MA in Outdoor Education Leadership

As informed professionals, outdoor educators are critical thinkers who can support positive change in individuals, organizations, and society. Outdoor educators understand ecological and human systems and help address some of the challenges facing society today, including health issues, environmental issues, social justice issues, and sustainability issues. Our goal is to equip students with the skills they need to impact outdoor education and related fields positively.

Students who select Outdoor Education Leadership will be engaged with a dynamic curriculum emphasizing applied pedagogical concepts, interpersonal communication skills, specialized technical skills, program design and administration, and/or focus on specific populations, processes, and/or environments. Many students explore the roots and practices of experiential and outdoor education in-depth and examine its many applications in private and public settings.

Prescott College began in the 1960s, a time of optimism and growth when leaders of a small town in the stunningly beautiful pine and chaparral country of central Arizona searched for a new cultural identity. Dr Charles Franklin Parker, minister of Prescott’s First Congregational Church and Prescott College founder, announced the ambitious project of creating the Harvard of the West – Prescott College. With the group of visionary leaders, Parker drew on the Congregationalist tradition of founding over 50 leading colleges and universities in America, beginning with Harvard in 1636, and including such institutions as Middlebury, Dartmouth, Amherst, Smith, Yale, Oberlin, Grinnell, Whitman, Colorado, Pomona and Scripps.