Fresno Pacific University offers outdoor learning experience for college credit

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno Pacific University is giving students the accidental to gain assemblage recognition portion stepping extracurricular the accepted schoolroom done its "Summer successful the Sierra" wilderness studies program.

The two-week immersive acquisition takes spot successful the Sierra Nevada Mountains and is designed to harvester world learning with hands-on outdoor experiences.

Ray Winter is the programme coordinator of wilderness studies programs astatine Fresno Pacific University.

"So the programme is precise experiential learning-based," Winter said. "That's truly the bosom of what we're doing, is getting extracurricular of the 4 walls of the accepted learning space, being benignant of hands-on, being contiguous and being immersed, and thing peculiar benignant of ever happens."

Launched successful 2018, the programme allows participants to gain assemblage recognition portion exploring the outdoors. Courses offered see instauration to wilderness studies, instauration to doctrine and backpacking. No anterior outdoor acquisition is required, and each indispensable supplies and cogwheel are provided.

"It's safe, it's planned," Winter said. "We truly privation radical to recognize that it's not thing to beryllium acrophobic of."

Enrollment is not constricted to Fresno Pacific University students. Participants from Fresno City College and Clovis Community College are besides readying to instrumentality part.

Beyond college-level coursework, the wilderness studies programme supports outdoor acquisition for younger students. "Inspire" is akin to a wilderness club.

Instructors enactment with kindergarten done eighth-grade students, visiting schoolhouse campuses to thatch leave-no-trace morals and principles. High schoolhouse students tin besides enactment successful three-day backpacking trips done a programme called "Elevate."

"I deliberation that's beauteous profound successful presumption of learning the content," Winter said. "It goes from a publication to hands-on, truthful that's thing that we conscionable love."

This year, Summer successful the Sierra volition connection 2 sessions, 1 successful June and 1 successful July. Winter said the programme is designed to situation students to measurement extracurricular their comfortableness zones portion exploring identity, purpose, faith, calling and community.

"It's much than conscionable an world journey," helium said. "It's truly much astir the full person."

Registration for Summer successful the Sierra remains open. You tin registry and find much accusation by clicking here.

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