2015 NOLS State of the School Report

2015 State of the School Report

THE LEADER IN WILDERNESS EDUCATION The mission of the National Outdoor Leadership School is to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment.

A MESSAGE FROM CONTENTS: What Hasn’t Changed in Five Decades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Scholarships: A Priority from the Beginning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Gear: From Military Surplus to Cutting-Edge Equipment . . . . . . 8 Curriculum: Core is Consistent 11 GIVING Annual Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The NOLS Endowment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Planned Giving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

HIGHLIGHTS Risk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

NOLS SUPPORTERS . . . . . . . . . 24

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THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FIFTY YEARS AGO, ON March 4, 1965, Lander attorney Jack Nicholas and Paul Petzoldt signed papers in Wyoming to establish the National Outdoor Leadership School. While Paul was a visionary, he did not envision that today we would be an international school that taught courses this year in 28 countries. Otherwise he probably would not have chosen “National” for the name.

Fast forward to 2015, and NOLS has spread its wings and its reach. The original foundation of the school has served us well, and we have continued to build on it.

This year, NOLS taught 23,700 students around the world. Our students ranged from 14-year-old Adventure Course students to Navy Seal candidates, aspiring mountain guides to NASA astronauts, physicians to gap year students.

We have become the largest and best provider of wilderness medicine training globally. We ran courses this year for the majority of the top 10 business schools in the United States.

We are the only leadership school in the world that teaches leadership from below sea level to outer space.

We all remember stormed-in days, cramped in a tent, looking at maps and speculating as to whether a “route might go,” or how cool it would be to build a route linking two familiar points or camps. The great thing is that we have done—and continue to do—the exact same thing in leading NOLS. We find ourselves saying, “Wouldn’t it be cool …

• To start a school in the Sea of Cortez, • To complete a first ascent with students in the Alaska Range, • To get a NOLS group to the head snows of the Yale and Columbia Glaciers, • To have all medical students at the University of Wyoming be NOLS and Wilderness Medicine Institute graduates, • To train NASA astronauts, • And why not help prepare first generation college students for success?”

The fact is, all of these ideas, like our tent-bound dreams, grabbed our imagination. We said yes, and then we figured out how to make them happen. We lead NOLS with a spirit of discovery, a spirit of exploration.

We are not an organization that focuses on our rearview mirror or the good old days behind us. We are always creating and leading this organization to a better and more relevant future.

From the early days, NOLS was and is an organization that believes in young people. We are optimistic about the next generation and therefore the future.

We believe leadership can be taught, and we teach and develop positive, ethical leaders for our world.

To quote Paul Petzoldt, “We expect our students to be grains of sand on the beach of future leadership.”

John N. Gans Executive Director

A MESSAGE FROM

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES PAUL PETZOLDT HAD A vision, and he established this school with thoughtfulness.

What NOLS has become in 2015, where this journey has taken all of us, is a tribute to his foresight.

In 1965, Paul probably didn’t know whether the school would even make it to 1978 or that a young man who would eventually start, of all things, a sports-car racing company, would enroll in this thing he had named NOLS. He might not have guessed that same 17-year-old kid would come home and join just four other donors in contributing to the annual fund that year. Paul certainly didn’t anticipate that, another 37 years later, 3,240 donors would contribute to the very same annual fund, collectively raising nearly $2.2 million in one year.

Try to comprehend those numbers. In your mind’s eye, stand in Sinks Canyon in the 1960s, as Paul did. You have no awareness of NOLS New Zealand, Wilderness Medicine and Rescue Semesters, or astronauts using your mottos. Try to imagine 280,000 graduates all over the world. Can you see any of that all the way from then?

Now, try to comprehend for a moment how much potential NOLS has in its next 50 years. Given all we have accomplished in the miles since the first students’ boots hit the trail, think of where we could go in the next five decades, and the impact we could have on students, the environment, education, and outdoor practices. Though it is impossible

to paint an accurate picture of 100-year-old NOLS from where we stand now, we can believe this: NOLS courses will remain transformative.

We use that word a lot, transformative. I think we boil it down to such bold, simple statements because we all struggle to put words to it. It’s that “never be able to explain” piece that endures in each of us. That is why NOLS thrives.

Like the NOLS experience, wilderness has an ineffable quality. A beautiful sunset over a mountaintop, a view overlooking a lake, crisp clean air moving across your face—you can only almost touch these things. We know that the power of a NOLS experience is tied to this important idea of wilderness.

In turn, the preservation of wilderness is tied to education and experiences like NOLS courses. Tomorrow’s decision makers are far more likely to care about the future of Earth and these beautiful, raw landscapes if they personally encounter and learn to know them. It is critically important that we continue to transform the ways we give potential students—who look different than the students of 1978, of 1986, of 1992—a chance to fall in love with wilderness.

In the next 50 years, it is our responsibility to give young people, new groups, and wider audiences an understanding of the significance of wilderness saved and wilderness lost. It’s our mission to give them the leadership skills to act based on their understanding. It is our challenge to remind a wide range of people they have every right, reason, and opportunity to fall in love with their wild lands.

Duncan Dayton, Chair of the Board of Trustees 2015 STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT

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ANDY DENNIS AND KAILYN MCGRATH

Creating a Personal Connection to Wilderness NOLS instructor Andy Dennis wasn’t the most devoted high school student, but as a teen his enthusiasm was sparked by NOLS—and as a bonus, he could earn college credit. His parents pressed for a more conventional track, so Dennis struck a deal with them: he’d go to college if they’d help him take a NOLS course.

It was on his semester in Patagonia, where his instructors and coursemates entrusted him, a self-described punk kid from New Jersey, to lead the course, that Dennis began to see himself in a new way.

“My NOLS career/course has taught me that even if I stink at something, have no idea how to do it, or look stupid doing it, I can eventually become an expert and teach others how to do it,” Dennis said.

“NOLS gave me the courage to keep changing myself, to try something completely new and foreign, and to have the confidence to know that I can and will be an expert at anything I apply myself to.”

That lesson has translated to his life in the front country as he and his wife, Kailyn McGrath— also an instructor—set their sights on pursuing the same new career: nursing. Presently, Dennis and McGrath are both completing an accelerated bachelor of nursing degree in Philadelphia.

McGrath came to NOLS after college. She says NOLS taught her to be confident in her natural strengths, and to feel she didn’t need to have all the answers. She learned how to simplify, and create a personal connection to wilderness.

“For us, it is all about the wild places and the effect wilderness has on students,” Dennis explained.

“When we work courses together, we try to ‘let the woods do the work.’ We try to slowly step aside and let the wilderness teach lessons.”

The value of a NOLS course, Dennis and McGrath said, is in taking people out of their comfort zone, into the true wilderness. Because they believe in the value of students learning they have the skills to face things they thought were impossible, the couple gives to the NOLS Annual Fund.

“NOLS changed our lives,” they said. “We want to give people who might not get the chance to experience wilderness or NOLS the same opportunity that we had.”

Though Dennis and McGrath are beginning a new phase in their professional lives, their careers with and dedication to NOLS are not over.

“We both look forward to continuing to connect with NOLS in the decades to come, both as instructors and as supportive members of this awesome community,” the pair stated.

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“NOLS gave me the courage to keep changing myself, to try something completely new and foreign, and to have the confidence to know that I can and will be an expert at anything I apply myself to,” Dennis said.

NOLS Yukon, ETHAN JOHNSTON

NOLS AT 50: THEN AND NOW

WHAT HASN’T CHANGED IN FIVE DECADES “YOU’RE TAKING A NOLS COURSE,” MY FATHER said when I was 10 years old.

I had only a vague and distant understanding of what this “NOLS” meant to my dad, a ‘76 NOLS ski-course grad and avid adventurer, for a few reasons. 1) I had only just reached double-digits, and 2) I hadn’t taken my NOLS course. Yet. In the film High on the Wind Rivers, which followed NOLS mountaineering students in 1970, Paul Petzoldt says of students, “The most important thing they learn is about themselves. They drop the veneer of civilization and see other people as they really are.”

That is just as true today as it was in 1970. We still drop the veneer and are still forced to look our coursemates in the eye, and learn to communicate and grow with one another.

It’s a general understanding that what students get out of their NOLS course is close to, if not the same as, what they got out of it 50 years ago. My dad may have been wearing wool pants, whereas I wore teal and blue windpants, but it’s safe to say that the feeling in our guts was similar when we summited our first peak. When we returned, we both had the smattering of people asking, “What did you get out of it?” I know now that the answer to that question is nearly identical for both of us. That shared transference is a testament to the school’s enduring mission.

My dad is 44 years older than me. NOLS allowed us to begin building a relationship in which we had things in common. Where I once rebelled against any and all suggestions from the man, now we can fill a room with

similarities, whether it’s the outdoors, coffee, or distrust of the federal government. We commit to understanding one another, no matter how many differences are in place, and I know part of our NOLS education contributed to our willingness to overcome any obstacle.

You’re not likely to find a NOLS grad complaining about an obstacle, be it a flight delay, relationship, or being lost. They tend to shed that part of themselves somewhere in the backcountry. Furthermore, grads also tend to welcome challenges just for the potential to overcome them, because they know from personal experience what is gained.

Tolerance for—even embracing—adversity, independence, and appreciation for the wild are examples of a fundamental widening of graduates’ worldviews. The filmmakers observe in High on the Wind Rivers, “your whole way of life changes, your values. What counts is what you’re actually doing—it’s a one-to-one thing. It doesn’t matter who you voted for, or the length of your hair—it’s a real set of values.”

While much has changed in the past 50 years—gear, risk management practices, operating locations—there seems to be little difference in that intangible something students walk away from their course with. Courses are still focused on the same set of values, and students are still being rocked out of their comfort zones. They’re put in a role where they are responsible for making important decisions, and those decisions have consequences.

And they carry the experience with them long enough to stump their 10-year-olds with declarations of NOLSfilled futures.

Written by Madelyn Wigle, Senior Marketing Representative, Alaska Backpacking ‘10.

NOLS ARCHIVES

2015 STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT

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NOLS AT 50: THEN AND NOW

SCHOLARSHIPS: A PRIORITY FROM THE BEGINNING IT’S THE MID 1960s. YOU’RE SITTING AT A BAR in conversation with legendary mountaineer Paul Petzoldt.

He tells you about his school out in Wyoming for outdoor leaders. You’re interested but say you can’t afford it. Casually, he writes a few letters on a napkin, signs his name, and slides it over to you. “PBWA,” it reads. Pay back when able. He tells you if you show up in Lander, Wyoming, and hand this in, it will get you on a course at the National Outdoor Leadership School. For free.

I’ve heard this story, or variations of it, from more early grads than I can count: PBWA, work trades, scholarships.

Financial records are scarce from back then, and scholarships weren’t tracked like they are today. I have yet to find such a napkin, but I have found other written correspondence corroborating these stories from early grads. One thing is clear: making NOLS accessible to anyone who wants to attend has always been a priority.

As many as 20 percent of NOLS students between 1965 and the early 1970s attended with the help of a PBWA scholarship, and more through work trade.

The program seemed to work: by the end of 1970, enrollment was up and 71 percent of the 1965 scholarships had been repaid.

“The scholarship was part of a core ‘we can get stuff done’ attitude,” former instructor and marketing director Paul Calver said. “The scholarships and opportunities for people back then were really valuable. It was the ‘60s and

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people were hitchhiking around and kind of floundering.

A lot of people found a home at NOLS that they wouldn’t have if they hadn’t had some kind of scholarship support.”

Calver himself hitchhiked to Lander in 1973 and traded work for his first course, driving the stock trucks to drop off students at roadheads. Many people who chose to stay on and work for the school did so without pay, in exchange for continuing their NOLS education. Others were offered PBWA scholarships to develop the skills necessary to instruct NOLS courses.

“Some people say that we were pioneers. I say that we were just lucky that we were able to stumble upon NOLS,” explained Diane Shoutis, a PBWA scholarship recipient and long-time NOLS employee. “The same beliefs and principles are still being taught today, but it was a smaller and more tight-knit unit back then.”

Petzoldt’s legacy of making NOLS accessible to all students lives on. In 2015, over 800 students received scholarships to attend NOLS, and we provided $1.7 million in scholarship funds. We are meticulous about the scholarship process now. We know where the money comes from and where it goes. We track, assign, partner with other nonprofits, fundraise, then track some more. And students continue to have life-changing adventures, just as they did 50 years ago, regardless of financial standing.

Written by Larkin Flora, Spring Semester in Mexico ‘07 and Wilderness First Responder ‘10.

It was the ‘60s and people were hitchhiking around and kind of floundering. A lot of people found a home at NOLS that they wouldn’t have if they hadn’t had some kind of scholarship support.

2015 STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT

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NOLS Rocky Mountain, KELLY KISSOCK

NOLS AT 50: THEN AND NOW

GEAR: FROM MILITARY SURPLUS TO CUTTING-EDGE EQUIPMENT ON JUNE 3, 1965, ASTRONAUT ED WHITE weighed a whopping seven pounds. Clothes were hefty, pushed himself outside Gemini 4 and became the first too—standard early NOLS uniforms were primarily heavy American to walk in space. The capsule he hovered outside wool, insulating but thick and abrasive. was controlled by a modern marvel—the first computer the Contrast that with today. The latest NOLS expedition U.S. had put in orbit. The Gemini Guidance Computer pack from Deuter weighs about five pounds empty. It feels weighed 60 pounds, stored 160,000 bits of information, downright comfortable when loaded correctly—not least and could perform 7,140 calculations per second. because the padded hipbelt transfers nearly the entire load The Macbook Pro used to write this article is state- off the shoulders and onto the hips. On cold mornings, one of-the-art for 2015, with a 2.2 gigahertz processor and a can sit cozily in a featherweight synthetic puffy jacket and 500 gigabyte hard drive. In other words: it is 300,000 times pants, and go to sleep at night on a Thermarest NeoAir faster than the Gemini computer, and stores about 122 that weighs less than a pound yet inflates to a delicious four million times more information. It has its own battery and inches thick. display, and still weighs under five pounds.

Even with the inevitable stainless steel pot and FryThe last 50 years have been similarly dramatic in Bake, packs are light enough to forsake full hiking boots the development of outdoor equipment. Five days after and feel secure in lowtop hiking shoes weighing two to Ed White’s spacewalk, on June 8th, the very first NOLS three pounds a pair. Even some mountaineering boots course sorted their backpacking gear at the defunct power weigh as little as three pounds per pair. plant in Sinks Canyon, south of Lander. They lashed In the 1960s and ‘70s, an ice axe—the ultimate gear to WWII-era “Carrier, Manpack, G.S.”—welded mountaineer tool—was likely to be 75-100 centimeters aluminum packboards originally intended for hauling long and weigh 29 ounces or more. The modern ice axe is mortars and radios. There were no hipbelts, and the only considerably shorter, down to 55-70 centimeters. Popular padding was nylon webbing. Food for longer rations, aluminum-shafted axes weigh around 15 ounces and are natural fiber ropes, meter-long ice axe weighing close designed for easy handling. to two pounds—all in all, a NOLS load from the 1960s The evolution of clothes has been even more remarkable. or ‘70s could weigh 70 pounds (up to 100 on Outdoor clothing has grown into a huge market—the titans Patagonia and Marmot were founded in 1973 and mountaineering courses).

The standard issue hiking boots were Galibier ‘74 respectively, but many respectable brands, such as Vercours, iconic dark leather boots with red laces. A pair Mountain Hardwear and Ibex, did not start until the 1990s.

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As the modern world evolves, we implement improving technology to improve the NOLS experience and maintain excellence in outdoor education.

There are now many lightweight synthetic alternatives to the NOLS clothing of the past, and wool options have also improved thanks to lightweight Merino garments.

In 1965, computers played no role in NOLS courses.

Lessons in the field followed a standard, but that standard was only shared orally. Over time, with growing faculty and added academics in the curriculum, NOLS had developed a library of educator notebooks, which were adding weight back to packs. In the past decade, the advent of portable tablet computers has changed even that. An Amazon Kindle weighs less than eight ounces and can hold two gigabytes of data (approximately 1,100 books).

Fifty years have passed, but NOLS continues to uphold excellence in teaching wilderness skills and leadership. As the modern world evolves, we implement improving technology to maximize the NOLS experience and maintain excellence in outdoor education.

Written by Ben Lester, NOLS Professional Training Business Operations Manager, Current Instructor.

NOLS Rocky Mountain, KEN JONES

2015 STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT

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CHRIS SICURANZA

Embracing Life’s Challenges When Chris Sicuranza took a leave of absence from his job as a senior consultant at a major U.S. firm to enroll on his first NOLS course, a Fall Semester in Mexico, his mother cried.

“It was a risky decision, but one of the best I’ve made in my life,” Sicuranza said of his three months in the Baja backcountry.

The four-time NOLS graduate said witnessing how people live in remote areas of other countries gave him an appreciation for what he had.

“Spending over 30 days in a beautiful, natural, remote setting changes who you are,” Sicuranza said. “Learning to thrive and be happy with very little in the natural environment and focusing on the basics—food, shelter, water and travel—is liberating.”

Sicuranza’s experience reminded him to not take for granted the opportunities he had, and to tackle every one of them with energy, drive and commitment.

What he learned about adversity and uncertainty from NOLS, he said, has affected the way he strives to live.

“You can be cold, tired, and wet—but the miserable part is optional,” he said.

Sicuranza recommends embracing life’s most difficult and uncomfortable moments.

“Those are the most memorable,” he said.

Since his return to consulting, Sicuranza regularly works with groups for long periods of time, often under stressful and uncertain conditions. The work requires thoughtful risk management and problem solving; understanding how the team is feeling is very important to morale and performance.

“The ability to be aware of these circumstances is something I learned from NOLS,” Sicuranza stated.

A regular contributor to the NOLS Annual Fund, Sicuranza explained he supports the fund because his NOLS expedition had such a significant impact on him.

“I believe it is important for others to have the same opportunity,” he said.

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Sicuranza said witnessing how people live in remote areas of other countries gave him an appreciation for what he had.

NOLS Mexico, CASS COLMAN

NOLS AT 50: THEN AND NOW

CURRICULUM: CORE IS CONSISTENT WHILE NOLS HAS GROWN EXPONENTIALLY OVER

the last 50 years, our core curriculum has changed relatively little.

That continuity has not come from stagnation or inertia; the creativity of our instructors, continual improvement of our materials, and growing numbers of students prove that. Instead, it’s a testament to the relevance of the lessons we teach and our methods of teaching.

Today, we define curriculum as “the specific lessons, resources, and activities that support learning goals and objectives.” It’s the framework supporting the four aspects of our core curriculum: leadership, wilderness skills, risk management, and environmental studies. All of these aspects, whether in the field or classroom, serve to transform students and leave them empowered to act.

In the school’s early days, much of the curriculum was defined by founder Paul Petzoldt’s three main tenets: safety of the individual, care of the environment, and care of the equipment. The rest of the lessons were defined by the environment and instructors’ discretion.

From the 1970s to the early 80s, instructors were the main drivers behind deciding what students learned on courses, sharing knowledge among each other, and relying on a system of mentorship to maintain institutional knowledge and share teaching practices.

In the late 1980s, the movement to formalize the core curriculum gained momentum. This led to many changes in teaching methods, but most importantly gave the school a common language to talk about what students gained from courses. These changes included adding risk management

tools, such as debriefing after incidents (under previous risk management director, Tod Schimelpfenig), and developing Accepted Field Practices (under risk management director, Drew Leemon). They also led to further defining NOLS’ language around leadership in the early 1990s.

As for teaching methods, they have remained as varied as the environments in which we operate. Teaching takes the form of spur-of-the-moment observations, planned reflections, and even having students research and present their own classes. The experience of instructors and input from formal research inform the ways we seek to engage students.

One of the most used and difficult to define elements of NOLS’ curriculum is the environment. It creates the need to practice good leadership skills, encourages a specific way of travel and interaction, allows students to witness the ecological concepts they’ve been taught, and demands respect and careful decision-making, as it carries its own risks that don’t change simply because our groups enter it as a classroom.

The wilderness will likely be the teaching resource most subject to change over time. As we continue to articulate what we teach and why the wilderness is such a powerful place to learn, we are fortunate we can go back to the basic values on which the organization was founded: equipping future leaders with valuable skills that are relevant in any environment.

Written by Molly Herber, Writer, Wind River Mountaineering ‘08, North Cascades Mountaineering ‘09, Rainier Alumni Trip ‘10, Wilderness First Responder ‘15.

Teaching takes the form of spur-of-the moment observations, planned reflections, and even having students research and present their own classes.

2015 STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT

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THE NOLS ANNUAL FUND

CONSISTENT GROWTH HELPS FULFILL THE MISSION NOLS Patagonia, ALEX CHANG-CORNELL LEADERSHIP EXPEDITION

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THANKS TO THOUSANDS OF SUPPORTERS, THE

NOLS Annual Fund again exceeded its fundraising goal, hit a record high, and provided students with lifechanging experiences in the wilderness.

In fiscal year 2015, more than 3,200 donors gave a total of $2,164,219—surpassing our $1,718,000 goal by 26 percent. That’s an average gift of about $470, though gifts of any amount matter.

Because of your generosity, the NOLS Annual Fund has seen consistent growth, raising more than $1 million annually in 11 of the last 12 years. And this year’s donated amount beat last year’s all-time high.

About 73 percent of this year’s dollars were given as unrestricted, allowing NOLS the flexibility to use them where they are needed most. That includes supporting essential day-to-day operations, scholarships, outreach, curriculum development and sustainability initiatives.

We have seen a 23 percent increase in the number of sustainable donors, those who give on-line every month, quarter or year through automatic deductions.

We are also seeing the benefits of using PayPal as an option for giving to NOLS. Because of you, 2015 was a very successful year!

Know that without your gift, NOLS would not be able to empower students to see beauty in wild places, become effective leaders and translate lessons learned in the backcounty to their lives in the front country. Thank you!

Fouser believes making discoveries about ourselves, the world around us, and our relationships to others are experiences that should be available to anyone who is seeking them.

NOLS Teton Valley, WILLIAM HAZLEHURST

EDITH FOUSER

Seeking Out Challenges Former instructor, and current teacher and mom, Edith Fouser donates to the NOLS Annual Fund because she believes a NOLS course should be available to anyone who wants to take one.

The more diverse an expedition group is, she believes, the greater the learning potential.

“Being challenged to go beyond comfort to see what you can discover about yourself, the world around you, and how you relate to other humans—these are experiences that need to be available to anyone who is seeking them,” Fouser said.

The middle-school science and math teacher who, as a teen, learned about NOLS through older siblings of friends noted, “they came home with memorable stories and a certain confidence that I craved.”

She got that and more from her courses, saying her experience as a NOLS student and, later, as an instructor, shaped who she is today.

Fouser made a habit of seeking out things that challenged her, learning tolerance for adversity and mindfulness through authentic experiences in the intense beauty of wild nature.

She also learned to lead in a way that fosters responsibility coupled with watching out for the needs of others.

For instance, in her math class, Fouser endeavors to make her classroom a safe enough place that a student who “doesn’t get it” is comfortable working out the solution to a problem at the board in front of the class, with the assistance of his or her peers.

She takes those lessons home too, where she and her husband are raising two young boys.

“We have commented that the skills we used with each other in the mountains and at sea are great parenting skills,” she said. She counts dealing with messes, not sleeping at night, and putting their own pleasures and needs aside in favor of their children’s needs among those skills.

And still, this busy young family finds the time and resources to make donating to NOLS a priority.

“In a world of increasing reliance on the digital, and the superficiality of social media, having an experience of shared struggle and community reliance, profoundly and intimately in contact with wilderness, is an increasingly rare and critically valuable opportunity that must be available to anyone who wants it,” Fouser said.

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PRIYANKA DHANDA

Finding Balance in the Wilderness What leads a software engineer from San Francisco to take seven NOLS courses in the last six years?

For Priyanka Dhanda, the answer is balance.

“NOLS has played a significant role in helping me find a happy balance between my front country life as a software engineer and my restless desire to explore the wilderness, climb mountains, and paddle the oceans,” Dhanda explained.

After an initial Alaska Mountaineering course in 2009, and multiple alumni courses since then, Dhanda said the most important things she learned from NOLS courses have been from her interactions with the team members who shared the journey with her. They are skills that include being prepared for any project she takes on; keeping a cool head in difficult situations; assessing the best way to proceed; being willing to adapt; and respecting others despite differences in opinions.

Whether she’s climbing with friends, working on a critical software project with a team, or cooking a meal with friends and family, the goal is that everyone enjoys the experience, succeeds as a group, and learns and grows.

That’s the natural outcome of good expedition behavior, Dhanda said.

“I have learned to respect individual differences, and use everyone’s strengths to achieve a common goal,” she explained.

Dhanda said she has heard NOLS students say over and over that their course “completely changed” how they react to adversity, and gave them the confidence to take on difficult projects.

Explaining her financial support for the school through the NOLS Annual Fund, Dhanda said she hopes her contribution makes it possible for more instructors to continue the valuable mission of teaching wilderness and leadership skills to serve the larger community and the environment.

“The ability to show people what they are capable of is very powerful, and the wilderness is a great place to teach that skill,” said Dhanda, who set off on a Patagonia Mountaineering course earlier this year. “As I reflect on this new approach to my life, I am reminded that it is never too late in life to learn new skills.”

“The ability to show people what they are capable of is very powerful, and the wilderness is a great place to teach that skill,” Dhanda believes.

NOLS Alaska, DALE LESCHER

THE NOLS ENDOWMENT

SECURITY FOR THE FUTURE WE BELIEVE IN WHAT WE TEACH IN THE field—the necessity of taking the long view, of looking at the big picture. We recognize that financial stability happens over time, not overnight. We also recognize that putting the right pieces in place today will foster more stability down the road. In short, we believe in the power of endowment.

That’s because the future of NOLS depends on endowment contributions—funds that continue to generate income year after year—to ensure stability. When NOLS was founded 50 years ago, there was no endowment, and stability suffered.

A secure foundation not only ensures NOLS can carry on its present work, but it also gives board and staff the assurance to look beyond current priorities and needs to imagine how the organization might fulfill its mission years from now.

NOLS Teton Valley, JARED STEINMAN

In December 2013, the school completed Campaign NOLS: Endowing Our Core Values, successfully reaching a $20 million goal. Gains made then have and will continue to provide the school with financial security for the future. Even though not in an active capital campaign, the endowment still brought in more than $400,000 in fiscal year 2015, thanks to very generous gifts.

Currently, 4 percent of our professionally-managed endowment is released each year to support important initiatives like our scholarship program and outreach activities.

A strong endowment supports continuation of the mission, and ensures that powerful leadership education and outdoor experiences are available to everyone who seeks them. A strong endowment—like the one at NOLS—is a strong future.

Putting the right pieces in place today will foster more stability down the road.

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ERIC SINGER

Group Goals and Safety Above Self Interest and Ego Eric Singer’s 1970 Wind River Biology course required students to complete a small group section called “survival,” traveling the last days of the course with a few other students and limited rations.

While it would have been easy to get irritable, the group’s NOLS training paid off: they worked together to forage and cook a stew they shared four ways.

That highlights what Singer believes to be among NOLS’ best lessons: as an effective leader, one must be selfless, holding the interest of the group’s safety and mutually held goals above self-interest and ego.

“That’s what shapes and directs the team to become more than the sum of its parts,” Singer said, ideas to live by whether in the back country, front country or somewhere in between.

Singer, who became an Alaska-based NOLS instructor, started his own guide business in Prince William Sound, crediting his NOLS course with giving him confidence in himself and his abilities. He was elected president of the Association of Alaska Mountain and Wilderness Guides, leading a group of more than 60 professional—and competing—recreational guides. Later, a move to Atlanta with his family led Singer down a similar path: he founded a camp that emphasizes experiential education, and was named its founding president.

Singer believes responsible use of the environment requires education and reinforcement, considering the number of people recreating outdoors.

“What better way to learn than at NOLS?” he asked.

Singer’s commitment to the school has led him to become a NOLS Summit Team member, including the school in his will.

He credits NOLS’ continual and incremental improvement, singular commitment to excellence, disciplined approach, and the broader mission of the school as the reasons he supports the NOLS Annual Fund and made a planned gift to the school.

“If there were no NOLS someone would have to invent one,” Singer noted. “We’re just lucky that someone already did, and even more fortunate that it has continued to grow and improve with age.”

16

NATIONAL OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP SCHOOL

“If there were no NOLS, someone would have to invent one,” Singer said.

NOLS Southwest, JARED STEINMAN

PLANNED GIVING

MAKING A LASTING IMPACT LEAVING A LASTING LEGACY BY INVESTING IN NOLS’ future: that’s the focus of a planned gift to NOLS. In the early years of NOLS, there was no fundraising campaign, and certainly no planned giving. In fact, 50 years ago, founder Paul Petzoldt scribbled an IOU to numerous students, asking them to “pay back when able.”

It wasn’t until 1999 that the school recognized the value of planned giving—to provide a way to help donors, their families and NOLS—and a formal planned giving program was launched.

Including NOLS in their estate plan or making a deferred gift to the school is, for many donors, a way to establish a lasting impact on the school, carrying their legacy forward in perpetuity.

Financial benefits for donors, including providing tax relief for themselves or their heirs, is another benefit of planned giving. In addition, thoughtful planning ensures the continued growth of NOLS and solidifies its mission— to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership.

The pairing of a sound financial decision and a legacy that reflects their values likely contributes to the steady growth of the Summit Team, the recognition society for those who have chosen to include NOLS in their estate plan or make a deferred gift to the school. In the last five years, the NOLS Summit Team has increased by almost nine percent, bringing the number of team members to 148 at the end of fiscal year 2015.

Now, 50 years after its founding, NOLS has a solid foundation of Summit Team members with plans for growth to assure a strong and secure future.

NOLS Rocky Mountain, KELSEY WICKS

2015 STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT

17

RISK MANAGEMENT

A CORE VALUE EXPANDS OVER HALF A CENTURY on the health and well being of our students.

Paul Petzoldt had a life-long appreciation for risk; it shaped his entire life and the formation of NOLS. He knew that seeking wilderness adventure provided opportunities to understand nature, learn technical skills and achieve personal growth, but it also had to be done safely.

Petzoldt communicated this to instructors and students through his three priorities—safety of the individual, care of the environment, and care of the equipment—and he emphasized teaching students the skills and judgment to avoid accidents.

Judgment and common sense, hallmarks of Petzoldt’s approach to living in the wilderness, were based on having foresight, and he was a strong advocate of having good plans. These included time-control, climate-control, and energy-control plans, all intended to be sure people were well-equipped, avoided extreme fatigue, and had energy to respond to unexpected situations.

Petzoldt used his years of prior experience to create the NOLS curriculum and field practices, but he also valued continuous learning, whether it was through reflection of personal experiences or learning from others.

Gaining new knowledge and applying it to wilderness situations was, to him, a core aspect of developing judgment and competency.

From this foundation, NOLS grew, thrived, and developed a resiliency to withstand significant events.

There were instances when students or instructors were seriously hurt or died, but NOLS learned from these experiences, and we worked to improve our field practices.

18

NATIONAL OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP SCHOOL

As the school grew into the 1970s, we offered an instructor’s course to have more consistently trained staff; Petzoldt published his book The Wilderness Handbook, that essentially define NOLS curriculum; and we started improving our standards of practice by requiring climbing helmets, belaying rappels, using climbing harnesses, and requiring instructors to have first-responder training.

Efforts to improve our support systems, instructor development, and field practices continued through the 1980s. We established more complete evacuation-support systems, including the use of field radios; were one of the

originators of wilderness medicine; and institutionalized the collection of data on NOLS injuries, illnesses, evacuations, and near misses. We have collected this data for 31 years and the database is the most extensive of its kind in adventure education. We also revitalized our written curriculum materials and field practices by revising The Wilderness Handbook and beginning work on the Wilderness Educator Notebook.

The early 1990s saw an important change in our organizational attention to safety, and the term “risk management” replaced the word “safety.” We

NOLS Medical Incident and Evacuation Rates

Rate/1000 Program Days

FOR 50 YEARS, NOLS HAS PLACED A HIGH PRIORITY

acknowledged that in spite of our best efforts, complete safety was not attainable, but we still seek to identify hazards, assess risks, and use judgment and appropriate field practices to avoid or manage risks. In essence, the term “risk management” was a more accurate reflection of what Petzoldt was teaching in the beginning.

Risk management was also a way to include all the support elements of a NOLS education, such as reliable equipment, nutritious food, dependable vehicles, welltrained drivers, thorough admissions processes, and extensive instructor training and evaluation. NOLS risk management is a systems-based approach where all aspects of the school are directed toward successful student experiences.

Risk management at NOLS continues to progress to this day and builds off the foundation laid down by Petzoldt. Risk remains a core element of our curriculum and pedogogy, and our approach to risk is juxtaposed against the thrill-seeking and extreme risk that is popularized in our society today.

Risk and consequence give our education relevancy and practicality. It is inherent in the remote locations through which we travel, and our approach to it is one of respect gained through knowledge, skill, experience, and expertise. We value critical thinking, reflection on experiences, resiliency in difficult times, and commitment to our students. We continually enhance our systems of risk management as societal expectations change, wilderness travel techniques evolve, and technology improves and develops. A NOLS course, including the risks, is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.

RISK MANAGEMENT IN ACTION NOLS Pacific Northwest, JAMIE O'DONNELL

At 6 p.m., July 4, 2015, a 28-year-old female instructor was struck and pinned by a boulder and sustained a fractured left femur.

She and six students were on a day hike, descending a 30-degree boulder-covered slope, when rocks started to slide downhill and she was knocked off her feet. She slipped about 15 feet and was hit by a boulder the size of a bathtub that slid down from above. She was pinned with her right side on the ground. She was able to coach the students to help free her from the boulder and move her to a flat spot.

From there, she coached them in first aid, activated the personal locator beacon, and sent two students to camp 1.5

miles away to get the other instructor, who came to her aid.

NOLS Rocky Mountain staff was notified of the incident by the Rescue Coordination Center in Florida, which assisted throughout the night in coordinating an evacuation with the Air National Guard in Wyoming and Montana, and the local county search and rescue organization.

The instructor was hoisted aboard a helicopter at 5:20 a.m., July 5, and taken to a nearby hospital. There were eight fractures in her femur, a titanium rod was surgically implanted, and she returned home to recuperate. Her prognosis is good for a full recovery, though it is expected to take about a year.

2015 STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT

19

ASHLEY MORETZ

Accepting What Can’t Be Changed Ashley Moretz credits a difficult pack horse named Cal for a lesson in leadership that has served him well in a career that spans the globe.

As a student on a 1987 Wilderness Horsepacking course in the Wind River Mountains, Moretz was assigned the cranky old horse.

Saddling Cal each morning was a chore, but an even bigger challenge was guiding him through the steep terrain Moretz and fellow students covered on their route.

“Despite the pace we were trying to keep, the only way to get Cal across those sections was to slow down and let him traverse at a rate he was comfortable with,” Moretz remembered, pointing out the wisdom in the saying a group can only progress as fast as the slowest member.

“Successfully leading a team sometimes means taking a pause to let the other members catch up, so you can again move forward together.”

Moretz also learned that culture makes a difference.

“On our course, due to our diverse backgrounds and experiences, each of us made different contributions to achieving our team’s goals,” Moretz said.

That lesson was invaluable when, more than a decade after he completed his NOLS expedition, Moretz left his job and life in New York City to volunteer for a year with a non-profit that sends new MBAs to serve as consultants in emerging markets. In Moretz’s case, that was Central Asia.

“The expected one-year assignment in Kazakhstan ultimately turned into an exciting 12-year adventure covering three additional countries—Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan,” Moretz said.

He calls his NOLS course a formative experience and—more than 25 years after his course— supports the NOLS Annual Fund so others might have the same opportunity he did. In fact, Mortez has given to the fund almost every year since 1996.

“NOLS builds self-confidence and imparts life skills that prepare students to overcome challenges and adversity in any setting or stage throughout life,” he said.

From his NOLS course, Moretz reflected, he learned the importance of addressing the things he can influence, and greater acceptance of things that are outside his control. Like Cal. 20

NATIONAL OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP SCHOOL

“Successfully leading a team sometimes means taking a pause to let the other members catch up, so you can again move forward together,” Moretz said.

NOLS Rocky Mountain, KELSEY WICKS

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

PREPARED FOR THE NEXT 50 YEARS WITH THE END OF OUR FIFTIETH YEAR, IT IS

NOLS Balance Sheet Aug. 31, 2015 and 2014 ASSETS

2015

2014

Cash

$17,801,000

$17,943,000

Investments

6,430,000

5,344,000

Endowment investments

31,159,000

30,641,000

Receivables

744,000

620,000

Pledges receivable

697,000

1,301,000

Prepaid expenses

298,000

305,000

Merchandise

1,174,000

1,006,000

Other

1,319,000

1,193,000

Property, plant, and equipment net TOTAL ASSETS

28,965,000

29,179,000

$88,587,000

$87,532,000

certainly our privilege and honor to be able to share the news of the strong financial position of NOLS. Each of the past fifty years has been a building block of our financial success.

Thanks to the vision and leadership of those in the past, the hard work of staff, and the guidance of our supporters today, we have been able to operate in a very fiscally responsible manner at all levels of the organization. The greatest strength of NOLS is our mission, but we also know that a strong financial foundation is needed to carry that mission into the future. Through a combination of a growing endowment, identified reserves and lack of long-term debt, we believe that we are building that foundation.

Our endowment is an increasing piece of our financial foundation providing support for our scholarships and mission. Over the last six fiscal years the value of the endowment has nearly tripled, growing to $31,159,000. We are certainly

grateful for the support from our friends in building this piece of our financial foundation. The trust placed in us by the supporters of our endowment is humbling, and the prudent management of this important resource continues to be an important goal for us, as it is a key to our mission.

The financial resources that have been generated over the past fifty years from operations and by support from our donors are an important responsibility and opportunity for NOLS. A core organizational feature identified in our current strategic plant is to maintain our disciplined financial stewardship. One of the ways in which we have achieved this is to create and fund cash reserves. These reserves have been created not only to sustain us in difficult circumstances, but also to allow us to pursue opportunities to expand our reach and mission. We will continue to invest and use our financial reserves to support our students and mission while protecting the integrity of our financial resources.

LIABILITES AND NET ASSETS Accounts payable

$5,400,000

$5,498,000

Student deposits

7,043,000

6,418,000

Total liabilites

$12,443,000

$11,916,000

Net assets

$76,144,000

$75,616,000

$88,587,000

$87,532,000

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS

2015 STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT

21

OUR STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES IS REFLECTIVE OF

NOLS Statement of Activities For the fiscal years ending Aug. 31, 2015 and 2014 UNRESTRICTED

TEMPORARILY RESTRICTED

PERMANENTLY RESTRICTED

TOTAL 2015

TOTAL 2014

$31,123,000

$-

$-

$31,123,000

$30,125,000

Other program revenues

1,875,000

-

-

1,875,000

2,057,000

Total program revenue

32,998,000

-

-

32,998,000

32,182,000

REVENUES AND OTHER SUPPORT PROGRAM REVENUES Tuition and fees

FUNDRAISING ACTIVITIES Contributions and grants

1,593,000

68,000

1,442,000

3,103,000

3,234,000

Released from endowment

671,000

(671,000)

-

-

-

457,000

(457,000)

-

-

-

Net assets released from restriction for Program Buildings and Equipment Total fundraising revenue

180,000

(180,000)

-

-

-

2,901,000

(1,240,000)

1,442,000

3,103,000

3,234,000

INVESTMENT AND OTHER REVENUE Interest and investment income

226,000

279,000

-

505,000

263,000

Net realized and unrealized gains on investments

(746,000)

(1,256,000)

-

(2,002,000)

4,936,000

Gain (loss) on sale of equipment

53,000

-

-

53,000

67,000

(467,000)

(977,000)

-

(1,444,000)

5,266,000

35,432,000

(2,217,000)

1,442,000

34,657,000

40,682,000

Program

26,516,000

-

-

26,516,000

25,231,000

Administration

6,755,000

-

-

6,755,000

6,397,000

Fundraising

858,000

-

-

858,000

864,000

TOTAL EXPENSES

34,129,000

-

-

34,129,000

32,492,000

CHANGE IN NET ASSETS

$1,303,000

$(2,217,000)

$1,442,000

$528,000

$8,190,000

Total investment and other revenue TOTAL REVENUE AND OTHER SUPPORT

EXPENSES

22

NATIONAL OUTDOOR LEADERSHIP SCHOOL

our continued focus on meeting both our educational and financial goals. FY 2015 was again a year with excellent operating results for NOLS. We are proud of how we dealt with a constantly changing and unpredictable operating environment. One thing that is constant and predictable is how, when faced with operational challenges, staff throughout the school respond in much the same manner as when faced with challenges in the field: by being flexible and innovative.

Thanks to the efforts and support of many, we continue to thrive financially in very challenging times, and this past year we again set a new high for NOLS in operating revenue.

One area that was not a positive was our investment returns. The tumultuous investment markets over the course of the year resulted in an investment loss for our fiscal year.

While the decrease of nearly five percent is relatively modest and in line with the change in markets over this period, it is dramatic compared to the record gains of the last fiscal year.

The education of our students is, as always, our primary focus. We are very pleased with and proud of the financial results we achieved this past year to support that focus. We recognize the importance of being excellent stewards of our financial resources. Our positive financial results are due to the support and efforts of many and will help us to carry our mission into the future.

THE LAST SEVEN YEARS HAS BEEN A TIME OF

NOLS Seven-Year Financial Highlights 2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

Total assets

$88,587,000

$87,532,000

$79,100,000

$71,140,000

$66,675,000

$59,341,000

$55,140,000

Total liabilities

12,443,000

11,916,000

11,674,000

11,847,000

13,112,000

12,932,000

13,329,000

Net assets

$76,144,000

$75,616,000

$67,426,000

$59,293,000

$53,563,000

$46,409,000

$41,811,000

REVENUE Program

$32,998,000

$32,182,000

$30,724,000

$29,512,000

$28,661,000

$27,009,000

$25,897,000

Contributions

3,103,000

3,234,000

5,998,000

4,923,000

5,126,000

2,516,000

1,945,000

Investment

(1,497,000)

5,199,000

2,794,000

978,000

1,833,000

943,000

(1,754,000)

53,000

67,000

1,000

62,000

(160,000)

30,000

7,000

34,657,000

40,682,000

39,517,000

35,475,000

35,460,000

30,498,000

26,095,000

26,516,000

25,231,000

25,464,000

24,326,000

23,313,000

21,389,000

20,666,000

Other Total revenues EXPENSES Program Fundraising

858,000

864,000

909,000

974,000

837,000

746,000

819,000

Administration and interest

6,755,000

5,477,000

5,011,000

4,445,000

4,156,000

3,765,000

3,843,000

34,129,000

32,492,000

31,384,000

29,745,000

28,306,000

25,900,000

25,328,000

$528,000

$8,190,000

$8,133,000

$5,730,000

$7,154,000

$4,598,000

$767,000

Total expenses Change in net assets NUMBER OF STUDENTS NOLS field courses

4,698

4,320

4,210

4,056

3,889

3,782

3,688

NOLS classroom courses

19,010

16,763

15,853

14,288

13,258

11,580

10,503

Total students

23,708

21,083

20,063

18,344

17,147

15,362

14,191

Number of student days

224,256

217,559

208,787

205,155

202,957

192,667

186,475

Scholarship recipients

883

603

624

613

618

480

534

Scholarship awarded

$1,761,000

$1,527,000

$1,543,000

$1,519,000

$1,462,000

$1,307,000

$1,195,000

continued growth in both the educational impact and financial position of NOLS. Our net assets have increased in each of the last seven years and have nearly doubled over this time.

These continued positive result are indicative of the financial strength throughout NOLS and of our commitment to our goals with an eye to the future We have seen growth in our net assets in each of our decades, but the last ten years have been especially dramatic.

Since 2005 our net assets have increased by $46 million, with more than sixty percent of our total net assets generated during this time.

Each of these years is a collection of unique stories, but there have been some constants. NOLS has consistently seen strong operating results and support from our friends.

Contributions to our mission have continued to grow through gifts to the NOLS Annual Fund, our endowment, the International Base Camp Initiative, Campaign NOLS, and the Wyss Wilderness Medicine Campus. Gifts to these campaigns over the past seven years have been nearly $27 million. Thanks to the support and efforts of many, we continue to build on the successes of our past and look to our future with a strong financial position.

2015 STATE OF THE SCHOOL REPORT

23

National Outdoor Leadership School 284 Lincoln Street • Lander, WY 82520 www.nols.edu • (800) 710-NOLS Cover: NOLS Yukon, STÉPHANE TERRIER; Back: NOLS Teton Valley, JARED STEINMAN