We are excited to announce we have two new members joining the NWOBS Board! Please join us in welcoming Melanie Stagnitti (pictured above) and Karen Westing. Continue reading to learn more about Melanie and Karen’s background and interest with NWOBS! MEET: MELANIE STAGNITTI What interested you or what inspired you to join the NWOBS Board?…
Author: NWOBS-Blog
Alumni Feature: Ime Etuk
Elevating the voice of Black filmmakers, Ime Etuk uses storytelling to raise awareness around poverty, homelessness, mental health, and the transformative nature of the outdoors. Ime is a Northwest Outward Bound School alumnus and former board member, and he was NWOBS’s first Pinnacle Scholar. Finding his passion for storytelling in high school, Ime began his…
Our 2022 Focus
As we begin 2022, so many of us yearn for a clear understanding of the future and the stability that we thought we’d have by this point of the pandemic. At NWOBS we don’t know how the year will unfold, but we know clearly where we are focused and how we’ll support students as we…
Program Spotlight: Evergreen School District
A new year means new beginnings and experiences, and our NWOBS Public School Programs team is no exception. This winter marks the kickoff of our new partnership with Washington’s Evergreen School District. Our instructors teach as many as six different classes in one day, providing an action-packed experience full of games, growth, and unlocking new…
Tips for Overcoming Challenges
If you’ve ever been on an Outward Bound expedition, you’ve seen in action how shared challenges, adversity, failure and success help our students discover and develop new skills, confidence and passion. Again and again over the past year and a half, we’ve seen huge challenges at a global level, and even more recently as our…
Program Spotlight: Word is Bond
This July, we continued our work with the Word is Bond youth program in Portland. Our fourth full year running programing with Word is Bond, it has been one of our most exciting and successful yet. The Word is Bond youth program, created in partnership with the Portland Police Bureau, is a six-week summer community-building…
2021 – 2023 Strategic Framework
I am excited to share with you the Northwest Outward Bound School 2021 – 2023 Strategic Framework. As an organization, we’ve finally reached the point of this pandemic where we can look ahead, move forward with plans for the future and be invigorated by the opportunities that lie ahead. We know that some things will…
One Year Later
A year ago we quickly took action in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible. We pulled 17 students from the field on day 30 of their 78 day course. We furloughed most of our Administrative team as we bought time to gauge the magnitude and impacts of COVID-19. Our Portland Schools Program staff stayed home…
Donor Support in 2020 Sets NWOBS Up for Success in 2021
In a year that so many of us were challenged emotionally and physically, the Northwest Outward Bound School Community really stepped forward to support the school in 2020! We were able to exceed our 2020 donor support goal due to the generosity of our donor community, and we saw an increase of 65% in the…
Student Spotlight: A Place To Call Home
NWOBS alumna Camille Newsom reflects on her experience on a Northwest Outdoor Educator Course. Outward Bound gave me more than just fifty days of exposure to the Pacific Northwest, it gave me a place I could call home. On day one of course we were asked to stand where we call home on a theoretical…