By Emy Noel
Spring Semester in the Rockies, 2001

Kirsten Johnson didn't know what to write home about. It had been almost two months since she'd left Smith College in Massachusetts for her Semester in the Rockies with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Since then, she'd jammed her hands into small holds while rock climbing on tall granite towers, heaved her pack over high mountain passes in Wyoming's remote wilderness, and saddled up a horse for a pack trip in a desert that glowed red when the sun set.

"I wrote home trying to explain what I'd been doing everyday—so this is where we camped, and this is what we've been eating, this is how we read a map," Johnson says. "I can describe all of those things. What I struggled with was how to tell my parents what it meant to be able to do all of this. There are hardly words to describe what it's like to wake up everyday and think, 'something crazy cool is going to happen today.' "
The options are endless when today's college students decide to spend a semester away from the traditional college classroom. They can go anywhere in the world, from Belize to Belgium, and study just about any topic, from social issues in Australia, to sea turtles in Costa Rica.

Many college students are finding that a semester away from the Ivy Towers is the perfect opportunity to leave it all behind and discover what it really means to be 'out there.' The Lander, Wyo.-based National Outdoor Leadership School, founded in 1965, was the first to offer an entire semester in the out-of-doors, learning wilderness, leadership and technical skills. The school currently offers semesters in the Rocky Mountains, Teton Valley, Pacific Northwest, Southwest, Alaska, the Yukon Territory, Mexico, Australia, Patagonia and New Zealand. Each semester covers a range of skills, from backpacking, rock climbing and coastal sailing to whitewater kayaking and mountaineering.

Dave Glenn, director of NOLS Rocky Mountain in Lander, says semester students don't always know what to expect when they first arrive. But he says by the end of their semester, what the students remember most is the remoteness, their fellow coursemates, and the instructors who taught them so much.

By this point, Glenn says, the students are capable and cohesive—the dynamic entirely changed. “In 90 days, students learn to deal with diversity and things they can’t learn anywhere else,” says Glenn. “I look at what they learn on a semester and I think, ‘It took me 15 years to learn this.' It’s a phenomenal experience, everything from leadership to the technical experience and skills.”

NOLS semesters consist of three or four sections over 64 to 94 days, depending on which country or time of year a student chooses to explore. A Semester in the Rockies descends into the canyonlands of southern Utah, a Semester in Baja journeys onto the boundless waters of the Gulf of California, a Semester in New Zealand winds amongst the mystical peaks of the South Island. And this in just one section, with more to follow. “A month-long NOLS course is just a taste of what you can do,” says Glenn.

As with shorter NOLS courses, Glenn says a NOLS semester focuses on outdoor skills, leadership, and thriving in the wilderness, but a semester offers additional advantages, like 16 to 19 hours of college credit, more skill areas, more time to master these skills, stronger bonds between coursemates, and more opportunities to lead. Glenn says this leadership makes semesters ideal for students who hope to get into outdoor education and sharpen life skills. “You come to an understanding of yourself and people as leaders," says Glenn.

Johnson, who took a spring Semester in the Rockies in 2002, is quick to point out the challenges of the semester-long NOLS experience. "You need to lead and work with people who have seen you in vulnerable situations,” says Johnson. “A semester is a long time, there are ups and downs, and no opportunities to hide who you are. It’s a tremendous growth opportunity.”

Johnson says it takes time to learn a skill and inclination to live in the outdoors and lead yourself and your peers, and that’s just what NOLS semester students have, she says, three months and the motivation to take on an intense challenge.

“My semester allowed me the space to be reflective and reflect on others,” says Johnson. “You see a more complete picture of people when they have accomplished something, when they’ve failed, when they’re soaking wet, when they’re perfectly at ease. It’s not guarded. That definitely has to do with the amount of time.”

Arron Simon, a 2002 spring Semester in Patagonia graduate, says one of the most valuable things he learned was valuable leadership experience. “The leadership progression was a core part of my semester," says Simon. "After your first leadership day, you get feedback and you have a chance to work on that, always building on the previous time. You really get it down and you can see the difference.”

Many NOLS grads say that more than anything else it was the amount of time they were out there that had the biggest impact.

“The time is one thing to be proud of,” says Simon. “I came out of my semester more confident. It’s a huge feeling of accomplishment to have done it, done it well, and enjoyed all of it."

Glenn, who sees semester grads come and go all year, says there's a "new grad vs. old grad" perspective. Immediately following a semester, he says, students sense that they’re not the same. They can recount their favorite day or the most challenging rapid on their river section. Later, they can pinpoint when it was they started changing, who it was that most influenced them, and how their outlook has expanded.

You can see a place in one day, know it after one week, and experience it after one month. But after a semester, says Glenn, you understand what it takes to live there. You also understand more about yourself, and what it will take to live the rest of your life.