What We’re About

Are you interested in all aspects of adventure education and the challenges of leading groups through experiences that build confidence and teamwork skills? You’ll work with the faculty and students in the Outdoor Leadership Department (ODL) to manage equipment, organize events, and assist in teaching. Some other responsibilities can include managing logistics for the departure and return of ODL class trips; managing equipment loans to students; assisting with challenge course inspections, maintenance, and teaching; managing pro-deals and fostering relationships with local businesses. Why wait to graduate when you could gain experience now?

What You’ll Learn

You’ll spend years working alongside your peers with the mentorship of your supervisors.  Part of the experience of work at Warren Wilson is guided critical reflection, which helps ensure that you achieve both your own educational goals as well as our Common Learning Outcomes. These intentional learning outcomes distinguish our Work Program, giving it focus and relevancy that set it apart from a federal work-study or your average part-time job. 

Our Common Learning Outcomes:

• Professionalism & Work Ethic: accountability, effective work habits, punctuality, dependability, time management, integrity, and commitment to the well-being of the community.
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: working with available resources to creatively address issues and solve problems, and gaining confidence to make decisions.
• Communication: the ability to convey and receive information effectively with intentionality, honesty, and confidence in both speech and writing.
• Collaboration & Teamwork: actively collaborate with peers to achieve common goals, Distribute labor fairly, and hold each other accountable as committed members of a group.
• Civic Identity: understanding your active influence within the community and how your decisions directly impact the work around you.

In addition to our Common Learning Outcomes, each crew in the Work Program identifies crew-specific goals for learning and performance. These are reviewed with you each semester. Your crew-specific learning goals outline skills and abilities your supervisor will teach you during the semester. 

Some of our Outdoor Leadership Assistant crew learning goals include:

• Outdoor equipment maintenance and repair
• Inventory management
• Event planning 
• Outdoor trip logistics
• Challenge course maintenance
• Risk management