Outdoor Education facilities offer activities for all students
The center is located on East Campus overlooking Lake Laurel and offers a variety of outdoor activities including a low challenge course, a 25-element high challenge course and a Tango Tower with two climbing walls.
The East Campus facilities serve the GCSU faculty, staff and students as well as members of the surrounding community. Director of the Outdoor Education Center Jeff Turner feels that the Center provides many beneficial opportunities to the community.
“The Outdoor Education Center provides a range of outdoor education experiences for Georgia College students as well as the bigger community, typically through organized groups,” Turner said. “There is not as much individual involvement, but we do have other groups we work with like Venture Out.”
The Center provides an outlet for outdoor education, training and group development. They offer a number of technical workshops. Some upcoming workshops scheduled include a tree climbing workshop, a leave no trace trainer course and a wilderness first responder course. Caroline Toy, the program coordinator for the Outdoor Education Center, is in charge of scheduling all of the events.
“We do contract programming at a pretty reasonable rate. We offer a variety of options such as a challenge course, both high and low; we can do paddling, canoeing and kayaking on Lake Sinclair and sometimes overnight trips,” Toy said. “We have capacity to do backpacking climbing and caving trips as well.”
One of the main reasons rock climbing and outdoor adventure courses have become so popular is the flexibility of the sport. In the past, rock climbing has been a sport for those who lived around mountains or had the resources available. With the introduction of man-made walls and different types of adventure courses such as the GCSU Outdoor Center, the sport is becoming increasingly recognized.
Another thing attracting a large crowd is the added physical benefits these courses can provide.
Junior psychology major Amanda Smith enjoys reaping the physical benefits of these types of outdoor exercises.
“I don’t get to climb often, but I love the physical challenge of it,” Smith said. “When I reach the top, there’s a strong sense of accomplishment knowing that I pushed myself to my limit.”
This sense of success is one of the things that makes these outdoor courses so popular. The East Campus courses are comprised of a leadership staff made up of both graduate and undergraduate students as well as GCSU faculty and staff that focus on making the experience positive for the entire group.
“All of the programs we do are custom programs; these can be anything from challenge courses, ropes courses or weekend recreation, to leadership weekends,” Turner said. “I encourage students to think about the needs in their organizations, and we can get together and address those so that the group can reach its highest potential.”
Healthwise, these courses are also very beneficial to the body. Rock climbing alone helps develop and tone muscles, improve flexibility, improve balance and coordination and burn calories. The abounding health benefits and extensive facility space at East Campus help to make the Outdoor Center a prime place for groups to build leadership skills and team unity.
The GCSU Outdoor Education Center is especially focused on gearing activities toward the goals of a group. Anyone from a Greek life organization, a dorm, an RSA or any other group can get in touch with the Center and they will cater specifically to the group’s needs. If anyone is interested in getting involved but does not have a group to do so with, the Center also provides courses for individual enrollment.
“We have a wilderness first response medicine course anyone can sign up for, but we do have a special student rate. This course is really useful for anyone involved in summer camps or anyone who likes to recreate outdoors,” Toy said. “It’s really helpful for first aid and safety outdoors.”
Sophomore psychology major Evin Winkelman has heard a lot about the Center and is looking forward to her first experience there.
“I love adventure and mostly the challenge of rock climbing, but my favorite part is repelling.” Winkelman said. “One of the groups I am involved in is thinking of doing some leadership training at the Outdoor Center. I am excited about doing some activities there because no matter what you are interested in, there is an option for everyone.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Apr 10 2009. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
