NOLS 40th Celebration-1 Week and Counting

We are down to one week and counting for the NOLS 40th Anniversary celebration. This became more apparent to me today when I stopped down to visit with Kevin in the NOLS Rocky Mountain issue room. Kev has laid in a bunch of great 40th anniversary stuff-- hats, t-shirts and my favorite, the Woolrich wool Jac-shirt with the retro NOLS logo (the NOLS "seal" seen to the left). Very sweet. If you are in town, you'll want to look them over.

40th Anniversary gear is also available at the NOLS online store.

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director

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NOLS' strong presence at the World Wilderness Congress

I'm excited to see a solid team of NOLS staff heading to the 8th World Wilderness Congress! Executive Director John Gans, Public Policy Director Jen Lamb, Alaska Branch Director Don Ford and Alaska Wilderness Program Supervisor Shannon Rochelle are joining hundreds of representatives from governments, the private sector, native peoples, non-governmental organizations, and academia in Anchorage, Alaska, for this unique event.
Initiated by The WILD Foundation in 1977, the World Wilderness Congress (WWC) is now the longest-running, public, international environmental  forum. With over 25 years of conservation achievement, the WWC has become a high-profile platform for debating and acting on complex wilderness and wildlands issues. The WWC convenes every three to four years around the world, and is always focused on wilderness and people. Previous Congresses have met in South Africa, Australia, Scotland, the USA, Norway and India. Approximately 1,000 delegates from over 40 nations will attend this year.
NOLS will run an informational booth for two days and Jen Lamb will make a presentation on how NGOs can assist Land Management Agencies in achieving their educational goals.

To know more about the Congress, go to www.8wwc.org
For more details on NOLS' involvement, e-mail Jen at jennifer_lamb@nols.edu

Alexandra Yannakos, Wilderness Advocacy Coordinator

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Wilderness advocacy in Backpacker Magazine

"It's day 3 of your Green River raft trip with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) whenyour instructor beckons you to a canyon rim. You expect something cool--a fossil, or a hidden cascade. Instead, an oil rig appears in plain view..."

Thus begins an article in this month's issue of Backpacker Magazine. The article, featured in the magazine's monthly 'Trail Log' column, discusses wilderness conservation as it is being taught at schools like NOLS.  Wilderness Advocacy Coordinator Alex Yannakos described the impact of oil drilling on NOLS' wilderness classrooms, and the ways that NOLS seeks to affect land management decisions.

"Our students' experiences have been affected," says Yannakos. "So we're focusing on timely land management issues and on laying the foundation for stronger advocacy."

Check out this month's issue of Backpacker to learn more!

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NOLS Bus Ignores President's Conservation Request

That's right. The NOLS Bus is paying no attention to the President's request that Americans conserve fuel in the wake of Hurricane Rita. "Why should we?", said NOLS Bus driver Jared Scott. "As long as Americans eat fried foods there will be limitless fuel for this bus!"

And with that the NOLS Bus has rolled into Chicago. To date the NOLS Bus has traveled more than 25,000 miles fueled by Recycled Vegetable Oil (RVO) that the NOLS Bus Crew collects at college dining halls and restaurants along the way. With solar panels on the roof to collect power for on-board computers, TV and stereo the NOLS Bus is off the grid and on the road, unencumbered by the nation's fuel woes.

Roll on, NOLS Bus!

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director

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NACACtion, Not!

I am writing this on a flight back to Lander. The NACAC Conference ended yesterday with a whimper. Not much action in the Exhibit Hall. From the comments I heard most people were relatively unhappy with the hours that the hall was open.

While the attendance in the Exhibit Hall was pretty light yesterday I was able to connect with two scholarship programs that NOLS works with. I met with Del Driskoll from the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS). NSHSS has 125,000 members who represent some of the cream of the crop of the nation’s high school students. All NSHSS scholars receive a 10% scholarship from NOLS in recognition of their academic accomplishments and NSHSS sponsors two full scholarships for members.

I was also able to touch base with Jessalyn Strauss with the Robertson Scholars Program. The Robertson Scholars program is a scholarship that focuses on excellence and is available to students from University of North Carolina and Duke University. Each year NOLS Professional Training brings staff to North Carolina and provides training for the incoming class of scholars. Jessalyn spoke very highly of the training that the students received and is excited to look for more ways our organizations can work together.

Well, we’re headed into Denver. Gotta go before they take my computer from me!

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director

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More from Tampa

Day 3 of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) National Conference. It was a busy day in the exhibit hall. Pretty much non-stop with mostly guidance counselors stopping by. My experience is that there are three types of people at the conference- NOLS grads,  counselors who have had a student attend NOLS and rave about us and then a small number of people who haven't ever heard of us. The first two groups are fun to talk with. The third group are the money conversations! Most of these NOLS newbies are excited to hear about our college credit program and options for Gap Year. They are impressed by the breadth and the scope of our programs and almost always indicate that they know an ideal candidate that they want to tell about NOLS.

Among the NOLS grads that I met today: Jake Talmage, the director of college counseling at St. Paul's School in Maryland; Mark Davis, the college counselor at Upper Arlington High School in Ohio; Brian Meegan a 1975 NOLS grad, who is the dean of college counseling at The Benjamin School in Florida; and Morning Naughton, the associate director of admission at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. Morning also worked for NOLS Mexico in the early 90s.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference and then Sunday I head back to Lan Diego! If all goes well I'll be home in time for my son, Cole's 15th birthday party!

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director

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NACAC-AC-AC-AC-AC

Where's Billy Joel when you need him??

It was the first full day of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) National Conference. The conference opened on a somber note with Tulane University's Dean of Admission Richard Whiteside thanking the members for their help in placing Tulane students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. It was particularly poignant for, as he was speaking, the rest of the Tulane administration was in the process of evacuating their temporary headquarters in Houston in the face of oncoming Hurricane Rita.

It was a great day for NOLS in the exhibit hall. I had the opportunity to introduce a number of guidance counselors to NOLS. Most people in high school education are very familiar with our summer program, but not as aware of the NOLS semester program. They are excited to hear about the college credit program and the opportunity that NOLS offers high school graduates to take some time out from a classroom education, yet keep on learning.

The first person I talked to was Tinsley Furry, a consultant with ACT. She is a NOLS graduate from an Alaska Backpacking course. I also met a guidance counselor from the Chicago area that did a Wyoming Outdoor Educator course in the mid-90s.

A buddy of mine, Bill McClintock, stopped by to give me an update on Derry Mason. Derry is a NOLS grad and he runs the new outdoor program at Bill's school, Mercersburg Academy. Bill says that the outdoor program at Mercersburg is really growing under Derry's leadership. Bill and I go way back. We played basketball together at Hartwick College in the mid-70s.

Several guidance counselors came by to say what a difference NOLS had made in the lives of some of their students. The rep from the booth next to ours said he felt like he was witnessing a meeting of the NOLS Fan Club. Yep!

Til tomorrow,

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director

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WMI/NOLS Pro Marketing Coordinator Selected

Please join me in congratulating Katie Missett on her new position as WMI / NOLS Pro Marketing Coordinator. In this new role Katie will implement and execute all elements of NOLS Pro and WMI marketing efforts.

Katie has worked for the school over the past year as WMI's Student Services and Marketing Rep.   As part of her responsibilities she was intimately involved with marketing  WMI.  This experience will serve her well in the new role.

This summer Katie excelled on a Wind River Outdoor Educator Course, with an "in the field"  WFR, the first course of its type.

Prior to NOLS Katie completed her Master of Arts in Education at Stanford, and taught in California's public schools .

Katie brings a wealth of skill, talent, ability and experience to this position and we are excited to have her joining the team.

Matthew Copeland, NOLS marketing manager

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NACAC Maniac

I'm in Tampa for the National Association of College Admission Counseling National Conference. Hot and sticky? Oh, yeah.

Today was set-up day and then tomorrow the conference starts. This is normally a great event for NOLS with lots of guidance counselors coming by to talk about students that have done a NOLS course and college admission folks coming by to talk college credit. Good stuff.

I noticed that one of our partners is just down the aisle from the NOLS booth in the exhibit hall-- The National Society of High School Scholars. NOLS and NSHSS have teamed up to offer scholarships on NOLS courses for the scholars.

I'll report more tomorrow.

Bruce Palmer, NOLS marketing director

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NOLS Launches On-Line Auction - screamin' deals for a great cause

As part of NOLS' 40th Anniversary celebration, and with the generous help of numerous businesses and individuals, we've launched our first on-line auction. Proceeds go toward renovation of the historic Noble Hotel's mezzanine— to be christened in Paul Petzoldt's honor. Petzoldt founded NOLS as a non-profit in 1965.

Auction items run the gamut—from time in vacation properties, to outdoor gear, to mountain and fishing trips, to books, posters, jewelry and more. Click here to see the cool items. Bidding gets you great stuff and helps NOLS at the same time. If you've just cleaned out your closet and have an old Rembrandt, Picasso, or other interesting relics that you'd consider donating to the NOLS auction, drop us an email note— we'd love to add to our growing collection.

So dump out yer piggy bank, wander the auction site, email us your bid and start checking "done" on your holiday gift lists.

-Rich Brame
NOLS Alumni Relations Manager

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