Venture Out: Empowering Students through Outdoor Environmental Education

Princeton-Blairstown Center’s new Venture Out environmental education program is designed to provide middle school students from Trenton public schools with access to high-quality outdoor environmental education. Pam Gregory, the Center’s President & CEO said, "New research has confirmed what we have known for a long time – that well-designed and well-implemented outdoor programs can achieve even larger increases in social-emotional learning than other out-of-school programs like after-school programs or recreational sports. This has been proven to be especially true for boys and young Latinx people. This is powerful stuff."

After a soft launch in the fall, Venture Out officially kicked off in April, and already we can see the power of this program. Fifty-seven percent of the youth in one group identified as Latinx, while 20% identified as African-American, and the rest identified as Other. Eighty-four percent of these students rated their time at the Princeton-Blairstown Center as an 8 or above on a scale from 1 to 10, citing various reasons for their positive experiences, ranging from the food and activities to the people.

One student shared, “I’m always stuck at home using my phone or sleeping, but being here made me experience new things, and I felt happy," while another said that they now "had more of a connection with nature."

Part of the reason why the Center’s programs are so potent is that they combine hands-on, curriculum-aligned academic lessons with social-emotional learning to create authentic learning experiences. As a result, there are many different moments of Venture Out that students consider the highlight of their trip.

According to student feedback, the blindfolded trust exercise, making s’mores around the campfire, and having the opportunity to disconnect from technology and connect with friends were among the highlights.

One student said, “The best time was when my group and I were fixing a log! It required a lot of teamwork and helping each other out.”

In addition to the positive student feedback, chaperones also witnessed the impact of Venture Out on their students, saying they “became more cohesive, learned teamwork, and made new friends.”

One chaperone shared that they saw their students’ “perceptions and awareness grow tremendously.”

The “Oh Deer” and “Coyote Call” simulation games teach students about the essential things animals need to survive and how different elements of an ecological system exist in an intricate web of interdependence.

Malik Church, one of the Center’s highly trained Senior Facilitators, said that student reactions during the lessons range from amazed to disgusted, but that activities like the owl pellet dissection encourage students to “come out of their comfort zone, welcome getting dirty, and practice analyzing along with categorization.”

“The big take-away for me is to allow students to slow down and take in the sights and sounds of the forest and learn to appreciate being in the moment with very few distractions and stressors, said Senior Facilitator James Frye.

The Center’s goal for Venture Out is to become a core experience for Trenton middle-school students. By partnering with schools and community groups, we have the power to transform lives by providing equitable access to nature, inspiring a new generation of environmental leaders and decision-makers, and cultivating empathetic young adults who value each other, themselves, and the world around them.