In 2023, no one on the NOLS Human Resource staff responsible for implementing DEI has been on a multi-week NOLS expedition. Why does this matter?
They need to experience the NOLS wilderness classroom. Compared to a space made of four walls, a flat ceiling, level floor with desk chairs, the wilderness classroom, ever changing and challenging, has great effect on group dynamics.
From NOLS' beginning in 1965, Paul Petzoldt entrusted NOLS instructors to teach students in the wilderness classroom to use their judgement and learn by doing. The result can be life changing. The life changing lessons learned on a NOLS course need to be a prerequisite for anyone implementing DEI at NOLS. Learning wilderness skills – how to tie a double bowline, how to avoid getting blisters – are not in themselves life changing. Being a team member should be similar to being part of any school or community group. Why is a NOLS course a life changing experience?
Above all else, Paul knew the value of the wilderness experience - living in the wilderness, moving through the wilderness, dealing with daily uncertainties and realizing each of us contributes to and is dependent on the group to be safe and survive - the basis of Expedition Behavior.
In this classroom, real risks are encountered, feedback is often immediate and group cohesion - not individual differences - matters most. Experiencing the wilderness as a student within such a newly formed and self-reliant group can be life changing. This is what makes NOLS NOLS.
NOLS SELF - ASSEMBLY
Our objective is to serve as a link between NOLS and the greater NOLS community for an open discussion about how NOLS is staying true to its mission and the practice of expedition behavior while implementing a DEI initiative, fundraising $10,000,000 to cover operating losses and searching for a new president while creating a new strategic plan.
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