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No other college or university offers
its incoming class of students an experience as memorable and exciting
as Prescott College’s Wilderness Orientation. In small groups
consisting of ten students and two advanced student leaders or alumni,
Resident Degree Program students travel on an extended backpacking
trip through beautiful and remote areas of Arizona. But Wilderness
Orientation is more than just a trip in the woods. During the three-week
trek students:
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Prescott College’s Wilderness Orientation program has been recognized for leadership in the field of student character development in "The Templeton Guide: Colleges that Encourage Character Development." Wilderness Orientation was recognized for helping students define their personal values and emphasizing service learning. |
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- Experience
the Southwest in a deep and direct way
- Are introduced to the Prescott College method of education,
which emphasizes self-direction and experiential ("learning-by-doing")
education
- Meet a small group of other new students who often become life-long
friends
- Better understand the Prescott College commitment to environmental
ethics, reverence for nature, and responsibility to the planet.
- Learn and review basic outdoor techniques and skills, compass
navigation, first aid, and environmentally sound, low impact camping.
- Share in the teaching of basic ecological concepts of local
flora, fauna, landscapes, and the peoples inhabiting the area,
both past and present
 Ninety percent of new
Prescott College students (first-year students and transfers) participate
in Wilderness Orientation as their first course. The first week
of the month-long course is spent at a local retreat center preparing
for the trip, and meeting with faculty advisors. For the next three
weeks, students form small groups of ten led by advanced students
and/or alumni on an expedition to an area such as the Grand Canyon
or isolated Southwestern mountains and canyons for backpacking and
camping. Groups travel with the highest regard to safety and with
an awareness of the experience as a true expedition. All group members
share in the teaching of basic ecological concepts of local flora,
fauna, landscapes, and the peoples inhabiting the area, both past
and present.
While
Wilderness Orientation is an outdoor wilderness experience, Prescott
College is not only for "outdoorsy" people. Wilderness
Orientation encourages the development of pertinent skills, such
as self-direction, which can be applied to all course work at Prescott
College. Even though half of our students graduate in the fields
of Arts & Letters, Education, Human Development, and Cultural
and Regional Studies, Wilderness Orientation is one of the courses
that students remember best and hold strongest in their hearts,
no matter what their field of study at the College.
Prescott College also offers
two alternatives to wilderness backpacking as an orientation; Water-based
Wilderness Orientation and Community-based Orientation.
Water-based Wilderness Orientation
is offered to incoming Prescott College students who are unable
to hike due to physical challenges. Embracing the same mission and
philosophy as Wilderness Orientation, the water-based orientation
consists of small groups of students who travel on Arizona's largest
man-made lake via canoe and/or sea kayak.
 Community-based Orientation
is offered to incoming Prescott College students who are unable
to be in the back-country for long periods of time due to physical
challenges or extenuating circumstances. Embracing the same mission and
philosophy as orientations held in the back-country, Community-based
Orientation reaches its goals in the community of Prescott. Through
community service projects, field trips, and interactions with the
community, students become oriented to the school, each other, and
the Southwest.
All of the orientation
programs focus on teamwork, self-transformation, and empathy and
personal attributes such as self-reliance, cooperation, self-motivation,
integrity, and perseverance. These characteristics are necessary
to fulfill the College's central philosophy of experiential education
and self-directed learning.
Students participate in
a final phase of orientation that consists of an introduction to
academics, opportunities for student involvement, and services and
resources available at the College. Students attend workshops, and
get to know each other and faculty members better during games,
discussions, and other activities. This "Academic Orientation"
is required to receive credit for orientation.
Students needing more
information about Wilderness Orientation and the other orientation
options should contact the Wilderness Orientation Coordinator at 928-778-2428 or 877-350-2100 x2265.
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