Letter to parents

Dear GRAB Parents,

By now, you are well aware that your student is not spending spring break either at home or in the warm summer sun of Florida. Instead, the students of GRAB have decided to embark on what is believed to be the best leadership opportunity offered at Gettysburg College-the Wilderness Institute. This annual program is sponsored by our office (The Office of Experiential Education) in order to prepare the students of GRAB to lead their backcountry trips for the campus community.

On Friday, the students will arrive in Colorado Springs, Colorado and will be shuttled to the base of the Collegiate Range. From here, we will head south along the Colorado Trail to  Mt. Shavano which is situated at 14,229 ft. This will be our thirteenth Wilderness Institute and our third time into the wintery mountains of Colorado.

To properly prepare for a Wilderness Institute, we lay the groundwork years in advance. It is not an easy achievement to move 24 students, five professional staff, 560 lbs of food, and 1150 lbs of gear for 10 days in a winter environment, especially at altitude. Through an immense amount of planning, forethought, reflection and fortitude we believe the group is ready for this leadership opportunity.  The students have worked hard developing a sense of ethos, they have physically prepared, and provided great modeling and care during the preparation phase for this training.  

We began the preparations for this year's Wilderness Institute 3 years ago. The GRAB seniors were first introduced to the Colorado wilderness as first year students. The message given to them at the time was to absorb as much as you can because you will be back leading the next Colorado Institute. We have spent the last three years with the students evaluating them, placing them on trips, taking them to professional conferences, and have engaged them in every aspect of the technical preparation for this experience. They are now ready for the challenge to manage their own groups. In turn all the students have read articles on concepts such as Emotional Intelligence and Flow and have set relevant learning goals for the training. We have met once a week for lectures developed and presented by the student staff, have facilitated weekend refresher courses, and have set forth conditioning programs to help the students physically prepare for the week on snow and in altitude. 

We have five professional staff overseeing the Wilderness Institute: Kris Nessler our Associate Director, Kristin Sullivan '98 alumnae of GRAB, Dr. Gary Nussbaum, Professor Emeritus Radford University whp has co-led every Wilderness Institute for GRAB, and then myself. We also have contracted with Eli Helmuth, a certified American and International Mountain Guide with an impeccable resume and climbing history, to join us for four days while on Mt. Shavano. Between the professional staff and student preparations, we are confident in the delivery of this year's program.

There is a strong perception of risk when envisioning a mountaineering experience. And it is true that without proper planning and knowledge of the objective and subjective variables that mishaps can happen. It is with the utmost care, thought, research, and experience that our office develops a leadership program that will match and then elevate the skill level of the students by challenging physically, emotionally, intellectually, mentally, as well as professionally. The environments we visit are dynamic by nature-it not just a classroom where we talk about leadership-we place them in a location that is ever changing and tests their judgment, decision making, and care for self and others. Though on the onset it might appear that the students are just snowshoeing and camping in the winter wilderness, ultimately, this is our medium to prepare the students developmentally to be credible professionals by they time they graduate.

Since the inception of our program in 1996, we have to date approximately 26,000 participant field days without an injury requiring professional medical assistance. Certainly we have blisters, scrapes, and bruises but we do not have an injury resulting in a person needing to leave the field. As for our GRAB staff, that trend shifts slightly, but the situations tend to be more happenstance than activity specific. For twelve years of programming domestically and internationally, here is a list of staff incidents:

• WI 2001 Colorado-one student walked out (evacuation) due to the development of a cist on the lower spine; one staff member cut finger with knife but remained in field.
• WI 2002 Arizona-staff member cut finger with knife but remained in field.
• WI 2005 Colorado--student walked out due to development of upper respiratory condition that was already present to trip.
• Alaska 2007-staff member evacuated one day early on sea kayaking trip due to fish hook stuck in thumb.
• Maine 2007-staff member spilled hot water on leg on sea kayaking trip, but remained in field.

As I look at the list, I am thankful. I know what the potential for injury and incidents are much higher in programs like ours, but I believe that our methodical approach and care for others has minimized our medical issues.  

I realize that this letter is longer than what may be expected, but I have feel that it is prudent and professionally responsible to anticipate as many questions as I can and also offer insight into the mission of our program. With that, I do want to let you all know that this year we are attempting to offer you a glimpse into our Wilderness Institute. We have secured the necessary technology and the support from our IT department where we hope to be able to send back pictures and updates of our trip on a regular basis while in the field. This documentation will be updated on the Gettysburg College main homepage everyday. In addition, you can review the link to our Wilderness Institute 2008 http://www.gettysburg.edu/ which will provide our daily itinerary, an overview of information, a view of the route via google earth (you will need to download the program), and provide general logistics on flights and hotels.  

In the event of an emergency while we are in the field, there are a two ways to contact us. The first is to call Tom Mottola, Associate Dean of the College during regular business hours at 717.337.6908 or our Safety and Security Office at 717.337. 6912 after hours and they will contact the Dean on Call. Another option is to send an email to jregenti@gettysburg.edu as I will be carrying my laptop while in the field. The caution to this approach is that I am uncertain how many days my laptop is able to receive a signal using the aircard. By calling Tom Mottola, he is able to contact the local authorities who are aware we are in the Salida Ranger District and have our route information.

I do hope this letter helps explain more about the program and provides insight into what they type of experiences the GRAB student enjoy perusing. Best wishes and I look forward to hearing your thoughts about the Wilderness Institute when we return.

Sincerely,
John Regentin
Assistant Dean of College Life
Director of Experiential Education