Willie Williams
 NOLS
Instructor since: 1984
Awards: 2002 Instructor of the Year
Courses taught: Sea Kayaking in Mexico, Alaska and
the Pacific Northwest
“When in doubt, just say ‘yes,’” says Willie
Williams, a NOLS Instructor since 1984. His advice for someone thinking
about a NOLS course comes with authority considering some of Williams’ wilderness
adventures, including a sea
kayaking trip among sharks in the Tuamotu archipelago of French Polynesia that
was photographed for National Geographic Adventure Magazine.
Williams, who has a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies/natural
history from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a master’s
degree in environmental education from Humboldt State University, says
that the greatest lesson a NOLS student takes away is “how to truly
live with other people and play and work as a team.” Williams,
who has worked as a program supervisor for NOLS Mexico, Southwest and
Alaska, has also worked as the associate director of Cornell Outdoor
Education, a sea kayaking guide in Norway and Sweden, and was the co-director
of Southwest Field Studies at Earlham College in Indiana.
One of Williams’ favorite memories from a NOLS course includes
paddling all night in Alaska in Prince
William Sound on the summer solstice. His favorite recipe from the NOLS
Cookery is for bulgur burgers, and he enjoys teaching star lore and
constellations classes to NOLS students.
Williams says that he works for NOLS because of the quality connections
that he makes with people in beautiful places, the amazing variety of
skills and locations that he gets to experience, and because it “seems
like the right livelihood in helping people to connect with nature and
thereby wanting to protect it.”
“Our students,” Williams says, “learn to live lightly
in the backcountry, then transfer it to leave no trace in the front country.”
When Williams is not working NOLS courses he enjoys playing the mandolin
and guitar, surf kayaking and hanging out with his two nieces.
|
