School of Hard Walks

By Audrey Hill

The National Outdoor Leadership School's classrooms, located in 14 countries, are something to behold: They include wilderness areas in Australia, South America, and Wyoming's Teton Valley. In these locales, a variety of participants — including adventurous teenagers looking for adventure and outdoor educators — backpack, kayak, climb rocks, and gain leadership skills, in courses that can count for college credit.

Paul Petzoldt, a mountain guide who in 1938 participated in the first American expedition to K2 (the world's second-highest peak) in the Himalayas, founded the nonprofit school in 1965 to train young leaders and encourage wilderness protection. Since its creation, the school has served more than 100,000 students, with 11,000 enrolling last year.

"When you marry that leadership and wilderness ethic, you get a potentially powerful person," says John Gans, the school's executive director, of his group's unconventional programs. He notes that many conservation-group leaders are alumni of the school.

The group's wilderness courses are conducted for varying periods of time, some for as little as two weeks and others as long as a year, and can cost students thousands of dollars. About 15 percent of the students who participated in its 2006 wilderness courses received scholarships, which are paramount to the group's goal of increasing diversity among its students and staff members, says Mr. Gans.

The charity's annual budget of $27-million is largely raised via tuition, with about 10 percent coming from fund-raising appeals. (Mr. Gans estimates that 88 percent of all donations are connected to alumni, with the rest coming from foundations and corporate grants.)

The school's coffers have been bolstered by a recently completed five-year, $10-million capital campaign to support a new international headquarters facility in Lander, Wyo.

Here, students in the National Outdoor Leadership School's course in Wyoming's Wind River Range ford a stream.