THE MAGAZINE OF GORDON COLLEGE
STILLPOINT SPRING 2021
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF LA VIDA
A Defining Decade: The Lindsay Legacy Page 4 Also Also in This in Issue This Issue 7 New10Board Finishing of Trustees Strong: Chair The Home 8 Celebrating Stretch of Roger the Faith Green Rising 37Campaign 16,000 Stories
CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE
STILLPOINT
A Defining Decade
VOLUME 36 NUMBER 2
Farewell to 4 President Lindsay
The Magazine of Gordon College
Finishing Strong
Heather Korpi, Editorial Director Mary (Hierholzer) Jacobs ’15, Staff Writer Bri (Young) Obied ’14, Staff Writer Ellian Chalfant ’22, Student Writer Rebecca Powell, Art Director Selina Taylor ’18, Graphic Designer Mark Spooner ’14, Photographer Marilyn Helgesen, Alumni News Rick Sweeney ’85, Vice President for Marketing and External Relations
Home Stretch 10 The of the Faith Rising Campaign
ADDRESS CHANGES Alumni Office | alumni.office@gordon.edu OTHER CORRESPONDENCE Editor, STILLPOINT | Gordon College 255 Grapevine Road, Wenham, MA 01984 stillpoint@gordon.edu PRINTING Flagship Press | North Andover, MA Opinions expressed in STILLPOINT are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Gordon College administration. Reproduction of STILLPOINT material is permitted; please attribute to STILLPOINT: The Magazine of Gordon College.
MISSION STILLPOINT magazine is one of two keynote communications (along with Gordon’s website) that exist to connect the extended Gordon community to the life of the College. STILLPOINT offers meaningful, relevant news and stories to educate, inspire and engage Gordon and Barrington alumni, parents, donors and friends. Send feedback and story suggestions to stillpoint@gordon.edu.
FEATURE
TRANSFORMATION ON THE TRAIL CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF LA VIDA
14 Opening Wide the Door to the Great Outdoors
Relive the story of La Vida from its inaugural wilderness expedition in 1970 with 16 participants from Harlem, New York, in the wake of the Black Power movement, to the 2020s where La Vida’s influence and ingenuity now reach thousands of people across five continents.
18 Trail Markers
Defining moments in La Vida’s 50-year history
Rich Life, 20 Aa Lasting Legacy Remembering La Vida’s faithful shepherd and visionary
and 22 Sherpa Participant Stories Lives transformed on the trail
26 Into the Woods
Researchers put outdoor orientation programs to the test
ON THE COVER A layflat photograph of real La Vida paraphernalia from past and present, including many items that were and are still essential for surviving in the wilderness and feeding one’s soul.
IN EACH ISSUE Up Front with 3 President Lindsay Making a Commitment Move
30 Class Notes
Alumni news and stories
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UP FRONT with President Lindsay
Making a Commitment Move
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” —Ecclesiastes 3:1 For the past two and a half years, I have been working on a book about major transitions. Over the course of rereading interviews from my 10-year study with 550 PLATINUM leaders, I charted seven phases of transition that include what I call a “hinge moment”—a pivotal moment in life that has an outsized impact on what follows. And in the process, I realized I may be embarking on my own “hinge moment” as I began to contemplate a professional change. At some point in every hinge moment, there comes a time to make what our friends in the La Vida Center for Outdoor Education and Leadership would call a “commitment move”—when you’ve assessed the risk and reward and chosen to press in. (Read more about La Vida and their 50-year history of transforming lives on page 12.) A hinge moment can’t happen with one foot in the door and one foot out. By nature, it requires the faith and commitment to step forward with both feet. For me, that point—that commitment move, that hinge moment—came this past fall, when after months of prayer
and conversations with the Board of Trustees, I announced my decision to step down as president. The College has recently crossed several significant milestones including the Gordon “Game Change” tuition reset, and entering the home stretch of the Faith Rising campaign (read more on page 10). This is a natural time for a leadership transition and for institutional renewal. Over the past 10 years, Rebecca and I—much like first-year students on a La Vida Adirondack expedition—have been challenged, encouraged and shaped in ways we never imagined. We love this place and will look back fondly on these formative years for our family. As we embark on our family’s next adventure, we do so with a deep and enduring gratitude (and with the packing list on page 25!). I echo the words of Paul in saying, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that
you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.” Thank for you for the immense privilege of serving Gordon, and, most importantly, serving God and his Kingdom alongside you for these past 10 years.
D. Michael Lindsay is the eighth president of Gordon College and professor of sociology. When he needs to unplug, his favorite spot is sitting on the beach with his wife and three daughters. @DMichaelLindsay www.ivpress.com/hinge-moments
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A Defining Decade The Lindsay Legacy In October of 2020, President D. Michael Lindsay announced his decision to step down at the end of the 2020–21 academic year, concluding a decade at the helm. As an institution, Gordon College is in a good place for a smooth transition—blessed to move forward with gratitude for the dedication and perseverance of Dr. Lindsay (and his young family) to serve Gordon through seasons both challenging and celebratory, and in appreciation of the many good things that have transpired over this last decade. Dr. Lindsay’s arrival in 2011 coincided with the sea change already underway within higher education, and especially within Christian liberal arts institutions—an inexorable shift in the demographics of college-age students and non-traditional learners, a polarization in rhetoric and engagement on contentious social and political issues, and the acute challenge of keeping the cost of a private education within the reach of the students and families it has always served. The charge given to Gordon’s eighth president (one of the youngest in the country at the time) was to prepare Gordon for these seismic shifts with new strategies for necessary innovation and financial stability. The result would move the College toward a firmer foundation for future vitality—to be more affordable, more adaptable and yet still firmly anchored in Christ as a distinctly Christian college. Many of the achievements under Dr. Lindsay’s leadership through this past decade will define the College’s legacy for years to come.
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A Defining Decade: The Lindsay Legacy
2011
2012
2013
The College welcomes the largest incoming class in Gordon’s history to date.
The Gordon Presidential Fellows program is launched.
Gordon is named the safest private college campus in the U.S.
Gordon’s annual Celebration of Faithful Leadership and the George F. Bennett Award are created.
The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) is founded—the first such center at a Christian college.
College debt is restructured to save over $500,000 per year.
The first cohort of students takes part in global internships around the world.
DEEP FAITH spiritual emphasis week is established.
A national study of women in leadership among evangelical organizations is sponsored.
The Business Leaders Breakfast is created to engage the business community. The Gordon Commission is drafted to articulate the College’s vision to stretch the mind, deepen the faith and elevate the contribution.
Pictured above: The eighth cohort of Gordon Presidential Fellows, a program that offers exceptionally talented students the opportunity to develop their leadership potential through unique exposure to senior leaders, substantive work assignments and horizon-broadening educational opportunities.
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The Richard F. Gross Distinguished Lecture Series is initiated and annually brings luminaries to campus. The NEXT Summit is created for Christian educators around the world. 216 Grapevine Road is acquired and later houses La Vida’s offices.
Tuition increase falls below Gordon’s peer averages for the first time in a decade. A strategic partnership with Mackenzie Presbyterian University in Brazil is forged.
2014
2015
2016
The first four of six First-year Fellows programs are created to give focused opportunities to incoming students.
Master of Arts in Leadership program is launched.
The Shields House in Beverly Farms is donated to the College.
More than 100 evangelical leaders from North America gather on campus for a conference by the Lausanne Creation Care Network.
A grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center underwrites the creation of an anatomy and physiology cadaver lab.
The creation of the Highland Games honors Gordon’s Scottish heritage. The Council of 125 is launched, which shapes the current 20/20 Project strategic plan. A strategic partnership with Hang Seng University of Hong Kong opens new opportunities.
The Shalom Statement is developed as a blueprint for the affirmation of human dignity and the flourishing of all within the Gordon community.
The Multicultural Initiatives Office is formed to care for Gordon’s diverse student body.
Pictured above: Rebecca and Michael Lindsay with longtime friend of the College Sherry Tupper at the Celebration of Faithful Leadership in 2017. Tupper’s generous donation made possible significant improvements to facilities and food offerings in the Lane Student Center dining hall, which was renamed in her honor.
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A Defining Decade: The Lindsay Legacy
2017
2018
2019
The Global Honors Institute is launched as the institutional umbrella for Gordon’s honors offerings.
Gordon launches the Master of Science in Financial Analysis program.
The Work Ahead initiative is launched to prepare for the workplace of 2030.
The Gordon College Foundation is reinvigorated for managing the College’s real estate and business development opportunities.
A nursing program partnership with Curry College is established.
Gordon Plus gives current Gordon students the opportunity to start graduate programs early. A 12-month payment plan is introduced to ease the financial planning burden on families. The quiet phase begins for the Faith Rising comprehensive campaign—the College’s most ambitious and successful fundraising venture ever. (Read more on page 10.)
Pictured above: On October 4, 2019, in celebration of the College’s 130th anniversary, the public phase of the Faith Rising comprehensive campaign launched.
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The Career and Connection Institute is created and contributes to a rise in College-brokered internship placements by 78 percent over the last 10 years.
Gordon College celebrates its 130th anniversary with the public launch of Faith Rising and the announcement of a $75.5 million gift, the largest ever given to a Christian liberal arts college. The School of Education is started. The Gordon Global online learning initiative launches with a $10 million endowment gift. The Bay Area Initiative begins brokering internship opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area. College academic offerings are restructured to prepare for Gordon’s Next Chapter.
CONVERSATIONS WITH THE PRESIDENT—NOTABLE GUESTS Cheryl Bachelder | Former CEO, Popeye’s Michael Bontrager | Founder, Chatham Financial; Former VP, JPMorgan Chase Andy Crouch | Author, Musician, Speaker Marvin and Sharyn Ellison | President and CEO, Lowes; Executive Director, The Ellison Foundation
Ann Fudge | Former Chairman and CEO, Young & Rubicam Brands Pat Gelsinger | CEO, VMware Keith and Kristyn Getty | Modern Hymn-writers John Kerry | Former United States Secretary of State Todd Komarnicki | American Playwright and Novelist
2020 COVID-19 pandemic forces all classes to innovative Digital Live format. Student retention is the highest in several years. The School of Graduate, Professional and Extended Studies offers new learning opportunities to a broad range of students. A grant-funded program with GordonConwell Theological Seminary allows students to earn a B.A. and M.Div. in five years. Gordon announces the “Game Change” initiative and drastically reduces tuition by 33 percent.
Pictured: As part of the Work Ahead initiative, President Lindsay speaks with Rosa Whitaker, president and CEO of The Whitaker Group, president of Mercy Ships and first-ever assistant U.S. trade representative for Africa.
Gina McCarthy | Former EPA Administrator
Diego Ruiz | Vice President for Global Public Policy and Government Affairs, PepsiCo
Rich McClure | Former President, UniGroup, Inc
Myron “Mike” Ullman | Chairman, Starbucks Corporation
Michael Messenger | President and CEO, World Vision Canada Rosalind Picard | Founder and Director, Affective Computing Research Group, MIT Media Lab
15%
growth in overall enrollment
69%
Rosa Whitaker | President and CEO, The Whitaker Group N.T. Wright | Leading New Testament Scholar
ACCOLADES Princeton Review’s Best Colleges, Best Northeastern Colleges and Guide to Green Colleges U.S. News and World Report’s Best National Liberal Arts Colleges Kiplinger’s Best College Value
growth in annual overall giving
John Templeton Honor Roll for Character-Building Colleges
263%
Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges, very competitive
growth in the College’s endowment
Money’s Best Colleges
Forbes magazine’s List of America’s Top Colleges
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Friends, When this issue of STILLPOINT drops in the mail, we will have been 495 days into the public phase of the Faith Rising comprehensive campaign. Together we’ve spent more than 11,880 hours working to provide all students with an education that is affordable, adaptable and anchored in Christian community. We are shoring up the Gordon of today to serve the students of tomorrow and long into the future—and we can’t do it without you. We are now in the home stretch, but it’s not over yet! Like runners in a race, we are committed to giving our all until we cross the finish line, until the very last dollar is raised. A successful finish is now more important than ever. As Gordon prepares for a leadership transition, we want to ensure that whoever God brings to this place is equipped with a firm foundation to propel the College forward—to build on the hard work and incredible generosity of our community, and to make a Gordon experience more accessible to more students. I believe we can make this ambitious campaign the most successful one Gordon has had. Your generosity makes a difference. Together, we will finish strong and be prepared to serve future generations of Gordon students. Thank you! With sincere gratitude,
Britt Carlson Eaton Associate Vice President for Advancement Director, Faith Rising Campaign
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Faith Rising: Securing Gordon’s Future
Affordability for Students Nine new donor-funded scholarships are created or awarded: • Dyk African Student Scholarship Fund • Rwanda Student Scholarship • Karen L. Sheppard Endowed Scholarship • Joslyn Endowed Scholarship
• La Vida Servant Leadership Endowed Award in Celebration of Richard L. Obenschain • Grace Evelyn Hinshaw ’65 School of
• Tassa Rose Wilson Endowed Scholarship • Salt and Light Endowed Scholarship • Bible Translation Senior Scholarship
Education Scholarship
The Emergency Fund for Students and the CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund enable Gordon to help 30 percent of students during a financially difficult time.
Adaptable Education In partnership with Wycliffe Bible Translators,
Andrew Jumper of Mackenzie Presbyterian
adding new health professions degrees,
Gordon expands the Bible Translation
University in São Paulo, Brazil.
including a Doctor of Physical Therapy.
Program, an interdisciplinary vocational
Thanks to the Murdock Trust, the Master
In honor of long-time support from Rev. Dr.
support the work of Bible translation.
of Arts in Leadership, Classical Schools
Charles “Chip” Falcone ’95 and Dr. Aimee
becomes the first distinctive graduate
Falcone ’99, Gordon unveils the renaming
Dr. Kate DeMello is hired as director of
leadership degree for future administrators
of the Falcone Center for Teaching
digital learning and plays an instrumental
for classical Christian schools.
and Learning.
Gordon’s adult education program hires
The Loring-Phillips Endowed Professorship
training program that equips students to
role in pivoting classes to a digital format. The inaugural Margaret C. Wright Memorial
Dr. Ivan L. Filby as its founding executive
in History is created thanks to a generous
Alumni Award is awarded to Jessica
director. He will administer the four new fully
gift from the Loring family, which
(Harper) Cochran ’18, an elementary teacher
online bachelor’s programs for adult learners.
complements the existing Stephen Phillips
at Pittsburg Urban Christian School. The award annually provides a Gordon graduate who teaches among an underserved population a $10,000 award for themselves and $10,000 for their school. The Master of Arts in Leadership, Christian Education is launched as a joint program with Centro Presbiteriano De Pós-Graduaçao
With a grant from the Kern Family Foundation, Gordon partners with GordonConwell Theological Seminary to offer an
Chair of History to fully fund this faculty position, held by Dr. Jennifer HeveloneHarper ’92.
accelerated B.A./M.Div., shaving two years
Thanks to funding by friend of the College
off the standard total completion time.
Sherry Tupper, Gordon’s Writing Center is
The Graduate, Professional and Extended Studies task force is developed to explore
renamed in her honor and vital renovations begin on the Academic Support Center.
Anchored Christian Community Gordon launches another learning
for students from all majors to experience
character formation and developing servant-
opportunity to take place outside of the
innovation in corporations, nonprofits
leadership skills.
classroom through the Bay Area Project.
and churches.
This three-year initiative provides options for a semester-long internship, career expeditions and an intensive summer program for Gordon students in San
Athletics Rising: To enhance the experience
The La Vida Center for Outdoor Education
and deepen the team community for
and Leadership begins building a new
student-athletes, renovations to Bennett
high challenge course that will allow for
Center gymnasium are completed thanks
Francisco’s Bay Area.
expanded program offerings and reduce
to generous funding by the Kanas family.
maintenance costs for the next 20 years.
Construction on a press box begins at
The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership
This new course will provide opportunities
Brigham Athletic Complex, and Gordon
launches the Accelerator Fund, providing
for cultivating community, catalyzing
Athletics unveils fresh updates to the lion
immersion trips and new venture workshops
rampant logo.
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LA VIDA TURNS 50
CELEB
RANSF S OF L A VIDA ORMAT ION ON TH E TRA IL RATING 5
0 YEAR
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OPENING WIDE THE DOOR TO THE
GREAT OUTDOOR 50 YEARS OF LA VIDA: The rugged, grassroots efforts that teetered on the brink of failure, and came back to transform thousands of lives There are a few ways to build a trail. One option involves trail designers, careful plans and construction. Another may start with similarly careful plans but divert over time; “social trails,” as they’re called, are created gradually as hikers step around a puddle or a downed tree. Sometimes they’re simply shortcuts. Then there’s the bushwhack—an opportunity to leave the traditional trail and forge your own using only a map and compass. This most rugged option requires grit, determination and a clear vision. And that’s how La Vida was born. A few trailblazers with a passion for the power of faith-based experiential wilderness education muscled their way through uncharted territory, enduring all the scrapes, scars and victories that come with pioneering new pathways.
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LA VIDA TURNS 50
In the mid 1960s, Dean Borgman, then on staff with Young Life—a nondenominational ministry to high school students—was working with the followers of Malcolm X after he had been assassinated. “They had some very radical ideas about Black youth and the Black youth crisis,” Borgman says. “They thought these young African Americans—some of their parents had come from the South—were suddenly thrust into urban living. And they were very strong, as we had these late-night conversations, about getting Black youth back to the land and to the sea.” In response, Borgman, along with his colleague Bill Milliken and their Young Life trainees working on the Lower East Side of New York City, developed what Borgman called an “alternative plan for camping—a wilderness adventure type of camping, although we knew very little about it at that time.” The trainees, called the Lilly White Boys because they were funded by the Lilly Foundation, had attended an Outward Bound experience in Colorado, which fueled the inspiration for a wilderness experience. Using Young Life’s Saranac Lake, New York, campground as base camp, the inaugural 15day La Vida expedition set out in the summer of 1970 with 16 participants from Harlem, a German Shepherd and two leaders: Colorado Springs Young Life staffers George Sheffer Jr. and Jim Koontz, who had also worked for Outward Bound in Colorado. Recent college graduates and fellow Young Life staffers Steve Oliver and Tuck Knupp also joined to catch the vision for this new camping ministry. On this very first trip, the solo experience and 10-mile run were born. Legend has it that La Vida’s name was, too. The Harlem group included several Puerto Rican youth, who under the tapestry of stars and quiet crackle of the fire in the Adirondacks concluded, “Eso es la vida”—this is the life. Borgman’s version differs a bit, as he recalls one of the Hispanic Young Life leaders, Ricky, shouting the name in response to the original proposal for alternative camping. Either way, La Vida stuck. In time, its original vision took a “social trail” deviation, if you will. Its bent as an experience specifically for youth in city areas shifted as Young Life began to align what they called their “creative camping options”— including La Vida and similar ones in North Carolina, Colorado and British Colombia—into
follow-up discipleship experiences for participants of the traditional Young Life camps.
By that point, Borgman had moved on to teach at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and establish a Young Life training program there (though he remained on the La Vida board), and others entered the La Vida scene. Oliver along with Scott Dimock, an outdoor enthusiast and Young Life staffer based in Washington, D.C., thought La Vida could benefit from the help of their friend, Colorado Outward Bound School instructor and former Army Ranger Dr. James Kielsmeier. “The Young Life work in the city at the time and my work in Outward Bound clicked around the fact that we were very keen on the wilderness experience being a time for bringing [together] young people of different races and cultures from a social justice perspective,” says Kielsmeier. The potential for creating a “shared meeting ground in the neutral territory of the outdoors,” as Kielsmeier described it, combined with a memorable adventure and lasting discipleship experience united this otherwise disparate group of trailblazers. By the mid-70s, Kielsmeier and Dimock were infusing La Vida with necessary staff development and wilderness program skills, elevating the discipleship component and raising money to expand the gear supply. They redefined the role of trip leaders, dubbing them “sherpas,” and introduced the two prongs of mountain patrols and canoe patrols. Around this time, a punchy seminarian from Virginia by the name of Richard Obenschain was introduced to the program through Borgman’s Young Life training program at Gordon-Conwell. Obenschain had been working for the Scotsman Adventure School, which became Project Interface at Gordon College, and was eager to play a role in the strengthening of La Vida. In one of Kielsmeier and Obenschain’s first shared endeavors, the pair led minimum-security prisoners on adventure days, including ropes course and group activities. When Kielsmeier pitched the idea to the prison superintendent
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in Ray Brook, New York, he says the superintendent gave him one rule—“You can’t use a map and compass; you can’t teach the inmates how to escape”—and then granted him permission. “The reason I want you to do this,” Kielsmeier recalls the formidable superintendent saying from behind his colossal wooden desk, “is because you’re Christians . . . Over half the people who leave this place on release are going to come back and be readmitted. But I know for a fact that half who leave here with a faith grounding, with a faith base, will never come back.” La Vida’s current executive director, Abigail Stroven, remembers the late Obenschain retelling the experience of guiding the prisoners over “The Wall,” an activity wherein the group works together to scale a 12-foot structure. In retrospect, he would say, “I am not sure we were supposed to be teaching them how to do that, but the guards were with us, and they didn’t say anything.” The experiment was a success, and it was repeated multiple times. As a thank-you, the prisoners built a bridge over a swamp to connect the Young Life Saranac Lake camp to its nearby ropes course and dedicated it to La Vida.
By 1980, however, “Young Life had carried it as far as they were going to be able to carry it from an administrative standpoint. We had really bolstered it in terms of its program side, but on the administrative side . . . it was cumbersome,” says Kielsmeier. Young Life shut down La Vida. But Kielsmeier, Dimock and Obenschain banded together, motivated by their belief in the transformative power of both wilderness experiences and the gospel, and their drive to make such experiences accessible to all. They knew the program could—in fact, had to—stay afloat. At Obenschain’s suggestion, they explored the idea of bringing the program to Gordon to join forces with Project Interface. After two years of an uncertain future, La Vida finally found 16 STILLPOINT | SPRING 2021
a home. But the fight to survive wasn’t over. For the next several years it would endure a steady uphill battle to be fully adopted by the College—eventually earning a spot in the Core Curriculum with the addition of Discovery and Concepts of Wellness course options, and adding GORP (now Adventure Pursuits) to serve churches and other groups. Even as La Vida was getting its sea legs at Gordon, the program continued to welcome all into the wilderness. In the mid-80s, Dr. Diana Ventura ’88, a physical education student with cerebral palsy, spearheaded the idea for an expedition for students with disabilities. At that point, La Vida was a requirement for physical education students but not yet for all students. She could have received a waiver, but “I wanted the gift of [La Vida],” she says. “I saw it as a way to be out in nature and to respond to a challenge that was presented before me.” So, Ventura took it upon herself to convince four fellow students with disabilities to join her, along with six ablebodied students, on a canoe patrol. “We had the full La Vida experience,” including solos, says Ventura. She crawled up the 2,876-foot Mount Jo on hands and knees; Obenschain scaled the rock climb at Owl’s Head with one of the participants strapped to his back. “My whole life is a walk in faith that bucks against the idea that what we should do with people with disabilities or brokenness is to just throw them away,” says Ventura, who went on to serve as a sherpa for another expedition for a group with disabilities. Her ambition laid the groundwork for future trips, including an ongoing partnership with Waypoint Adventure, an organization that provides outdoor adventure opportunities for people with disabilities. Two years later, another unconventional group set out: an allwomen’s patrol. Eight participants, at least five of whom were over the age of 50 (including Obenschain’s mother-in-law), spent eight days canoeing on the Adirondack ponds. They, too, had the full La Vida experience—ropes course, rock climb, day hike and solo.
LA VIDA TURNS 50
Sherpa Pam (Jelliffe) Mulvihill ’85—who co-led the trip with Obenschain’s wife, Katherine—remembers a park ranger stumbling upon the group during his regular rounds. Somewhat befuddled at seeing 50- and 60-yearold women scaling a rock face, she says, “He was amazed that women would do that, would choose to do that.” But as Mulvihill recounted at a recent La Vida “Black Fly” storytelling event, “In the end, most of [the women] loved how the trip stretched and challenged them way beyond their comfort zone. It turned out to be the ultimate commitment move for some of them.”
By year 20, La Vida had a home, a dedicated following and a lot of potential. But it lacked the sophistication it would need to expand further. “When I came back in ’91, I knew we needed to get a property,” recalls Eric Wilder ’85, who was a student when La Vida first came to Gordon and then returned to serve on staff for 14 years. La Vida had been renting property on Saranac Lake, and Wilder recounts, “The staff would live in MASH tents all summer long . . . the groups would meet in a parking lot, and La Vida would just start.” The infamous celebration dinner of hamburgers and hot dogs at the end of an expedition happened under a tarp in the middle of the woods. “The next morning, you’d get up and start the 10-mile run and head back,” he says. “You didn’t see civilization until you got home . . . Once we got the property, things changed.” Wilder scoured real estate listings, eventually locating a parcel of land, the former Camp Triangle, just 15 miles down the road from Young Life’s property. He dubbed it “Camp Potential.” When La Vida acquired that 74-acre property with 15 buildings in Lake Clear, New York, in 1995, it was a turning point. Now there was a true home base—an official starting and ending point, housing for staff, storage for gear, bathrooms and (importantly) a kitchen for the celebration dinner. Capacity and operations increased considerably. With the base camp property came more responsibility— heightened regulations, licensing from the Department of Health, risk management—all of which Nate Hausman ’00, director of outdoor education, has helped navigate in his 21 years directing expeditions. As a student, Hausman was part of the second trip group to use base camp, which at the time was only partially usable because of trash and animal infestation.
Top on the list of more recent challenges that Hausman has navigated: cell phones. “Now that’s so much of the focus for people,” he says. “Parents want to know, ‘How can I get a hold of them? What happens if something goes wrong? Can they bring their phone with them?’” La Vida holds fast to its principle of unplugging in the wilderness but faces more resistance as reliance on technology grows.
La Vida’s expansion over the second half of its life involved opening a Rock Gym in Gordon’s Bennett Center and an indoor Activity and Training Center at the Brigham Athletic Complex, launching Adventure Camp for middle- and high-school students, and adopting the Compass program for high school students with strong leadership potential (which later launched as its own nonprofit). La Vida donned a fuller name (the La Vida Center for Outdoor Education and Leadership), relocated offices a few times and expanded its staff. It also helped create or replicate its programs in Romania, Ecuador, Kenya, China and South Africa. Participation grew fivefold, now with nearly 5,000 individuals each year experiencing life-changing transformation—and in turn impacting the lives of those around them. Through the College’s Faith Rising campaign, the next phase of growth for La Vida will open the door to the outdoors a little wider by pursuing even more opportunities to make the wilderness accessible to all. In the summer of 2019, harkening back to its early days, La Vida piloted new partnerships with two Boston-area organizations to again bring urban youth to the wilderness. Sixteen youth spent 10 days in the Adirondacks—many sleeping and cooking outside for the very first time—learning the importance of daily devotionals, perseverance and working as a team to overcome challenges. Why? To create, as Kielsmeier aptly put it, that “shared meeting ground in the neutral territory of the outdoors”— where survival and success are built not on wealth, status or ability, but on the tenets of community, faith and character.
Through the Faith Rising comprehensive campaign, La Vida is seeking to propel the Center forward as the premier institute of outdoor experiential education developing servant-leaders who are equipped to transform their communities worldwide. Give today: www.gordon.edu/lavida/faithrising
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TRAIL MARKERS DEFINING MOMENTS IN THE LIFE OF LA VIDA 1990s
1977 Rich Obenschain, joins the La Vida staff while studying at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
1970s 1970 The first 15-day wilderness expedition sets out from Saranac Lake in Upstate New York, under Young Life and led by George Sheffer Jr. and Jim Koontz. The phrase “la vida”—the life—takes root. Early ’70s La Vida becomes a follow-up discipleship experience for Young Life campers. Mid ’70s Jim Kielsmeier and Scott Dimock increase La Vida’s gear resources, discipleship component, staff training and more. Two expedition options are established—a mountain patrol and a canoe patrol.
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1978 Gordon College launches Project Interface, originally named Scotsman Adventure School and run by Obenschain.
1980s 1980 La Vida’s direct involvement with Young Life ends. A small group bands together to keep La Vida alive until it can earn nonprofit status or become adopted by another organization. 1982 Gordon officially adopts La Vida as an auxiliary program, merging resources with Project Interface. 1985–86 Gordon becomes home to La Vida programs, and Project Interface is included under its umbrella. Offerings begin expanding
to include experiences for church groups, individuals with physical challenges, corporate clients, women, father–child pairs and couples in ministry. 1986 La Vida becomes part of Gordon’s Core Curriculum requirement. Project Interface becomes the Discovery course, and Concepts of Wellness is developed. 1985 The first accessible La Vida expedition and first women’s patrol set out. 1987 La Vida begins renting cabins in the Saranac Lake area, and also runs programs in New Hampshire. 1988 Gordon Outdoor Recreation Project (GORP) is created. The original ropes challenge course (located behind Physical Plant on Gordon’s campus) moves to a new location close to Coy Pond in the Gordon Woods, and short outings to local parks and nature preserves are developed.
1995 La Vida purchases 74 acres and 15 buildings to serve as base camp in Lake Clear, New York. 1996 The Rock Gym is built at Gordon’s Bennett Center. 1997 La Vida develops Adventure Camp for 11- to 16-year-old participants. 1999 The John Templeton Foundation honors La Vida with national recognition as an exemplary program that fosters character development.
2000s 2000 Programs become united in one department: La Vida Center for Outdoor Education and Leadership, directed by Obenschain. 2004 La Vida moves to Conrad Hall, gaining offices, a kitchen, housing and meeting space.
LA VIDA TURNS 50
YOUR MINI LA VIDA JOURNAL
2010s
A bedrock of the La Vida and Discovery experiences is the journal: an invitation to self-reflection, honesty and growth. Here’s a chance to live (or re-live) a slice of that experience, with a guided journal prompt for whatever your current adventure holds.
2011 GORP’s name changes to Adventure Pursuits.
COMMITMENT MOVE
2014 Construction for a new indoor Activity and Training Center is completed, giving La Vida indoor space for inclement weather. The Center’s offices move to 216 Grapevine Road. 2015 Jennifer Jukanovich ’94 initiates writing a grant through the Lilly Endowment that starts the Theology Matters, Equip and Summit programs. 2016 The Compass program is adopted from GordonConwell Theological Seminary and later spins off as its own nonprofit. Gordon College receives a Lilly Grant to fund Equip.
In rock climbing there is a technical term called a “commitment move.” Often, it’s the crux move of the climb. Handholds seem scarce and footholds appear nonexistent. The tendency is to “bogart”—to freeze, to panic, to wait until exhaustion causes you, the climber, to quit the climb. You have a rope around you that will keep you from ever falling more than a few inches. But still, your first feeling is to bogart. On La Vida, the staff will constantly encourage the climber to “go for it.” “Don’t bogart! Give it your best shot!” And on a commitment move, you’ve either got to go for it or come off the climb. 01. What’s your commitment move these days?
02. On a scale of 1–10, how committed are you to following and trusting Jesus in any situation? What would it take to move further toward 10?
2017 La Vida strategically restructures its staff, which includes naming Abigail Stroven as senior director. 2019 Gordon College mourns the loss of Obenschain on May 22. Stroven becomes executive director.
03. Make a list of your fears that hinder you from committing to God. Are there any that you can surrender to God?
2020 La Vida celebrates its 50th anniversary virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
SCRIPTURE READING Look for an example of a commitment move when Peter is invited to walk on water in Matthew 14:22–36. Read further in Mark 4:35–41 to see how the disciples handled a fearful situation. SPRING 2021 | STILLPOINT 19
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A RICH LIFE, A LASTING LEGACY A Tribute to Richard Lee Obenschain April 22, 1950–May 22, 2019
For many, the words “hold fast” have become synonymous with the name “Rich Obenschain,” the pioneer and practical joker who made possible La Vida’s move to Gordon College. They’re words now written on the hearts (and birch bark scraps) of the thousands of young people whose lives have been impacted by the inimitable Rich. “After the children of Israel had completed the longest camping trip ever recorded and were ready to go into the promised land,” Rich would recite to countless Discovery course and La Vida expedition participants, “Joshua gave them this charge:” Hold fast to your God (Joshua 23:8). Rich’s wife, Katherine, remembers the time that verse took hold of him. Their pastor at the time had encouraged everyone to read through the Old Testament, and “he came across the ‘hold fast’ passage in Joshua and he just latched onto that . . . and then he talked about it for the next seven years and had it put on t-shirts . . . but that’s just him.” The couple met at Park Street Church in Boston in October of 1985 at a Halloween party, where Rich was, fittingly, dressed as a lumberjack. He had completed his undergraduate studies at Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina, earned his M.Div. at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and successfully moved the La Vida program to Gordon College at that point.
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“When I met Rich,” Katherine remembers, “I very quickly understood that this is what a calling looks like. La Vida was never a job for him. It was his lifeblood. It is what he breathed . . . and he recognized how blessed he was to do what he loved for so many years.” Rich’s love for the outdoors was part of his DNA. “From an early age,” he once wrote, “I was hard-wired for outdoor adventure. I grew up about 100 yards outside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee—spent my days until I was 13 swinging from grapevines, playing in the creeks near our home and chasing black bears around the neighborhood in ways that would make the SPCA’s blood boil.” After moving to Washington, D.C., Rich yearned for “my beloved woods,” returning to them when he could. In college, he continued, “I loved taking high school kids down white-water rivers, back packing, rock climbing and sometime scaring the stew out of them in the middle of the night.” As the Gordon community continues to mourn the loss of such an influential life, we “take hold of the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19) and remember with gratitude a man who, as his wife put it, was “so bold in his faith and so faithful to his calling.”
LA VIDA TURNS 50
“It wasn’t always easy or comfortable to work for and with someone who could so clearly see a better version of myself, but I know that I would not be the person I am today had I not met Rich.” —Kate McMillan
“Rich cared for each person who came in and out of his life. He looked at young people and did not see the fear or the insecurities that others might. Instead, he instilled a boldness in us that assured that we had something meaningful to contribute to the world.” —Taylor Bradford ’19
“Rich just didn’t pursue God, he pursued people . . . He would see potential—potential in the broken and fearful, calling them—me—to pursue and trust Christ. He often had more confidence in these oft overlooked leaders than they had in themselves. Rich’s confidence was based on the reality that God is ever-present and uses common vessels to accomplish His extraordinary purposes.” —Eric Wilder ’85 “He taught me what it means to live wholeheartedly for God. He always encouraged me to try new things, and he believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Rich made me the leader that I am today. I am profoundly grateful for his influence on my life. Our loss is great, but our hope is deep.” —Abby Stroven “In addition to being caring and godly, Rich was wise, silly and humble—able to switch from a poignant and spiritually deep moment into a side-splitting story the next. He was a man who has deeply impacted my life and the lives of thousands across the globe.” —Michael Hill “Without the passion, beliefs and crazy ideas of Rich, thousands of us would never know the wonderful experiences and challenges of a La Vida expedition.” —Glen Landry ’99 “Rich was a hands-on servant leader who, in the name of Jesus, walked every trail, paddled every rapid and climbed every rock face and tree before he asked others to do the same.”—Jim Kielsmeier
“Rich taught me not only how to build ropes courses, but why we build them. His passion for sharing the outdoors was exceeded only by his desire to share the gospel and encourage others to grow deeper in their relationship with the Lord.” —Matt Loy ’07
“Rich had our Lord’s patience and persistence in growing La Vida. Rich exuded the spirit of that carpenter from Nazareth. It became a lifechanging spirit to so many young lives and contagious to all manner of leaders.” —Dean Borgman SPRING 2021 | STILLPOINT 21
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SHERPA AND PARTICIPANT STORIES REDEFINING SUCCESS
People, Presence and Prayer Jim Beville ’99 Financial Advisor, Main Street Financial Solutions LLC
Wood crackles and smoke snakes through camp in a cool nighttime breeze. Warmth glows across faces and stars cast an infinite speckled net in the sky above. Somewhere around a campfire, individuals become a united team. This is 1999 graduate Jim Beville’s favorite moment on a La Vida expedition. One by one as life stories are shared after a long day of hiking, layers are pulled back and vulnerable souls begin to peek through the cracks in walls constructed by histories of unique experiences. “There is a high level of trust when people come together, and a greater opportunity for openness and honesty,” says Beville. “It creates a deeper, more meaningful connection, and there’s a certain richness that I think is fairly unique to La Vida.” That distinct La Vida je ne sais quois, he vividly recalls, stems from the man who made La Vida his life, Rich Obenschain: “His passion for making a significant difference in people’s lives was truly contagious and incredible,” says Beville. As a student, Beville, like so many others, was immediately drawn to the charismatic and kindhearted leader, taking any and every opportunity
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to work alongside him (including helping Obenschain build the Bennett Center Rock Gym that still stands today). “It’s amazing,” says Beville, “when we put others’ needs and desires ahead of our own the impact it has and the trust that it builds.” Beville’s South Hamilton office where he works as a financial advisor is indoors, and he doesn’t bond with clients over a fire. But he does aim to facilitate the same spirit of warmth. “My greatest satisfaction has always come from adding value to people’s lives,” he says. “I have found that the better I understand one’s values and priorities the better advice I am able to give and the greater the fulfillment I feel.”
LA VIDA TURNS 50
Secret La Vida Recipes Unveiled COMMITMENT MOVE
Finding Faith Out on a Limb Liz (Heeren Hurley) Williams ’84 First Responder Chaplain
“The reality of La Vida begins on the last day,” says Liz (Heeren Hurley) Williams ’84. During that final Discovery class, when students internalize their quad semester spent in the outdoors, they emerge more in tune with their own strengths and with what God asks of them. A former Discovery facilitator of 25 years, Williams identifies those steps forward as “commitment moves”—opportunities to prayerfully go out on a limb. In Discovery, an important exercise is physically practicing commitment (literally going out on a limb on the ropes course or leaning back to rappel down a rock wall). In doing so, students gain confidence for the bigger—perhaps situational or spiritual—commitment moves ahead of them. In Williams’ own life, a memorable commitment move was becoming a chaplain for first responders in Molalla, Oregon. She and her husband, Nick, had made plans to travel the country and serve disaster relief organizations (the pair met in New Orleans supporting recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina in 2005). They had even sold their home and moved into a fifth wheel camper. But God had other plans. When the couple was invited to serve the local police and fire departments as chaplains, they parked their camper and re-established roots in Molalla. Now in this unexpected role, Williams (along with their dog, Baxter, a valued guest at the stations) provides a different sort of disaster relief as she comes alongside people who have experienced trauma. “Even though I feel inadequate at times, God is using us,” she says. “My husband and I both are called to serve this population and bring his presence.” Williams often recalls “Two Fish and Five Barley Loaves,” a poetic retelling of the feeding of the 5,000. “That’s often my prayer—that God would just use what little bit I have to offer,” she says. Like she learned on the ropes course and in the wilderness, “The Lord is using every moment. Trials and tribulations produce character and maturity, and the end of one thing is the beginning of something new.”
GORP Contrary to popular belief, GORP didn’t start out as an acronym for “granola, oats, raisins, peanuts” or “good ol’ raisins and peanuts.” It’s an old English verb that means “to eat greedily” (as if we needed encouragement!). And it’s a backpacking staple that La Vida has down to a science. With these massive proportions— intended to outfit one La Vida patrol before their 12-day expedition—your batch is sure to last you a long time and keep hunger at bay. In following with GORP-etiquette, Nate Hausman advises against the “mining of favorite pieces, M&Ms of course being high on that list.” If they’re your favorite, simply save them for last (or maybe add a few extras to your batch). 1 batch = 57 cups (which fit nicely into 3 gallon-sized zip lock bags) 1 bag of Cheerios or other cereal 1 large can of salted peanuts 1 large can of dry roasted peanuts 2 ¼ lbs. of raisins 1 large bag of M&M’S®
FREAKO BUTTER Freako Butter has been in La Vida bear bags since the 90s. Its contents have never been revealed—until now. Although exact quantities will remain a mystery, the ingredients for Freako Butter are no longer a secret. It’s up to you to find the perfect balance between chocolatey M&M’S®, powdered milk, peanut butter and honey. Want to know if your batch is up to snuff? See if you can convince Nate Hausman to give yours a try. He’s the official taste tester for every batch up at base camp. Hausman recommends pairing Freako Butter with Stone Ground Wheat Thins, if you want to relive (or retaste) your days on the trail.
SPRING 2021 | STILLPOINT 23
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BE HERE NOW
The Tools to Grow Monika Pfistner ’13 Owner, Treeline | hellotreeline.com
As Monika Pfistner ’13 closes her eyes and takes in the warm sunlight, she is filled with invigorating inspiration. Out in the sanctuary of her Portland, Maine, front yard, creativity pours onto paper. Pfistner begins sketching—a modern floral arrangement, a minimalist pair of earrings, a unique cheese knife—all infused with the natural aesthetic of her surroundings. The owner of Treeline, a wood and floral design business, feels beckoned outdoors to find originality. “To be able to step back is really where my creativity can grow and thrive,” she says. Each piece wears its own natural trademarks—“a flower has been growing in one direction and twists one way or knots in the wood dictate what shapes are going to come out of it.” Beyond a bandsaw and drill press, one of Pfistner’s most important tools is running, a practice she picked up as a La Vida participant and sherpa. On those infamous 10 miles, students reflect on their trip and consider lessons to bring home. Even
Finding the Wilderness Within Wilderness experiences teach us to see the world anew. But even when the Adirondacks and White Mountains seem far away, wonder comes from within. Here’s how to tap into it: Keep a gratitude journal
Wonder is born out of admiration. Every day, write three unique things you’re grateful for in a journal, making sure not to repeat something you’ve written before.
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a decade after her first La Vida expedition, Pfistner follows the same mental route when she winds along trails on a run, she says, “to pause, to be unplugged, to reflect, to debrief a big experience and to move forward into new things.” Two summers ago, that “new thing” involved a big adventure and an extended escape from the daily grind. Pfistner and her husband, Daniel ’13, put their backpacking skills to use for a journey about 2,190 miles longer than the La Vida run—the Appalachian Trail. The 100-day trek was a leap of faith for the couple, who traded in comfort for a challenge that brought clarity and a healthy reminder to slow down. “It’s so important to step back from our increasingly digital age and fast-paced environments,” says Pfistner, “to be in creation, being present, celebrating God’s presence and stepping outside of our comfort zones in order to get there. At La Vida’s core, those are the tools to grow in your personal and spiritual life.”
Quickly, you’ll realize you’ll never run out of things to write down, even on hard days. Take long walks without headphones
Next time you go for a long walk by yourself, leave the headphones at home and look for things you’ve never seen before—like the wreath of forsythia on your neighbor’s front door or an orange cat sunbathing on a windowsill. Do something unexpected
New experiences draw us into the present and create an environment that
allows us to grow. So, try something new. Learn to ballroom dance. Go to an interfaith event. Befriend someone of a different generation. Become pen pals with someone who is incarcerated. Do a technology fast. Slow time down with a good book
Put some of the hours you spend watching TV and checking social media into reading a good book. Not only does reading have the effect of slowing down time, it also transports you to another world and into another person’s head for a change.
LA VIDA TURNS 50
What to Pack for Your Next Adventure CHALLENGE BY CHOICE
Navid Mahooti ’96, M.D., M.P.H.
Your next adventure may be a physical journey, a new milestone or a change in lifestyle or community. Whatever it may be, you aren’t starting this adventure empty handed, especially when you’re outfitted with these six virtues.
Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care
FLEXIBILITY
A FRAME for Living Well
Team Physician, Gordon College Athletics
They say when a silversmith sees his reflection in his handiwork, that’s when he knows the piece is refined and pure. Two weeks on a La Vida expedition are not unlike a refining fire for a traveler, who encounters transformational challenges and circumstances: Can I make it through fasting? How can I carry this 50-pound pack up a mountain? What is God teaching me? How do I respect my peers and the nature around us? Like silver, the traveler emerges from the fire stronger, shaped by the experience. For Dr. Navid Mahooti ’96, two weeks of La Vida’s refining fire opened his mind to the importance of a healthy lifestyle. It’s a concept the sports medicine and wellness specialist encapsulates with the acronym FRAME—Food, Rest, Activity, Meaning, Environment. “My passion is helping people to live better, fuller lives,” says Mahooti. That means encouraging patients to get outdoors, eat well and make healthy lifestyle goals. “All five components tie into the undergirding pillars of wellness,” he says. “If one or more of these pillars are neglected or out of balance, it can affect our sense of well-being, and even manifest as an acute or chronic illness.” As patients describes their concerns, Mahooti listens carefully with a goal not just to treat symptoms but to uncover the root of the problem and, when appropriate, incorporate FRAME into the treatment plan. The elements are primarily preventive but have the potential to reverse physical ailments like joint pain, high blood pressure and even type 2 diabetes. For Mahooti, healthy habits include fasting, omitting processed foods, resting by journaling (a habit picked up from La Vida), exercising, feeding his spiritual life and being involved in mentoring relationships. The key to FRAME is not just two weeks of discipline—but an entire lifestyle. In other words, less of a refining fire and more of an ever-present ember. “A person who thoughtfully contemplates and implements the concepts of FRAME,” says Mahooti, “will likely be better equipped to fulfill their calling and purpose in life.”
Flexibility stems from willingness to change, to compromise, to bend easily without breaking. Adventures of any kind are more enjoyable when you let go of the need to be in control and the need to be right. COURAGE There comes a time in every adventure when you have to confront the things you fear—when you have to choose between what’s right and what’s easy. You are courageous when you are scared but take action anyway. ENDURANCE Endurance is the ability to exert oneself for a long period of time, even when the end isn’t in sight. It’s not a question of how close you are to finishing, but an affirmation of what you have to gain when the struggle is over. TRUST In a new situation, when you lack control or know-how or strong communal ties, it’s easy to drop into a state of self-sufficiency. You may feel especially vulnerable, and yet this is the time when you need people the most. HONESTY Honesty is the bedrock of healthy relationships, romantic and platonic. It means you don’t hide your emotions from yourself or from others, and that you get comfortable with constructive criticism. HOPE Hope is a desire for something to happen. It is a lens that helps you imagine each next step toward redemption. It teaches you to see opportunity where others see failure.
SPRING 2021 | STILLPOINT 25
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INTO THE WOODS
“And I know things now, Many valuable things, That I hadn’t known before: Isn’t it nice to know a lot! And a little bit not . . .”
—Little Red Riding Hood from Into the Woods
The woods, in classic fairytales, are places of witches, wolves and spiders. They’re where people encounter what they fear most. What begins as a physical journey soon becomes a psychological—some might say spiritual—one in which a character must choose courage over cowardice. Collectively, in over 1,000 pages of independent research, these scholars have proven what we have known for years intuitively: that no one—not Little Red Riding Hood, not Frodo Baggins, not even a first-year college student—leaves the woods unchanged. From 1996 until present day, a group of independent researchers have put outdoor orientation programs (OOPs), aimed at helping first-year students transition to college, to the test. En masse, they interviewed 36 trip leaders and 1,581 participants (many representing La Vida and Discovery) to see not only if they had changed, but to determine how.
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LA VIDA TURNS 50
Meet the Researchers
Her investigations into the benefits of
Dr. Paul Stonehouse The Aristotelian Alpinist
dissertation. Currently, she is working
Stonehouse is a suburbanite whose love of nature can be traced back to family vacations at lakeside cottages, years of cross country running, summers planting trees in remote areas of British Columbia (to pay for college) and his honeymoon—in which he hiked the entire Appalachian Trail with his wife, Amanda. Since Stonehouse investigated the relationship between character growth and outdoor adventure education as part of his doctoral dissertation, he’s joined the ranks of the “Adirondack 46-ers,” having summited all 46 high peaks.
Dr. David Starbuck The Egalitarian Explorer Before Starbuck became a scholar and a healthcare professional, he was first a dirt-bike instructor who led tourists through the rough terrain of the Sahara Desert and Atlas Mountains of Morocco, director of Gordon’s Wilderness Immersion and Leadership Development (W.I.L.D.) semester and a college professor who taught more than 20 outdoor education courses. He led his first outdoor orientation trip as a graduate student. That’s when he realized that being a good leader was less about charm and heroism and more about “sharing power, responsibility and ownership of a task with others.”
Dr. Cay Anderson-Hanley ’88 The Sherpa-turned-Scientist In the 80s, Anderson-Hanley met her husband on a Gordon ropes course. As a La Vida sherpa and participant, she recalls adventures like spending a night in a canoe, “sleeping in a communal flotilla, floating under the universe of stars.” These outdoor experiences at Gordon laid the foundation for her academic career.
La Vida and Discovery began with her to publish a study she co-authored with the late Rich Obenschain and others, which examines the advantages of disconnecting from electronics and social media during La Vida expeditions. (Spoiler alert: participants experienced increased resilience and spiritual well-being.)
Dr. Raelyn Viti The Pathfinding Professor Viti is a college professor who takes experiential learning to a whole new level. To give her students hands-on experience in wilderness medicine, she partners with local fire, rescue and police departments to simulate many of the real rescue scenarios her students may encounter after graduation. For over 20 years, she has taught Wilderness First and First Responder certification classes and has even provided medical care to mountaineers in the Ecuadorian Andes. To the study of outdoor orientation programs, she brings 21 years of experience leading wilderness expeditions across the U.S. and creating outdoor educational experiences for K–12 students.
Dr. Wally J. Rude Committed Conservationist and College Administrator Rude worked as a forester for Weyerhaeuser for 11 years before he started his career in student development. At Weyerhaeuser, he ensured that the lumber company never cut down more trees than they planted, and Rude organized for millions of seedlings to be sowed every year. He also led the Junior Forest Ranger Program based in Edmonton, Alberta, where he helped train high school students in wildfire management, wildlife research, trail building, stream assessments and forest conservation.
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Meet the study subjects
TRIP LEADERS (WE’RE LOOKING AT YOU, SHERPAS)
Trip leaders and participants are changed by outdoor orientation programs, like La Vida and Discovery, in similar ways. But trip leaders spend more time in the woods and carry more responsibility and, thus, learn unique lessons—so we’ll start with those first.
WHO THEY ARE The guides responsible for leading 12-day Adirondack expeditions with La Vida throughout the summer are called “sherpas,” which is synonymous with “mountain guide.” The word is actually the name of an ethnic group in Nepal that lives near the Himalayas and has gained an international reputation for their mastery of Earth’s highest peaks. At La Vida, “sherpas” are responsible for the safety and spiritual growth of the college students in their care. As such, they receive wilderness medical training and are often the primary health responder in emergency situations that arise while trekking in the backcountry. HOW THEY CHANGED As a Ph.D. student in the field of outdoor education, Dr. David Starbuck wondered how first-time trip leaders in OOPs perceived the value and impact of their leadership role. His investigation is nearly 200 pages long and was the first academic study to focus solely on trip leaders (and not participants). Here’s what he found:
There are 191 confirmed OOPs operating at colleges and universities in North America. Only 10 percent of all colleges and universities in North America offer an outdoor orientation program to their students.
La Vida Expeditions 190 waking hours 7 hours of ropes course activities 12 days in the woods
Discovery Courses 55 waking hours 21 hours of ropes course activities 49 trips into the woods
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Knowing when to speak and when to listen
After working as a trip leader for an OOP, students reported to Starbuck that in being responsible for initiating and guiding important conversations, they learned how to exercise their voices appropriately. Quiet leaders who naturally refrained from sharing their own ideas felt compelled to speak up. Even months later when they were well into their fall semester, they noticed that they were more likely to raise their hand in class, ask their professor for help and express their personal opinions in class, even when that meant disagreeing with someone. Vocal leaders who don’t hesitate to give advice or voice their own opinions learned to exercise restraint and, instead, learned the importance of listening to others. More ease in addressing conflict and controlling emotions
In a wilderness context, confrontation is inescapable. There are no doors to shut. And it’s impossible to ignore the people you depend on for food, safety, companionship and your sense of direction. Because of this, trip leaders
learned to address conflict immediately. To foster a healthy relationship with their co-leaders, they had to own up to their mistakes and learn to appreciate different leadership styles (and not categorize them as personal faults). It was also important for trip leaders to make their participants feel safe—and that meant being emotionally dependable. Trip leaders couldn’t surrender to bad moods or self-pity. They had to learn appropriate boundaries for self-disclosure. Increased confidence in leadership abilities
In the beginning, first-time trip leaders didn’t have a lot of confidence in their own ability to lead others under pressure and in challenging situations. There was wildlife and unpredictable weather to worry about—and it was hard not to think about the many potential medical problems that could arise, since they’d just learned about them as part of their wilderness medical training. But by the end of their first trip, they all believed themselves to be highly capable leaders. Despite their greatest fears, they kept their participants safe and healthy—and they did so with gusto.
LA VIDA TURNS 50
PARTICIPANTS WHO THEY ARE OOP participants are mainly first-year college students and transfer students making the transition to their college of choice. Every year, La Vida helps hundreds of students make the transition to Gordon College. HOW THEY CHANGED These findings originate from eight individual studies conducted by Anderson-Hanley, Rude, Viti and Stonehouse. To ensure that these self-reported changes were not of an ephemeral nature, they surveyed participants more than once and months after their OOP experience. Over the decades and from generation to generation, the outcomes are the same: Participants return to college with a greater sense of confidence, selfworth and belonging, which ripples out to touch every area of their lives.
Confidence toward future challenges
After finishing their OOP, participants expressed greater confidence in their ability to succeed in the face of adversity, now and in the future. In being able to recall moments of overcoming physical hardship, participants felt inspired to persevere in new situations; they remembered there was much to gain from their hard work. Increased academic diligence and love for learning
Memories of overcoming physical challenges—like summiting a mountain or bushwhacking through the backcountry— served as important reference points when college students returned to campus and were confronted with academic challenges. Many participants reported that they were less occupied with their grades and more focused on enjoying the learning process. After their journey through the woods, they knew there was more to learning than reaching a particular destination. Higher participation in campus life
OOPs provided an entry point into campus life and a strong sense of communal belonging. By the time
participants started their first semester or finished up their first year of college, they were more comfortable with themselves and the people around them. This familiarity often inspired them to try new things and get more involved. Better coping strategies for stress
In one of her studies, Viti found that first-year college students who participate in an OOP experience less test anxiety than those who do not. This is because OOP students get a lot of practice with problem-solving in an unfamiliar environment. They are repeatedly exposed to situations that have some inherent risk, and they learn to approach them calmly. Openness to diversity
OOPs are designed in such a way that participants cannot get by on their own self-sufficiency. They must rely on others to make it out of the woods. This interdependence helps participants to realize their need for diverse others. A single person cannot hang a 200-pound bear bag in a tree on their own. They also establish meaningful connections with diverse individuals, listening to each other’s life stories and personal reflections. As a result, they are more accepting of a person’s differences and more likely to see the value of them.
A positive relationship with failure
Prior to their OOP, many participants conceded that their fear of failure often outweighed their desire to try something new. If there was no guarantee they could do something well, they didn’t want to try it. But OOPs are designed to challenge participants in ways they cannot prepare for—no matter their level of physical fitness, spiritual humility or mental toughness. In giving participants the freedom to fail in these areas, participants develop a healthy relationship with failure and start to see it as a normal part of life that they can learn from. Firmer commitment to moral values
In his interviews with OOP participants, Stonehouse noted that there was a correlation between self-confidence and commitment to moral values. Participants explained that their newfound confidence made it possible to resist peer pressure and withstand the criticism and ridicule of others. By the end of their expedition, participants reported that they were less concerned about what people thought about them and more apt to stand up for their beliefs, even when those beliefs were unpopular.
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