Outward Bound is an international educational organization that provides challenging wilderness experiences as courses of study. These experiences are intended to contribute to the self-discovery and personal growth of the participants.
Outward Bound offers courses to anyone 12 years of age or older and in good health. Most of the courses last from 21 to 26 days and include such activities as backpacking, rock climbing, canoeing, sailing, and cross-country skiing. A small group of people take a course together. Each person, working with the others, must solve various problems in an unfamiliar wilderness environment. Outward Bound believes that dealing with these problems increases a person’s self-confidence, self-awareness, and appreciation of others.
The first Outward Bound school was established in 1941 in Aberdovey, Wales, near Aberystwyth. Kurt Hahn, a German educator, founded it as a survival program for British sailors during World War II. The organization’s first school in the United States was started in 1962 near Aspen, Colorado. Outward Bound has schools in more than 30 countries. Its U.S. headquarters are in Garrison, New York.
