2019

Voyagour Outward
Bound School
Summer Internship
THOMAS COOK
INTERNSHIP

4 INTERNSHIP OVERVIEW

7 MAJOR LEARNING

8 CONNECTION TO

ACPA/NASPA COMPETENCES

9 TRANSFERENCE

10 STRENGTHS

11 IMPORTANCE IN HIGHER

EDUCATION

12 FUTURE
Voyageur Outward
Bound School
Changing Lives Through
Challenge and Discovery
STAFF When I arrived at VOBS I meet seven other new staff and we went out on
new staff travel together. Our trainer took us out into the woods for ten days

TRAVEL
to instruct us on how Outward Bound runs their programs. We explored the
Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area and learned curriculum specific to
this course area.

ASO AND (The next phase of my internship included All Staff Orientation

TRAING
and about 2 weeks of training. ASO was a week of conference
style "learning labs" at times we would be with all 150 VOBS
employees and other times we would be in small break session.
Once we finished ASO new staff had a few weeks of training to
get familiarized with course areas and program polices for rock
climbing, ropse course, and white water sites.
SUPPORT
Students started to arrive at the beginning of June and work started
to pick up. I started the summer running support for trips in order to

WORK
gain an under standing of the flow of home base and how courses
are run. Task included help groups with gear and meal preparation.
Transition instructing, helping instructors supervise students when
they get back to base. I also helped with evacuation of students
from the field when students got sick. Support work gave a wide
view of what goes on at base and how the program runs.

COURSE
Toward the end of June I was promoted to assistant instructor and got
sent out on my first course. The course I worked was a 28 day Intercept
course, the program is designed for teens that struggle at home with

WORK
behavior issues. Much of the curriculum is designed to teach conflict
resolution and communication tools that will be transferable to
situations at home. The course ended with me facilitating a family
conference were I used restorative justice practices to help the students
and families repair harm that had been done at home and in their
relationships.
Major Learning
and Reflections
Through this sections I will highlight
the learning outcomes I set for
myself at the beginning of the course
and describe how I either hit it or could
have gotten more out of that
experience.
Through this internship I will learn new
facilitation styles and techniques that
can be implemented in a Higher
Education Outdoor Recreation setting. I
picked up a lot of new lessons from
working here at Outward Bound. I have
specifically thought of implementing
many of the lessons here into working
with the wilderness as wellness
program at Western. One example
using water shed moments a lesson I
thought here and bring it back to
Western. Another example would be
using the lessons on conflict resolution
and communication tools with the staff
of students I will be supervising when I
get back.
This internship will give me experience
in group management and student
support, examples include conflict
resolution, group processing, one-on-
one meetings with students, family
conferences. I held the opportunity to
hold a lot of one-on-one meetings with
students while out on course in the
field. One major learning from this has
been coaching student through conflict
or through setting goals. I got a lot of
practice with giving students positive
and constructive feedback in order to
help them grow and pull the most
learning out of their experience.
In this internship I will gain experience
in expedition style learning and
education, through active support and
facilitation. -I had the opportunity to
view a lot of the same lessons a couple
times over. Then I got to use the lesson
myself and teach it with my own
creative flair. This was possible because
I worked supporting different course for
the first part of the summer before I
had the opportunity to lead my own
group.
Be tough yet gentle,
humble yet bold,
swayed always by
Through this Internship I will learn the
beauty and truth
ins and outs of Outward Bound and how -Bob Pieh
this company runs and operates.
(History, Philosophy, Mission, Values,
Student Learning Outcomes, etc) I have
learned a lot about Outward Bound over
this summer. -I created this learning
outcome in order for me to dig deeper
into who Outward Bound is and what
they do. The hope has been for me to
explore if this is a right future focus for
me. Through course work and
lesson planing I had to learn a lot about
Outward Bound history and the
philosophy that guides its practice. The
work that is done here really resonates
with me and fits well with my own
educational beliefs and philosophies. I
have only worked one type of course
with the Intercept Program and though
it was a hard course I would love to
come back and work more. I would also
like to learn more about the other
programs Outward Bound offers.
Particularly with their Pathfinder
courses. The program is designed for
young adults in transition that need help
with finding direction in life. I feel like
this is a course I could be really good at
facilitating and would love the
opportunity to develop lesson plans for
that course.
ACPA/NASPA In this section I will describe how I grew

COPETENCIES in the ACPA/NASPA

Professional Ccopetencies .

PERSONAL AND
I had the opportunity to reflect on my own personal
values through staff training and while on course. I

ETHICAL reflected on my beliefs and values through active

journaling. Also through one-on-one meetings I had

FOUNDATIONS the opportunity to articulate professional beliefs and

trajectory. I also reflect on the ethical issues of
Outward Bound and what it means to work here
STUDENT The students I worked with were under the age of

LEARNING AND
18. So I had the opportunity use life span
development model to explain student behavior. I

DEVELOPMENT
also used challenge and support theory to help
support growth through my course. I also help
design my course to fit the overall mision of
Outward Bound.

ADVISING I spent 28 days advising and supporting students

AND
through the most challenging experience of many of
their lives. I spent much of my time mentoring and
coaching them through their learning on course. I

SUPPORTING
mediated conflict and supported our group through
some of their most challenging times. I helped students
set SMART goals in support of thir individual learning.
This among much more are examples of how I have
grown and helped other grow in this copetence.
Transference
I view myself through many lenses, professionally I am
an educator. As an educator I am both a student affairs
practitioner and an outdoor educator. I feel like this
opportunity has given me the chance to grow as an
outdoor educator. Working with Base Camp Cullowhee
through my graduate assistantship next semester I will
be able to bring what I have learned at Outward Bound
and help grow that program. Along with that I have
gotten to work with a very different age group of
students and see how life pan development models
relate to student growth before they reach the Higher
Education setting. Ultimaty this all helps me grow under
the umbrella of education and improve my practice.
Stengths
This is an opportunity for me to talk
about my strengths and how they
helped me through work this summer.
My top five Strengths were Positivity,
Empathy, WOO, Developer, Includer
Positivity
This strength help me get through the
hard parts of the summer and
weather the storms. There were many
hard parts to this summer from the
actually physically demanding parts to
managing student behavior. Being able
to approach each situation with a
positive outlook made life out in the
woods so much easier. Even if it was
hard and you weren't happy in the
moment it helped to be able to
bring light to hard moments,
Empathy
I felt like this was one of the most
important parts of my job. Showing
empathy and compassion to students
especial in times when they didn't
deserve it. I took on many jobs when in
the field and role model/mentor was
part of that. I worked with students
who had a server lack of compassion
toward others, It was challenging to
wake u every morning and ask myself
how am I going to show compassion
towards these humans today and I did.
I showed my empathy for them
everyday and the students opened up
and in moments we were able to have
really deep heart to heart conversations
about their growth and learning.
WOO
Winning Others Over
This became an important tool for me
to use on course. In moments I had to
channel my WOO in effort to build
rapport with my students> I started
calling this making deposits into the
rapport bank. This is because iI would
often have to cash in the rapport I had
been building with students and sit
them down to have hard conversations
that they hated me for in the moment. I
felt that the lessons I had to teach these
students were very important for their
success in life and often WOO was the
only reson they would listen to me.
Developer
This is the job! To help youth grow and
develop into self actualized human
beings. That is a high goal but it is part of
the drive for me to work here at VOBS
and in student Affairs to develop people
and help them reach their potential.
Part of the challenge for me was
working with students who
developmentally were nowhere near
that of a college age student and just
needed help growing in different ways. I
still feel like I was effective at helping
these students, even if it was only small
progress.
. 
Includer
This became a very challenging aspect
to my jobs, especially with the group of
students I was working with. My goal
was to create an inclusive space and the
students wanted to dismantle that work.
Especially around inclusive and
respectful language. They hated being
hip checked by me and my co-instructor
and started to say the most hateful
things they could think of for the shock
value of it. Another area were this was
important was helping students that
started to become the scapegoats of the
group. With includer as a strength it
became easy to notice when student
were bulling or exclusive to others in the
group. It became important that I know
how to bring the group back together
and heal harm that had been done to
memebers of our group.
 IMPORTANCE TO HIGHER
EDUCATION
My internship i not directly related to higher
education so I will be talking about the
importance of University Outdoor Rec programs
in generally before ting in my internship. I
believe that Outdoor Recreation give people the
space to escape and get away from their normal
every day lives. It is a step-back were people get
escape their stressers. It also provides people
with new ways to challenge themselves and do
things they never thought were possible for
them. It is a health and sustainable form of
recreation that people can gain a lot of self
knowledge from This was a large part of what I
would do everyday in my internship is try and
show them the unique moment they had to
disconnect from how they were at home and be
the person they wanted to be.
 FUTURE
Would I consider this work when I graduate?
Yes! Yes I would. I have loved this job and the
community that is a part of it more then I
thought I would coming into it. My goal is to
end up working in a University Outdoor
Recreation program. However, I believe VOBS
is a nice side journey that I can learn a lot from
and gain some valuable experiences. The nine
months I have to finish grade school is a long
time and a lot could change between now and
then But i feel very strongly on returning. They
have even offered me a year round instructing
position. Summers spent in Minnesota and the
rest of the year spent in Texas. Who know
what the future might hold but I am excited!