Archive for the 'Choosing a Program' Category

How does Overland decide where to plan our summer adventure programs? Living in New England gives us access to countless beautiful hikes and bike rides, but how do we know which ones will be right for Overland students? And what do we think about when we are planning a new trip or exploring a new location?  Personal experience, age-appropriateness and fun are some factors that come to mind when I plan a new trip.

After a successful summer for our introductory program for 6^th graders, New England Adventure, we decided to offer trips for 5^th graders as well. In 2007 we added Berkshire Adventure, a one-week program for 5^th graders. As a member of the logistics team, and with a younger brother who was in 5^th grade at the time, I was the natural choice from the Overland staff to plan this summer adventure.

Trent and his two leaders on his first summer adventure program in '07, Berkshire Adventure

The first things I thought about were my favorite hikes and bike rides around Williamstown. Then I thought, “What is my brother, Trent, capable of, and what would he be excited about?” I decided that it would not be reasonable to ask Trent to carry a heavy pack or loaded panniers on a bike, so day hikes and bike rides were the way to go. And while Trent is comfortable on a bike, I might be nervous about him biking on roads with cars going past. I eliminated many of my favorite road rides and decided on a beautiful local rail trail. The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail is an 11-mile, flat, paved bike path that passes through the Hoosic River Valley along the Hoosic River and the Cheshire Reservoir. It’s a 22-mile ride which is quite an accomplishment for an 11-year-old. And it’s a nice, easy ride with no cars to worry about—perfect!

When it comes to hiking, there are so many great hikes of all lengths and difficulty levels in the Berkshires and in Vermont’s southern Green Mountains. In my experience hiking with Trent, I found that the hikes he most liked were those that had a clear destination…a waterfall or a great view. So I chose hikes with destinations that 5^th graders would be excited about. An obvious choice was Mt. Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts. It’s a challenging hike for a 5^th grader, but having done shorter hikes to build up to it, it’s a great way to end the week and a big deal to say you’ve hiked to the highest point in a state! To round out the week and to give the kids a variety of summer adventures, I included a day of whitewater rafting as the ideal complement to our hikes and bike rides.

Another question that I had as I planned this trip was, where should these young kids stay during the week? I initially thought that indoor accommodations would be the best option for a 5^th grader, so that first summer, the Berkshire Adventure students stayed in dorms on the Williams College campus and had just one night spent camping out in tents. After that summer, I discovered that the night camping out was a highlight for many of the kids, so I changed the itinerary to include camping out every night. The camping experience adds another element of adventure to the program—campfires and s’mores, sleeping under the stars—and gives the kids a more exciting story to tell about their week with Overland.

Over the past four years, I’ve made small changes and improvements to the Berkshire Adventure, but it continues to give 5^th graders, like my brother Trent, a great introduction to the outdoors and outdoor adventure. It is a perfect first Overland experience.

-Ashley Ransom

There are a number of summer programs that could be called adventure camps for teens – and Overland is certainly one of them.

But that title is somewhat of a misnomer. Overland programs are in some ways adventures, and in other ways we’re a camp, and we do serve teens (although we also serve 10, 11 and 12 year-olds). But I’d really rather be described as a “Program For Adventurous Kids Who Seek To Challenge Themselves In Exciting Ways In Some Of The World’s Most Beautiful Settings.” But I guess that’s a mouthful.

So, I’m stuck with adventure camps for teens (at least for this blog post) – what are some of the options?

For middle-schoolers, we have a number of teen adventure camps right here in New England – you can hike Mt. Washington, go on a Vermont bike tour, or attend a summer writing program on the Williams College campus. For more adventurous teens, you could climb a 14er in Colorado, sea kayak among the islands near Vancouver, or study Spanish abroad in Barcelona.

For students in high school, there are even more possibilities for teenagers who want an adventure in the US or abroad. We have a cycling tour in Nova Scotia, backpacking in Yellowstone National Park, summer community service in Costa Rica, French language immersion classes in Paris, and a safari on the Serengeti.

Wherever you are this summer, you’ll be in a small group of your peers and with two great Overland leaders.

Please join us in 2010!

-Tom Costley

We first offered hiking trips for teens in 1986 since they were a natural outgrowth of our biking trips in terms of structure, culture and goals.

Just as with our biking trips, hiking trips are limited to no more than 12 students and there are always two trip leaders. Our hiking trips are designed to give our students a carefully crafted series of challenges with a clearly defined goal.

For example, our hiking trip in Colorado, Rocky Mountain Explorer, starts with a few days of introductory hikes with light packs in Rocky Mountain National Park to acclimatize before heading into the backcountry for a remote wilderness experience. At the end of the backcountry, the group has a break from the trail as they spend two days on a rafting trip on the Arkansas River. The final days find the group taking on their last challenge: climbing Mount Yale, one of Colorado’s famous 14ers. Standing atop Mount Yale’s 14,192 ft. summit is a fitting end to the trip – an exciting and thoroughly satisfying high point.

Over the years we have built on this model of small groups and carefully crafted challenges and expanded our hiking offerings so that there is a wide range of options.

For students currently in grades 7, 8 and 9 there are three 2-week options: New England Explorer (a 3 on our challenge level scale of 1-10); Blue Ridge Explorer (a 3); and Rocky Mountain Explorer (a 4). We also have a 3-week option in Washington on our Northwest Explorer trip (a 5).

For students in grades 8-12 there are three options out West and all are three weeks long: Yellowstone Teton Explorer (a 6); High Sierra Explorer (a 7); and Alaska Explorer (a 7). All of these programs spend eight to ten days in the backcountry in addition to kayaking, rafting, rock climbing, or mountaineering.

Current 9th through 12th graders can join us for a month in Europe on our European Explorer (a 7) or on our ultimate hiking trip in the Swiss Alps, the Alpine Challenge (a 10).

Finally, our Alaska Leadership Course (a 9) is a trip that teaches our students in 10th-12th grade all that we’ve learned about outdoor leadership in over two decades of leading students from New England to the Rockies to Alaska and Europe.

Hiking with Overland is the perfect way to spend time in some of the world’s most beautiful mountains. Please join us!

-Tom Costley

In the last 25 years I have often been asked if participating in a summer program helps with the college admission process.

My answer, which has been confirmed by friends who work in admissions offices, has always been that no single event, experience or program is likely to make a influential impact on a student’s admissions prospects by itself. Instead, the top schools are looking for a sustained commitment to any undertaking that is an interest – or better yet, a passion – of the student.

Over the years I have marveled at the thousands of Overland students who love hiking, biking, service or language… and who, over their summers with us, have developed a set of skills and leadership abilities that are transferable to an infinite variety of settings. These are the kind of ambitious, talented, focused and adventurous students that make our groups thrive. They are wonderful young people now, they will be campus leaders in college, and they’ll energize their professions and their families.

At Overland we are committed to our mission: to show our students the beauty – and unlimited promise – of the world… and to help each of them to find their place in it. Happy, proud of their accomplishments, and committed to their interests, our students navigate the college admissions process with the confidence that comes from knowing who they are and what’s most important to them. They’re the kind of young people every college wants.

To read a student profile of an Overland alumna and excerpts from her college application essay, please click here.

To read about Overland’s College Essay Program, a one-week college application program in Williamstown for current 11th graders, please click here.

-Tom Costley

Our flow of applications is running at over 30 a day and is surpassing last year’s daily totals consistently – if Overland is in your plans for this summer, now is the time to apply.

The trips that are filling the fastest include:

- Field Studies: Tanzania (first section is full!)
- Alaska Leadership Course (new section opened!)
- Pacific Coast
- Language Immersion France
- North Country Adventure
- Nova Scotia & Acadia
- Language Immersion & Service Peru

Please contact us for questions on the latest enrollment.

Overland offers over 40 carefully crafted programs with clearly defined goals led by superlative leaders. Please join us this summer!

-Tom Costley

I make very few claims when talking about Overland -  I generally think any discerning listener will see right through it. Who can believe a claim like: “The Worldwide Leader In [fill in the blank]”?

But I will make this claim: Overland pioneered a new approach to language immersion programs that offered high school students daily native speaker instruction, afternoons and weekends filled with immersion activities and travel, the support and mentorship of two superlative American trip leaders, and a safe, wholesome environment with 24/7 supervision and support.

I’ve been quietly pleased to see our language immersion programs copied by others.

Our three or four-week language study abroad programs in Spain, France, Costa Rica and Peru are some of our most popular trips every year, and for good reason.

Call me — or our language program director, Melissa Revotskie — and we’ll be happy to tell you more about the Overland approach to language immersion.

-Tom Costley

A group on our Berkshire Adventure summer camp for 5th graders on top of Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts

Over the past 25 summers Overland has grown into an excellent New England summer camp. Through our offerings to 5th graders (10 year olds and 11 year olds) and 6th graders (11 year olds and 12 year olds) we have firmly established ourselves as a wonderful camp for adventurous kids. Unlike traditional camp, however, at Overland there is no lake with cabins and a dining hall — instead, all of New England is our camp: the Berkshires and Mount Greylock in Massachusetts, Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains in Vermont, and Lake Sunapee and the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Overland’s campers explore by foot and bike, they camp out at night and they are led by caring, conscientious counselors who assure their safety and well-being every step of the way.

If your 5th grader is looking for a summer camp adventure  in New England, check out our 1-week Berkshire Adventure camp or our 2-week Mountains & Sea Adventure program.

For 6th graders, we have our 1-week New England Adventure camp and our 2-week North Country Adventure program.

-Tom Costley