Summer is quickly approaching, which means students and parents are asking about who will be running their trips. Drum roll, please… We are excited to announce our tentative 2016 instructor team assignments! We have put a lot of time and energy into creating the most skilled and balanced instructor teams possible, and we’re looking forward to watching our staff teams facilitate safe, fun, and growth-filled experiences for every one of our students. We may make changes as we go forward to ensure the best instructor teams possible. Please click here and choose your trip to see your 20126 instructors.
On June 3, our directors and trip leaders will meet in the Mt. Hood area of Oregon for a four-day leadership retreat. The trip leaders are the managers of our instructor teams, and they have a large role in the success of each student this summer. After our retreat, all instructors will meet for big group orientation; there we set the tone for the summer and go over our risk management policies and procedures (and have some fun, too!). After big group orientation, instructor teams will head to their trips to scout, bond as an instructor team, and prepare for the trip.
And as we prepare for our leadership retreat and orientation, we know that you’re also preparing for the summer. Purchasing gear and packing can sometimes be overwhelming, so we prepared a brief video guide. The video addresses some of the most common questions we get about packing for a summer trip at Adventure Treks. If you have any questions about packing, or your adventure (or anything else for that matter) please give us a call and we are happy to help in any way we can.
We know you’ve all been waiting to see who our instructors will be this summer, so here they are: Introducing the 2016 Adventure Treks instructors!
We are very pleased with this year’s instructor teams. Almost 70 percent of our instructors are returning for the 2016 summer. Every instructor has, at minimum, a Wilderness First Responder medical certification, with some trained as Wilderness EMTs.
Quick facts about our 70 instructors:
Average age of 27.
A collective 190 years of combined Adventure Treks experience (about 3 years on average).
Every instructor (except one who is finishing his degree) has a college degree, and 18 percent of our team currently have or are working on advanced degrees.
Eight of our instructors are former Adventure Treks students.
During the rest of the year, our instructors work as teachers, ski instructors, mountain guides, directors of outdoor programs, and for outdoor education and science schools.
Our instructors have all done incredible things: rowed the Columbia river, thru-hiked the Pacific Crest trail and Appalachian trail (or both), and hiked all the way across New Zealand.
We’ve had more than 500 prospects apply to fill our 25 new instructor positions. Every new staff has gone through a minimum of three interviews conducted by our leadership team, three reference checks, and a background and criminal check. We feel confident and excited about the new instructors we have hired, and we know they’ll help create phenomenal communities.
On June 3, our directors, trip leaders, and regional directors will begin a four-day retreat near Mt. Hood in Oregon. On June 9, the entire instructor team arrives for a seven-day intensive orientation. On June 15, we will separate into our six-person instructor teams for another week of trip-specific planning, led by our trip leaders.
One of the most important parts of orientation is bonding for our instructor team. These relationships typically last long beyond the summer, much like our students’. As role models, our close-knit, high-functioning instructor communities are directly tied to the success of our student communities.
In the coming weeks, we’ll publish the tentative staff teams assigned to each trips. Please note that instructor teams may change as we strive to create the best possible combination of personalities and skills.
Seasons with Adventure Treks: 3 as an instructor, 3 as a student.
University attended: Colby College
Favorite AT Activity: Backpacking!
What are you currently doing? I am working for the Alzar School, a semester school for sophomores and juniors in high school. I am teaching US history courses and instructing whitewater kayaking. I recently traveled with the school to Chile where I led paddling trips in Patagonia and numerous other spectacular locations throughout the country.
What made you want to work as an outdoor educator? I’ve wanted to be an outdoor instructor since I was a student at Adventure Treks. I always was so inspired by my instructors, and I wanted one day to be at least half as cool, professional, creative, and fun as they were.
What’s your favorite AT memory? There are so many, but one from this past summer was playing our version of the Olympic games on the 4th of July near Port Townsend, WA, on my Pacific Northwest Adventure trip.
What’s your favorite AT meal? I always enjoy the Adventure Treks version of Thanksgiving dinner.
What keeps you coming back to AT? The friendships and community AT creates. It was particularly special to be able to go on an expedition with an amazing person like Kiko Sweeney as a student, and then be able to lead a backpack with her in North Cascades National Park as an instructor this past summer.
What’s the most beautiful place you’ve ever been to? Ensenada, Chile, is pretty high up there. It was incredible to paddle on the Rio Petrohue surrounded by volcanoes at any given time.
Tell us something unique about you: I am an expert on the history of Fort Halifax, ME. This is a particularly mundane wooden fort in the middle of nowhere Maine that I studied in college. I can talk for a long time about this subject if you get me going.
University Attended: Alex holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Mathematics from Colgate University.
Years with AT: This will be Alex’s 2nd year with Adventure Treks.
Favorite AT activity: Rock Climbing
What do you do when you’re not working for AT? I am a high school math teacher. This is my second year teaching at a public high school in Peabody, MA. I teach geometry and algebra to freshman and sophomores. I also tutor math at a nearby college.
What’s your favorite AT memory? My favorite memory happened last summer at evening meeting. After a fun day of mountain biking and climbing, everyone was tired. Our TL Kaitlin surprised everyone with a high energy game that ended in an epic dance party. It was a great way to end a day with smiles and laughter, instead of slogging though the evening.
What keeps you coming back to AT? The community. The students and instructors I had last year formed a phenomenal group. Obviously, being an AT instructor involves a lot of long days and hard work, but most of the time it felt like I was just hanging out with friends, doing activities that I love. It was rewarding to see the group bond and individual students grow. It also gave me the opportunity to explore a part of the country that I had never been to before.
What’s your favorite outdoor activity? Rock climbing!
What’s your favorite personal adventure that you’ve ever taken? I went canyoneering last April in the Canyonlands of Utah, which was a mix of anchor building with natural materials and clambering through tight slot canyons. We were in a fairly remote area, so I felt like I was the first explorer to set foot in the area. The canyoneering felt a lot like caving, but even better because the canyons were warm and light. I’m also a huge fan of the desert landscape.
Tell us something unique about you. I’ve had the hiccups for the last eight years; however, I only hiccup once or twice an hour. Also, I know how to ride a unicycle.
Our trips are well under way from California to Alaska to Colorado, from the Pacific Northwest to the Blue Ridge. Adventure Treks students are challenging themselves with new activities in incredible settings while making wonderful new friends. Despite all of the fun, we also want this to be a learning and growing experience. The substance of our program begins with instructor orientation and we thought we would give you a glimpse of a small part of our two-week school for instructors!
From fall to spring, our directors work tirelessly to find the most committed and experienced role models for Adventure Treks. And each year, our team gets stronger and better.
Map-reading, a lost art.
During our two-week-long, intensive staff orientation this year, our instructor team created a powerful, inclusive community—which they are currently modeling and passing onto our fantastic students. During orientation, the instructors spent seven days training in southern Washington, discussing the big picture of what makes Adventure Treks so fun and transformative. We applied recent trends in youth development to an outdoor environment, focusing on a growth mindset and 21st century skills. We refreshed our medical skills, talked about risk management, spent an intensive day on van-driving training, and exchanged ways to develop the kind, inclusive communities that is the hallmark of Adventure Treks.
We also played a lot of games! If our instructors are having fun, so are our students! And there is actually research to back the impact games can have from a group development standpoint. There was also a lot of gear to sort at orientation. This spring, one of our trip leaders, Joe, spent two months organizing gear in our warehouse so that it could be sorted and distributed on site. Imagine:
21 brand-new 2015 Ford Transit vans
13 trailers
376 sleeping bags
377 sleeping pads
320 Deuter and Osprey backpacks
170 Big Agnes tents
170 MSR stoves
75 first aid kits
70 cases of fuel
27 van boxes
27 van first aid kits
And much much more… We haven’t even talked about food yet! (But we do have 2,500 Honey Stinger Waffles!)
Award-winning Orientation judges!
Instructors arrived on June 9, though our trip leaders and directors attended a Leadership Retreat which began on June 3. On Monday, June 15, we left southern Washington and split off into our five or six-person staff teams and headed to our trip destinations. In the second week of staff training, our teams pored over their trip itineraries and mastered all the tiny details that ensure our trips will be exceptional. We continued to build our small staff communities, scouted trail heads, practiced our driving, refreshed backcountry camping and hiking skills, planned our food shopping and meals, and studied our student and parent questionnaires and health histories to prepare for our students’ arrival.
Now that our students are here, all of the hard work and training has paid off and we are ecstatic about the wonderful students that are having great experiences out in the Adventure Treks world!
https://d52gwxhjtzjcm.cloudfront.net/2025/01/map-orientation-e1434681377602-300x225-EMSVLX.jpg225300AT Staffhttps://www.adventuretreks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AT-logo-white-NEW.pngAT Staff2015-06-27 18:00:182025-12-28 16:41:37Video: We are having fun… and it all began at Instructor Orientation!
One of the most important components of Adventure Treks is our instructor team. This year, we have 71 instructors, whose average age is 27. They hail from 33 different states, and 65% of our instructors have previous Adventure Treks experience, averaging 3.5 years with us. Meet our instructors below!
Click here to read more about our instructors, including the staff bios!
Our first trips begin Monday, June 22. We are so excited to see our students for whom we come together each summer!
See you soon!
Dock, DMAC, Josh, Kate, Amanda, Stacey, Joan, & Katie
We know you’ve all been waiting to know who your instructors will be this summer – so here it is: Introducing the 2015 Adventure Treks Instructor Team!
It’s shaping up to be another great year at Adventure Treks. Again this summer almost 70% of our 2014 instructors will be returning for the 2015 summer. Every instructor has, at minimum, a Wilderness First Responder medical certification, and several are trained as Wilderness EMT’s. All have significant experience working with youth in the outdoors. Most important, each instructor is an outstanding and impressive role model.
Here’s some info we think you’ll find impressive about our 68 instructors:
Average age of 27.
They collectively have 210 years of Adventure Treks experience (more than 3 years on average).
Every instructor (but one exceptional rising senior) has a college degree, and 20% of our team currently have or are working toward an advanced degree.
Eight of our instructors are former Adventure Treks students.
During the rest of the year, our instructors work as teachers, ski instructors, ski patrollers, mountain guides, and for college outdoor programs, and outdoor education and science schools.
All of our instructors have done incredible things. For example, some have biked across the country, paddled the Mississippi River, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trails, or mountain-biked the Continental Divide Trail.
They have lived, worked, and traveled all over the world.
We’ve had more than 600 applicants to fill the 26 new instructor positions. Each new instructor goes through a minimum of three interviews conducted by our leadership team, three reference checks, and a background and criminal check. Needless to say, the new instructors we selected passed with flying colors, and we can’t wait to see them inspire our students.
Our leadership team—Directors, trip leaders and regional directors—will begin a four-day retreat near Oregon’s Mt. Hood on June 3. The entire instructor team will come together near Portland on June 9 for an intensive, seven-day orientation. On June 15, our instructor group will separate into each trips’ six-person staff team for a second week of trip-specific training.
Aside from trip training, our instructor team starts bonding immediately, and these friendships last long beyond the summer—much like our students’. As role models to our students, creating a strong and close-knit instructor community is crucial, and directly affects our student communities in a positive way. When we see our students modeling respectful, inclusive, and kind behavior when forming their new friendships, we know we’ve done our jobs well.
In the coming weeks, we’ll publish the tentative six-person staff teams assigned to each trip. Instructor teams may change as we create the best possible combination of personalities and skills to each Adventure Treks trip.
After the summer ends, our students go back to their normal lives. School begins, and before long everyone is swept back into the bustling routine of homework, sports practices, and even college prep. Have you ever wondered what happens to Adventure Treks instructors after the summer ends? What is their “normal routine”?
The answer is a bit complicated. Normal can look like anything from finishing a doctoral thesis to teaching preschool. While AT instructors have many things in common, like their passion for working with youth and enjoying outdoor activities, they all come from different backgrounds with diverse experiences. That’s part of what makes AT instructors so effective, and part of what makes up the magic of a six-person instructor team.
As the Associate Director, I get to keep in touch with our staff throughout the year, as well as spearhead our hiring process for new staff. One of the best parts of my job is getting to hear about all the different things our staff are up to in the off-season. While I don’t have the space to update you on what all of our staff are doing, I’m happy to share what some of the AT instructors are doing in the off-season.
You may associate AT instructors with the rugged wild, but this AT legend is currently residing in New York City. Chrissie Monaghan is finishing her dissertation for her Ph.D. in international and comparative education, and is also working on a postdoctoral fellowship at New York University. She still manages to get her outdoor time in; currently, she’s training for her next marathon.
Other AT Instructors working on higher education:
Cody Bauman is finishing her master’s degree in outdoor education at Ohio University.
Erica Van Steenis is working on her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Julia Schleifman is finishing her master’s in school counseling at Lewis and Clark University.
Craig McGowan is working on his master’s in biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Talley Kayser takes a different approach to her off-season. Although Talley used to put her master’s degree in literature to work teaching at a university, she’s spent the better part of her winter rock climbing in Mexico. Her life isn’t all play, though; she’s soon returning to lead outdoor education trips in Southern California for the Boojum Institute.
Other AT instructors adventuring in their time off:
Our Director DMAC went winter backpacking in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Nicole Cronin traveled around Central America.
Janie Welsh is traveling around Australia and New Zealand.
Brett Smith, Bess Crandall, and Brian Erickson are rafting the Grand Canyon.
Kenny Goff and Emma Bucke are ice climbing in Montana.
While some of our instructors spend their off-seasons away from managing groups of kids, Brandon Tyrrell loves nothing more than having fun with kids, which is why he’s teaching preschool in Bend, Oregon. When he isn’t chasing the little ones around the classroom, he’s mountain biking, rock climbing, and skiing.
Other AT instructors working as teachers:
Liddell Shannon is teaching at a charter school in North Carolina.
Lauren Moran is teaching history at a private high school in Georgia.
Stephen Gardiner is teaching middle school science in Portland, Oregon.
Emily Spognardi is teaching at the Woolman Semester School in California.
Amanda Bogan is teaching English in Taiwan.
Jackie Fleming is the Assistant Director at the Pioneer Project, a semester school in North Carolina.
Many AT instructors spend their winters as a ski instructor. But there’s nothing typical about Allison O’Brien, who’s teaching skiing in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Allison has been teaching skiing for three winters, and is a PSIA Level 2 ski instructor.
Other AT instructors working at ski mountains (say hi if you see them!):
Joe Sisti and Liz Doby are also working at Steamboat Springs.
Brenna Meagher and Nicole Cronin are working at Mt. Bachelor in Oregon.
Rachael Mallon is working at Stevens Pass Ski Area in Washington.
Colin McLeod is working at Grand Targhee in Idaho.
Stacey Wren is working at Crested Butte in Colorado.
As you can see, Adventure Treks instructors have similar interests, but they don’t fit into any particular mold. Our six-instructor model allows our instructors to combine their diverse experiences, skills, and personalities to create a cohesive, effective and well-rounded team. It helps maintain the consistency of our programs by enabling better decision making and creating the opportunity for every student to connect with several great role models. I’ll be updating you with more on our instructors in our “Instructor Spotlights.”
https://d52gwxhjtzjcm.cloudfront.net/2025/01/16508_896906999304_6968362018277328050_n-300x300-NfOdu7.jpg300300AT Staffhttps://www.adventuretreks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AT-logo-white-NEW.pngAT Staff2015-02-06 21:32:332025-12-28 16:41:37What Our Instructors Do Outside of AT
Check out what Adventure Treks Instructor Orientation is all about…
We have a phenomenal team of instructors at Adventure Treks. We don’t say this lightly but we think this may be the strongest team of Adventure Treks instructors in our 21 summers! It’s been a great orientation and we are excited for you to meet the great role models who will be your instructors this summer. Our instructor team spent seven days of training together in southern Washington where we covered the big picture of all that being an outstanding Adventure Treks instructor entails. From applying recent trends in youth development to an outdoor environment, to refreshing medical skills, to risk management, to van driving, to community development, we all learned and shared a lot. We also played and shared a lot of games. First and Foremost, Adventure Treks is a lot of fun – and if instructors are having fun so are our students! We also formed a powerful and inclusive community which will be the basis of the excellent communities we hope to form with our students on all of our trips.
The Adventure Treks 2014 Instructor Team at Orientation
On Monday, June 16, we divided into our six-person staff teams and headed to our trip destinations. During this second full week of training, our instructor teams will be focusing on mastering the hundreds of small details that take an Adventure Treks trip from being merely good to being exceptional. Our instructors will also be scouting trail heads, refreshing their back country skills on an overnight hiking trip, shopping for food, learning about their students, and planning the final details of your trip.
We are excited to see you at the airport when you arrive on your opening day.
It’s finally summer – get ready to have a lot of fun and visit some incredible places!
Dock, Dmac, Josh, Emily, Jan, Joan, Holly, Rachele and your Adventure Treks instructors
AT Director DMac shares a lesson about perfecting the micro details which lead to a successful trip.
The Adventure Treks Leadership retreat is in full swing. Beginning June 4, Our leadership team gathered in a cabin near Mt. Hood, Oregon next to the Salmon River for 5 days of senior staff and leadership training prior to our full staff orientation which begins on June 10th.
Our 14 Trip Leaders and 4 Regional Directors hail from 11 states, average 29.8 years old and have 128 collective years of Adventure Treks experience (Average 7.3 years of AT experience each). Three of these folks were former Adventure Treks students. This is an incredible group of mentors and role models. They will be training and inspiring our new instructors and overseeing the success of our trips. As an Adventure Treks parent myself, I am thrilled to have these fabulous role models interacting and inspiring my own kids!
Besides building our leadership team community, we are applying leadership theory to Adventure Treks. (This year we did a case study on explorer Ernest Shackleton and how his successful leadership style can apply to leading an Adventure Treks trip.) We are also learning and relearning the specific details of each trip itinerary, and use this time together to all get on the same page regarding safety and the policies and procedures that lead to the most successful experiences for our students. Together, we share tips and tricks that make all of our trips better. We go over the many nuts and bolts which enhance our trips beyond the average as we work towards making every single trip exceptional.
Happy Action Fun Time! Taking time for some outdoor fun.
As we prepare for our big group orientation which begins on June 10th, I thought we would share what we have been reading this winter. It’s our job to stay on top of the latest youth development trends and literature so we can make sure that the Adventure Treks program remains relevant to parents. Besides being a ridiculous amount of FUN, we want Adventure Treks to be a tool that helps kids develop the skills, mindset, optimism, confidence, character and resilience that will help them become happier and more capable adults.
Topics from these and other books will be featured in our instructor orientation sessions as we try to facilitate the best possible learning and growing experience for your child. Below are our 2014 suggestions for the best 2014 youth development literature for those who share our obsession for helping teenagers grow:
Harvard Professor, Edward Hallowell gives us a wonderful five step program we can keep in mind as we give our kids a childhood that creates a footprint for them to become happy adults. In the Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, Hallowell, promotes childhood as a time to provide opportunities to feel connected to others, to play and be joyful, to practice and attain mastery in numerous activities, to fail and build resilience and to receive recognition. We use Dr Hallowell’s model in our staff training and wrote a BLOG about how his model applies to Adventure Treks. We love this book!
In Mindset, Stanford Researcher, Carol Dweck explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success–but whether we approach challenges with a Fixed or a Growth mindset. She makes it clear that praising intelligence and ability isn’t the best way to foster self-efficacy and confidence, and may instead actually jeopardize success. Understanding that the brain is malleable and that we are all works in progress leads to the development of a Growth Mindset. By praising effort and hard work rather than innate talent, we can better motivate our kids to more eagerly approach new challenges with vigor while building resilience in the process. We use Dweck’s book in instructor orientation to make staff aware of ways through our language and leadership, we can encourage our students to develop a mindset focused on continuous growth rather than accepting that our talents and abilities as fixed.
The Author who brought us Mean Girls and Queen Bees and Wanna Bees, Rosalind Wiseman, has now written the definitive book on boys, Masterminds and Wingmen. Using a panel of over 160 boys, Wiseman exposes us to the world of teenage boys and gives us great insight into the lives our boys are experiencing, the rules of boys world and how male teenage power structures work. She introduces the “Act like a Man Box” and the effects attempting to live up to these expectations have on young male behavior. As school and the economy change, we are concerned that boys are falling behind and we hope the culture we create at Adventure Treks will help give our male students enhanced succeed.
One of WSJ’s “most important reads for 2013”, The Big Disconnect: Protecting Child and Family Relationships in the Digital Age, discusses how technology is affecting family relationships and how parents’ involvement with technology at home affects family connections. Renowned clinical psychologist and author, Catherine Steiner-Adair explains that families are now in crisis around this issue. Not only do chronic technology distractions have deep and lasting effects, but children desperately need warm, interactions with the adults in their lives. Drawing on real-life stories from her clinical and consulting work, Steiner-Adair offers insights and advice as to how parents can achieve greater understanding, and confidence as they come up against the tech revolution happening in their living rooms. When our Adventure Treks students have an amazing experience and succeed beyond all expectations outdoors without any technology, they are often given a unique perspective on how technology fits into their lives. Read a recent BLOG we wrote about her book
https://d52gwxhjtzjcm.cloudfront.net/2025/01/tl-retreat-3-300x225-hOJxuf.jpg225300AT Staffhttps://www.adventuretreks.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/AT-logo-white-NEW.pngAT Staff2014-06-07 21:54:082025-12-28 16:41:44Greetings From the Adventure Treks Leadership Retreat and What We are Reading 2014
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Instructor: Colin Hull
