Earlham College - Wilderness Programs

Wilderness Programs

Earlham was one of the first colleges in the country to initiate student and faculty led wilderness programs, back in 1970 {Earlham College Wilderness Program Instructors Manual, 1975, by Douglas Steeples, Phil Shore, Alan Kesselheim, Henry Merrill "and others", edited by Phil Shore and Alan Kesselheim}. These programs were designed for incoming first-year and transfer students who received credit for them. The program is divided into the Water August Wilderness and the Mountain August Wilderness and lasts for approximately three weeks; the former canoes in Wabakimi Provincial park in Ontario and the latter hikes in the Uinta Mountains in Utah. Students have taken ice climbing, dog sledding, caving, white water kayaking, rock climbing, trail construction and canoeing courses for credit. The program in the past has lead spring break canoeing trips to Big Bend National Park in southwestern Texas, a semester course to New Zealand and a May Term (a condensed three-week term after the spring semester) instructor training course for its August Wilderness program. Challenge/experiential education courses on the college's own high and low ropes is offered as well as the chance to be certified as Wilderness First Responders in an intensive spring break course. In the past students have also had the opportunity to rappel of the College's three story science building.

Earlham College remains the only American institution of tertiary education that allows students to study aardvarks extensively in their native habitat in the Kakamega Forest.