a river rapids run, a sky full of stars.
- To encourage ourselves to meet life directly ("if you want to move, walk!"), without the filters of headsets, drugs, or merely intellectual abstraction.
- To instill awareness in each of us that "In Wildness is the Preservation of the World".
- To teach the protection of the environment.
- To observe the impact of people on the earth in order to encourage lifelong habits of environmental responsibility.
Personal Development Goals
- To help us find environments where we are directly affected by forces of nature in the hope that this may rekindle or reinforce respect for the natural world that exists beyond human control.
- To savor the elemental sensations of a mountain climb, a silent night on an island in Maine, a river rapids run, a sky full of stars.
- To encourage ourselves to meet life directly ("if you want to move, walk!"), without the filters of headsets, drugs, or merely intellectual abstraction.
- To instill awareness in each of us that "In Wildness is the Preservation of the World."
- To teach the protection of the environment.
- To observe the impact of people on the earth in order to encourage lifelong habits of environmental responsibility.
Learning Goals
- To create an atmosphere where we learn experientially, experimentally, and together.
- To develop skills necessary for safe travel through the natural world.
- To bring intellectual knowledge to bear on the natural world.
- To provide a context in which we learn how groups function.
Interpersonal Goals
- To encourage appreciation of others for their differences as well as for their similarities; to understand the richness in true diversity.
- To help develop bonds within a group where success is dependent upon each member's help and effort; to encourage concern for others.
- To HAVE FUN!