Some Saybrook students must complete clinical practicums or internships in offices and private practices to graduate. In this master’s in leadership program, they meet in the great outdoors.
In a time when everything seems to have gone digital, Saybrook is embarking on a new horizon: experiential outdoor education.
NOLS, the leader in wilderness education, and Saybrook University have partnered to provide an innovative M.A. in Leadership program that integrates online study with three wilderness expeditions and residential conferences. Classes started in fall 2018 with the first expedition taking place in October, a canoeing trip in Vernal, Utah. In March, students completed a canyoneering expedition.
“It’s an experiential degree,” says Zachary Taylor, a Saybrook student who is a part of the program. “We choose to go on these expeditions where we need to manage real risk, and in the moments where we have to make decisions that have real consequences, we learn a lot about ourselves. That’s invaluable and something that transfers back to the real world.”
The kind of coursework that Saybrook students complete in this program is certainly unconventional. The expedition components of the NOLS Saybrook M.A. in Leadership empower students to make decisions that have real-life consequences. Through this practical experience, students learn crucial communication and decision making skills in order to become resilient leaders in their future careers.
“That’s why I wanted to be in this program,” Taylor says. “We’re learning how to increase our tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. I’m really invested and I’m excited to see what the program becomes in the future.”
