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Several of NHF’s staff are certified as Wilderness Education Association Educators

The New Horizons staff hosted a WEA 25-day wilderness professional development course in Retezat National Park. This course trained New Horizons staff, Retezat National Park Authorities and the Salvamont (Mountain Rescue Team) in the best practices of the Wilderness Expedition Association curriculum, Leave No Trace principles and Solo (Wilderness First Aid training).

New Horizons has been asked by the University of Timisoara and Retezat National Park to help develop an adventure and environmental education curriculum. To this end, we have forged world-class partnerships with the Wilderness Education Association (WEA), Leave No Trace (LNT), and SOLO (Wilderness First Aid) that brought to bear the best practices of these organizations on the fledgling discipline of adventure education in Romania. The training was designed primarily for Romanian leaders in the above organizations, and was free of charge.

The classroom for this course was the Retezat National Park. The training emphasized the experiential teaching/learning of the following curriculum elements: low-impact camping skills, judgment and leadership, expedition behavior, environmental ethics, rations, clothing, health and sanitation, travel techniques, navigation, weather, first aid/emergency procedures, natural and cultural history, group process and communication, and the various phases of expedition planning.

The objectives of the program were:

1. To share the WEA curriculum and evaluation process and to discuss the curriculum’s integration into the participants’ programs.

2. To provide an introduction and orientation to the WEA accreditation process and program requirements.

3. To involve the outdoor community in further developing WEA certification for outdoor leadership training.

4. To provide a forum for sharing where professionals can sharpen their individual outdoor leadership skills.