The Sapling Program

What is the Sapling Program and how did we get here? Let’s start with a brief history of the Outdoor Ed program and how we got to the Sapling Program. For the last five years we have been taking students on Outdoor High Adventure Experiences as part of our Outdoor Education program at Future School. We learned A LOT along the way, anything from realizing that kids really, REALLY like tacos to understanding the need for specialized training in de-escalation and mental health crisis awareness for our field staff. The thing that has become the most prevalent and magnified through our programming is that the outdoors are a healing space and a primed catalyst for change. The Sapling Program was created to allow us to work with the same group of students regularly over the course of their high school careers to facilitate long term change, growth, and positive behavior modification in these students. Field Intensives (a fancy way of saying longer trips) play a key role in the positive change we’ve seen in the past. Repeated, regular, and consistent trips with the same group of students will allow us to scaffold those soft skills and really nurture the seeds that are planted on the first experience. We will work through the stages of change together, gaining personal power by facing tough challenges like rock climbing, perseverance through canoeing or hiking for long distances and finally emotional safety and reflection by providing a supportive environment where students can be authentically themselves. This growth will be tracked through interviews, structured journals, surveys, and group discussions. Our plan is to build confident and capable young people who have the tools to thrive in their lives when they graduate from both the Sapling Program and High School.

Any Future School 10th grader. Entry into the Sapling Program is on an invite basis. We work with the advisors and classroom teachers to determine students that would do best in the program.

Cool, hopefully we have answers! Email Brett with questions! broberts@fsfuture.org!