How Teen Bike Trips Became A School For Life
When Liz and I started Overland with three bike trips for teens in 1984 we came from school backgrounds. We had been teaching since graduating from Williams College in the early 1980s and Liz had earned a Masters in the Art of Teaching from Brown University. We both wanted Overland to be much more than simply a bike trip or an enjoyable summer experience – we saw Overland’s potential to become a unique, if unorthodox, school.
From the start, the core mission of Overland has been essentially educational: we have sought to offer young people the opportunity to see the world’s beauty while at the same time helping them to better understand who they are and what’s most important to them. We have always believed that these critical skills are as important as any learned in the most demanding AP course.
We knew that there were two keys to realizing our mission: (1) develop carefully crafted programs with clearly defined goals – programs that would challenge our students in a wide variety of important ways, and (2) recruit terrific trip leaders who would be excellent role models for our students. Year after year, our focus on these two goals has never wavered.
As you read through this website, or look over our catalog, you’ll find the results of our 25 years of striving to meet our mission. We are proud of our offerings and confident in their value. And, as we look back over the hundreds of spectacular leaders who have come through Overland in the nearly three decades since our founding, we marvel at the positive impact they have had on the thousands of students who have joined us.
Liz and I were in our mid-20s when we started Overland – young teachers fresh out of school. Now that we’re 50 and the parents of teenagers, we look back with fondness at all the years of working with the great kids and great leaders. Overland has truly become the school that we dreamed of creating so many years ago.
-Tom Costley
