Let’s Go On a Quest: BU Outdoor Adventure and Leadership Program
This article was submitted by Quest Media Relations personnel, Nicholas Paesano.
Quest Outdoor Adventure and Leadership Program, a Bloomsburg University (BU) organization, is gearing up for another jam-packed, adventured filled semester of new experiential education activities for BU students and the Bloomsburg Community.
Experiential Education can be simply described as challenge and experience followed by reflection leading to learning and growth. This concept is the heart of the Quest Program and all the activities that they offer.
Quest, established in the early 1970s modeled after the Outward-Bound Program, was formed to offer students and community members unique leadership and growth opportunities through outdoor adventure and recreational activities.
Quest designs customized programs for organizations such as team development, leadership training, and effective communication and interaction. Team development programs are available to any group and are customized to meet the needs and size of any team. This training is designed to develop stronger more effective teams utilizing challenging situations and difficult decision making which in turn helps create stronger more supportive groups capable of dealing with challenging or changing work and life experiences. Team development exercises range in complexity and difficulty and are designed to probe a team’s potential and roadblocks for working together. These exercises are based on each group’s specific learning needs.
Team development is a challenging group experience where success is dependent upon total participation of participants. Teams may pass through a “giant spider’s web”, swing over a “pit of lava” or cross an “alligator infested swamp.” Observing a group tackling these challenging exercises provides insight on how a team solves problems; how they plan, communicate with each other, work together and many more dimensions. After completing an exercise, the group’s experience is reflected on and team members can assess their strengths and weaknesses; this “learning” is then incorporated in the next task. The Quest Staff also work happily to create and organize multiple challenge of choice outdoor trips and programs such as kayaking, hiking and backpacking, rock climbing and bouldering, and caving programs for all Bloomsburg students and community members. While a lot of Quest’s programs are free to Bloomsburg University students some require a deposit for all BU Students and Community Members.
It is the mission of Quest to teach outdoor skills as a means to promote lifelong fitness, personal challenge, and recreation, while empowering individuals to move beyond self-imposed limitations teaching self-reliance an independent spirit, an unquenchable curiosity, and above all, compassion for all others and all living things.
The Quest Spring 2018 calendar has been formed and all Bloomsburg University students and community members are welcome to sign up. If you are interested in an upcoming Quest Trip or activity you can email quest@bloomu.edu for more details.
