Fall Scholarships
Are you ready for a NOLS expedition? With $2M in scholarships annually, NOLS is committed to supporting your dreams of taking an extended wilderness education semester. As we approach this fall season, we have a limited amount of scholarship awards still available for 2019 Fall Semester Courses. Choose from eight locations around the world and get ready for a life- changing experience.
Featured Semesters
Fall Semester in Patagonia
Leave the ordinary behind on the Semester in Patagonia. Climb the mountains and paddle the fjords. Taste the cold wind of the Andes on your face. Breathe in the smell of mate while passing by a poblador’s ranch. On this course, you’ll go mountaineering and sea kayaking in the Andes and coastal regions of Chile and earn an industry-respected Wilderness First Aid certification.
Fall Semester in Baja
Open the door to lifelong outdoor adventure, leadership, and international travel on the Semester in Baja. Explore winding canyons in the Sonoran Desert and sail quiet coves on clear blue water in the Sea of Cortez. Watch the sunset from the beach after a day of paddling your kayak and gain perspective by interacting with remote ranching and fishing communities.
More Semester Courses
Featured Location
NOLS Mexico
Learn how to handle a Drascombe Longboat in the Sea of Cortez or paddle a kayak along the coastline, making camp on a different beach each night. While backpacking, practice speaking Spanish with local communities or learn about the unique ecology of the region’s coastal desert. Whether you’re backpacking in the Sonoran desert or paddling in Conception Bay, you’ll get to soak in a new landscape and culture as you learn lifelong outdoor skills.
NOLS Mexico Courses
Stories from the Wild
Stories
The Big Picture How I Found My Grit in Baja
Sarah Buer | January 25, 2017
Three years ago, as part of a gap year, I took part in a semester-long, eighty-day NOLS course in Baja California. This course consisted of 15 students and 4 highly-trained instructors embarking on a... Read More
Stories
My Semester in Baja, as Told in Food and Sunsets [Photo Essay]
Claire Burgeson | January 22, 2019
On the seventh day of my Spring Semester in Baja, we bought a goat.We were one week into the semester, and for the whole week, we had been talking about the possibility of buying this goat from the.... Read More
Stories
Brave Not Perfect
Mairin Rogers | March 19, 2019
My mom always told me that I was brave. Brave for learning to play a new instrument, brave for trying out for a sports team, brave for venturing off on my own. During my three months in the backcountry.... Read More
“NOLS taught me the secret to great teamwork is great leadership … I learned that leadership isn’t exclusive to those in charge; anybody can demonstrate leadership.”