What does it mean to be a professional Adventure Educator?
Reflection by Zach Straye
I have been on backcountry expeditions before, but never with a professional adventure educator guiding me. The differences between personal expeditions and professionally guided expeditions are as clear as black and white. On expeditions that haven’t been professionally led I have had fun, but I never learned or felt as safe as I did when we were experiencing our first trip of the immersion semester. Throughout our last backpacking trip Jamie and Christian utilized all their leadership skills to do everything from motivating us to keeping us safe. They did this in an organized, calm, and professional manor. During our last expedition I realized that you must be a professional in all areas of your field, no matter what job you have. For an outdoor leader that includes how to: feed, motivate, guide, encourage, protect, and sympathize with your participants.Â
I learned that to be a professional adventure educator you must always be looking for a lesson to teach. A planned lesson is a great way to plan for an expedition, but a day in the field rarely goes the way it was planned, so having the flexibility to adapt your lesson plan to your to is an essential part of being an adventure educator. Adventure educators are always prepared for the worst, but have a mindset for the best. This provides great group morale and allows for a better teaching environment. At the same time if a bad situation were to arise a good leader would be able to quickly and confidently deal with it. This confidence will assure the group that they are in good hands and hopefully the incident will not ruin the expedition. Without the leader’s confidence, a group’s morale may plummet and a bad situation can get a lot worse. An adventure educator’s technical skills must be at such a high level that they are comfortable teaching others. Technical skills include: cooking, building shelters, natural history, safety, weather prediction, travel techniques, and many more skills. If a trip leader is confident in his/her technical skills it shows in their organization and strength as a leader.
An Adventure educator can not only be trained in their technical skills, but also in their personal skills. Many times expeditions can push a client or a group past their breaking point. This calls for a leader to be sympathetic to a groups needs. A good leader will be able to sense despair in the group and push them past it. When we were getting frustrated because we couldn’t find the trail Christian told us a metaphor that motivated the group to go a little bit farther. He showed great personal skills by creatively encouraging us with an inspiring story. This may not be appropriate at all times but he demonstrated how well-timed positive words can be a strong tool in the field. Professional adventure educators are flexible to the groups needs. A good leader will not continue with unnecessary lessons after an exceptionally long hiking day, because they know the group is too tired to learn.
In my experience a good professional adventure educator combines technical skills and personal skills to successfully guide a group through the wilderness. A professional adventure educator is well organized and prepared for anything. They are confident in all their skills and abilities as a leader. A professional has a passion for teaching and takes every appropriate opportunity to pass on their knowledge. Adventure educators have the skills to be able to confidently teach a lesson to a client instead of just knowing it for themselves. They are able to judge a group’s morale and act on that judgment. Great adventure educators don’t lead their groups they inspire them.
