A Powerful Combination of Community Service, Leadership Dynamics, and Wilderness Travel

Grades 10-12 (ages 16-18) | July 16 – August 6 | 22 days | 80 Service Hours | $4195

To journey outside is also to journey inside. Lead from the front. Learn to value collaboration. Speak your mind. Find peace alone in the high mountains. See the world through another’s eyes and change your own view forever.

Earn 80 hours of community service credit while making a real difference

Work side-by-side with Navajo youth on an important community project

Tutor Zuni children in an isolated but vibrant Pueblo

Carry out vital environmental service in a pristine wilderness

Learn the necessity of great communication off-trail at 12,000 feet

Whitewater Rafting, Mountain Bike Expedition and Community Service Project in the Navajo Nation

After orientation and outfitting at Deer Hill Basecamp, we’ll take a break to run the Animas River, near Durango, in inflatable kayaks. This is a beautiful mountain river with some rocky sections to negotiate and some class 3 waves. Then we travel to the Navajo Nation for our first service project.

We drive a short distance to New Mexico to join a group of Navajo youth preparing for a unique “wilderness and service” experience. In cooperation with the Indian Health Service, we help to develop a community wellness program using mountain biking and Navajo traditions to teach cultural awareness and physical fitness. High in the Chuska Mountains, we ride easy to moderate trails through the ponderosa pines. Working with our Navajo hosts, we improve trails, signage, and campsites so that more Navajo youth from other communities can benefit from this resource. In our first week, we build the foundations of our team, and begin to explore leadership skills and ethics, in the context of the river, cross-cultural service, and backcountry living.

Community Service in the Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico

We now travel to the Zuni Pueblo, home to an ancient people, renowned for their intact cultural history rooted in their Kachina clans. Working alongside Zuni youth, we tend community gardens and orchards, repair traditional stone bread ovens, and improve the community center. Zuni elders welcome us, and tell us of their ancestral mythology. It is a privilege to be invited into the Zuni Eagle Aviary, where they nurse injured eagles and humanely gather their feathers for ceremonies.

Mountain Basecamp and Conservation Service in the Lizard Head Wilderness

The culmination of your service and leadership “quest” unfolds in the lush mountains near Rico, Colorado, the ultimate outdoor classroom for young leaders. Savor the wildness and isolation while performing your second conservation service project. With an inspirational leader from the U.S. Forest Service, build or maintain sustainable trails, or repair a bridge to restore an important backcountry access route. Learn to be a camp gourmet. Soak up the incredible views and breathe in the cleanest air in North America. Put the finishing touches to your team’s expedition journal. Relish a powerful solo experience. Rise at dawn to reach the rocky summit of mighty Dolores Peak at 13,290 feet. Then it’s home to Basecamp, where your ceremonial sweat lodge and banquet await.

“Wow, I felt like I learned so much on this trip. I learned new skills like tying knots, working the stove, cooking etc. But not only did I learn all the technical stuff, I felt like I learned so much more about myself.” Irene, Hong Kong

“I think the reservation was the most impactful and important to me. I’ve always been in awe of our Nation’s First People. It really was amazing. I will cherish and remember everything. The friendships, the land, the water, the lifestyle, the native people, the teamwork. There is simply too much to say.” Zanni, El Segundo, CA

“We glimpsed the men in costumes walk through an alley and up the street. They were chanting. The old Zuni woman who was teaching us how to build a stone bread oven told us that it was a rain dance. It was hot and the wind was blowing hard. Dark clouds swirled around us. Children played in puddles of water left from making adobe bricks that morning. I could hear faint chanting in the distance. I love the smell of rain when the first drops hit the dust” Jody, Morristown, NJ