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Wilderness Orientation

Wilderness backpacking intro for Proctor Academy students since 1971 in White Mountains, NH

Since 1971, every Proctor student has begun their Proctor career by completing a five day, four night wilderness backpacking adventure in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Upon arrival on Registration Day, each new student joins seven other students and two Proctor faculty members to pack gear and begin their adventure. 

Through hiking, camping, cooking, overcoming adversity, and simply having fun with the group, students return to campus having stretched their own limits physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally. Wilderness Orientation provides each person with significant insight into what Proctor is all about: experiential education, genuine relationships, and helping each other achieve their goals. Wilderness Orientation provides a powerful way to launch the Proctor experience and has for over fifty years. 
 

Proctor Academy Wilderness Orientation 2024
Wilderness Orientation 2024: Taking Pride in What We Do

Wilderness Orientation is hard. It challenges even the most experienced, rugged individuals because it asks us to live in close community with each other, to embrace our flaws, to appreciate our strengths, and to understand that any living community will have its natural ebbs and flows of energy and emotions. 

Proctor Academy Wilderness Orientation 2024
Learning and the Brain: The Brain Takes on a Challenge 

When we, as educators, seek to grow, learn, and evaluate the tools we use to climb out of the Learning Pit, we act as models for our students. Whether walking beside them on a trail in the White Mountains or seeking new knowledge, students learn to trust that we are all in this TOGETHER.

Proctor Academy Registration Day Activity
Registration Day 2024: Brave Enough to Let Go

Our children are capable of so much more than we think they are. They are ready, even when we realize we might not be. Our job, right now, is to let them walk with their own confidence into that which awaits them while we stand, hand in hand with each other as parents, beaming with pride in who our children have become and anxiously waiting to see how the adults and Proctor community will shape them. 

Proctor Academy Wilderness Orientation
The Journey: Orientation Matters More

Creating lasting memories and cementing positive relationships are our bread and butter. It is the intentionality of setting high expectations during these opening days that allows us to move into a highly relational way of being from the get go.

Proctor Academy Wilderness Orientation
Lessons from the Wilderness: Our Focused, Clear Pursuit of Mission

Each year, our work is to keep Proctor’s culture, and mission, clearly in focus. We do the hard things because we believe in their impact on our community and their contribution to our culture. We prepare our bags, lace up our boots, pack our sleeping bags, and embark on the best, hardest five days of the year. 

Proctor Academy Wilderness Orientation
The Power of the Wilderness

Next September, Proctor’s 120 new students will head into the wilderness of the New Hampshire’s White Mountains for five days of backpacking, camping, and exploring. 

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