UrbanTrekkers

UrbanTrekkers is an expeditionary outdoor program designed to complement the academic experiences of our UrbanPromise teenagers through hands-on learning and mentoring where the world is the classroom. Through travel to places beyond students’ everyday lives and a focus on cross-cultural experiences, historical perspectives, environmental awareness, and community service, students are motivated to learn from their UrbanTrekker journeys and carry that motivation into their studies.

The goals of UrbanTrekkers are to:

• Instill in youth a love and respect for all creation and a better understanding of their role as Earth's stewards
• Expose youth to the natural world by way of outdoor adventures
• Provide a setting in which youth and caring adults share experiences that will change how they see the world today and their place in it tomorrow
• Build self-esteem and improve self-worth of youth to help them acquire confidence and skills for success

UrbanTrekkers offers four core excursions each year: Maine in summer, Assateague Island in fall, and varying places during Christmas and spring breaks. Students are also offered one-day field trips and invitational trips that include New Trekker Orientation, Sedge Island Project, Outdoor Leadership Training (OLT), and a Rite of Passage extreme adventure.

Each UrbanTrekker experience is planned around five key elements--outdoor adventure, cross-cultural experience, community service, environmental awareness, and historical perspective--all of which are incorporated into leadership training and team-building activities.