National Outdoor Leadership School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), is a non-profit school in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, and leadership on extended backcountry expeditions. The NOLS mission is to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment. NOLS runs courses on five continents, and has courses for almost all wilderness environments and for almost any age group. Skills taught on NOLS courses include backpacking, canoeing, white water kayaking, caving, rock climbing, fly fishing, horsepacking, sea kayaking, mountaineering, rafting, sailing, skiing, and snowboarding. NOLS has trained more than 95,000 students. College credit is available for all courses, through either the University of Utah or Central Wyoming College. NOLS also has direct credit agreements with several colleges and universities.
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[edit] History
NOLS was founded in 1965 by Paul Petzoldt, a world-famous mountaineer and a member of the Army's 10th Mountain Division. Petzoldt was also an early Outward Bound Chief Instructor.
The first facility opened at Sinks Canyon, Wyoming. In 1971 the administrative offices were moved to Lander, Wyoming, where NOLS is still based today. NOLS also has facilities in Alaska, Washington, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Baffin Island, Brazil and India. Initially, NOLS was styled militarily — courses were run in "patrols" and standard NOLS gear was army surplus.
However, during the 1970s, NOLS grew enormously. A large part of this growth is due to the publicity gained by an appearance on NBC's Alcoa Hour in an episode entitled "30 Days to Survival" which followed a NOLS course through the Wind River Range. The school's focus became more ecological; conservation and preservation began to rank with leadership training in terms of emphasis. During the 1980s, NOLS continued to evolve, working on increasing the professionalism of its staff and increasing the range of courses. This is when they helped create the U.S. Leave No Trace program. In 1999, NOLS acquired the Wilderness Medicine Institute, one of the nation's foremost trainers of wilderness medicine.
NOLS Professional Training, a branch of the school aimed at offering portions of the school's curriculum on custom-designed courses, was founded in 1999 as well. Clients of NOLS Pro include NASA, the Wharton School, the United States Naval Academy, the National Park Service, Woodberry Forest School, Fidelity Bank & Trust, and the International Sustainable Development Institute.
NOLS celebrated its 40th anniversary in October 2005, with a gathering of alumni, faculty and staff in Lander. The celebration also marked the groundbreaking of the renovation of NOLS' student dormitory in Lander, the historic Noble Hotel. The school has gone from 100 students in 1965 to more than 95,000 graduates in 2006.
In August 2004 NOLS launched a tour of a bus run on RVO, or Recycled Vegetable Oil (a type of biofuel), to travel the nation promoting the school, leadership, and renewable energy. In fall 2006, the bus had been to all of the 48 continental states and had just entered into a partnership with Stonyfield Farm.
[edit] Famous alumni
- David Breashears, mountaineer and filmmaker
- CNN anchor Anderson Cooper
- Britton Keeshan, youngest person to achieve the Seven Summits
- Actor Andrew McCarthy
- Chip Giller, founder of Grist Magazine
- Tori Murden McClure, first woman to the South Pole
- Christine Boskoff, who has achieved more 8,000 meter summits than any other woman
- Tom Kiernan, National Parks Conservation Association President
- Ann Mills, Vice President of American Rivers
- Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm
- John F. Kennedy, Jr.
- Phil Powers, Director of the American Alpine Club
- Fred Kleisner, former CEO of Wyndham Hotels
- Peter Roy, former CEO of Whole Foods
- Greg Steltenpohl, former CEO of Odwalla
- Candace Carpenter Olson, co-founder of i-Village
- Tom Scott, co-founder of Nantucket Nectars
- David Morrell, author of First Blood, the novel in which Rambo was created
