Krishnan Kutty
Position at NOLS: Director of NOLS India
NOLS grad: 1987 Semester
in the Rockies, 1988 Instructor Course
Krishnan
Kutty, Program Director of NOLS India, describes himself as a “one
man department” in the off season for marketing, admissions, outfitting,
finance and anything else related to the “in-country” courses
in India. But in the spring and fall when the U.S. students arrive, Kutty
is busy providing logistical support, helping to prepare the meals and
taking care of gear details.
Kutty first arrived at NOLS as a student on a Fall Semester in the Rockies
course in 1987, which he says inspired him to become an instructor. Before
that, he lived in Bombay (now known as Mumbai) and Bangalore where he
farmed and worked as a Mercedez Benz car salesman in Oman.
Following his 1988 instructor course, Kutty started instructing courses
full time and has worked for NOLS ever since. He says he enjoys working
for NOLS because of the people the school draws. “NOLS attracts
very sincere, talented and committed individuals,” Kutty explains.
And he believes NOLS’ emphasis on its core curriculum makes it
a very special organization. “Each component of the core curriculum
is dynamic enough that it is easy to translate the lessons into our daily
lives,” he says. “These reasons also make it easy to adapt
the NOLS mission, curriculum and outcomes into each country where NOLS
operates.”
Kutty believes the Himalaya
Mountaineering and Backpacking courses make
NOLS India unique because of the cultural interaction that is part of
the courses’ planned format. In addition, the high-altitude travel
makes the courses in India the highest of all NOLS classrooms, where
mountaineering courses can camp as high as 17,600 ft, and average travel
for the backpacking courses is around 10,000 ft.
When Kutty is not working he enjoys taking long mountain walks with
his two children Zain, 9 and Sara, 6. He also enjoys reading and listening
to music whenever he has time off.
|
