By Stasia Raines, Director of Marketing and Communications, The Outdoor Foundation
As the semester draws to a close, many university students are packing their bags and heading out for some summer fun.
Students at ten US colleges and universities are taking this norm a step further, though, gearing up for the outdoor challenge of their lives; they’ll work to come up with innovative strategies to help them win the title of ‘most outdoorsy campus’ in the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge.
The Challenge, fueled by The North Face, was developed to combat some of today’s bleak statistics around young people and outdoor participation. Current research tells us young people spend 50 percent less time outdoors in natural settings than the generation that preceded them. More than 80 percent of Americans live in urban areas and only 20 percent of young people live within a half-mile of a park or open space.
In response, Outdoor Nation launched the first-ever Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge—working with colleges and universities across America to get more young people outside and active. In the first phase of the challenge, institutions across the US were invited to submit proposals detailing how they would engage their entire campus network if they were selected for one of the $5,000 grants.
This week, Outdoor Nation and The North Face selected the ten schools that will go head-to-head in the fall, putting their proposals into action, and competing to see who can get the most people in their student bodies and surrounding communities outside and active. Think Mother Nature meets March Madness.
The Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge, fueled by The North Face, presents awesome incentive for institutions to get out and get active!During the eight-week Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge this fall, participating individuals at each school will self-report on their outdoor activities through an interactive online platform powered by ContestCore. The school that logs the most activities outside at the end of the competition will win a valuable prize package, scholarship for an outdoor program assistant, a custom gear library, an outdoor festival for all students, and valuable bragging rights. An individual achievement award, ‘Outsider of the Year’, will also be given to the student that inspires the most people to get outdoors.
Spelman College, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Atlanta, GA is among the schools selected to compete in the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge—an especially impressive feat given that just two years ago they didn’t have an outdoor club. Spelman was first introduced to Outdoor Nation in 2011, when two committed and passionate students, Candice Gaul and Seth Wolf from Spelman and Morehouse Colleges respectively, attended an Outdoor Nation Summit.
The following year, Candice and Seth worked hard to shift the culture on their college campuses to incorporate more of a focus on outdoor engagement. They received training, support and mentorship from Outdoor Nation to do so. Their work culminated in the summer of 2013, when they organized the first student-run Outdoor Nation Summit in Atlanta, bringing together more than 30 students to discuss the unique challenges of building outdoor communities of color. An idea sparked and the first-of-its-kind, joint outdoor club was formed called, the “Spelhouse Outdoor Club”. This groundbreaking project expanded the outdoor network for hundreds of students from these two HBCUs to experience ongoing outdoor activities, many for the first time.
“Today, our outdoor programs are so popular among students that our outings fill up in less than an hour,” says Candice. “What started as culture void of outdoor recreation has flourished into one that is eager for outdoor engagement opportunities of all kinds. We’re thrilled to now be in the running with nine other colleges to see if we have what it takes to win the title of most outdoorsy university in America.”
Other schools selected to compete in the 2014 Campus Challenge include: Appalachian State University; California State University, Long Beach; College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University; George Mason University; James Madison University; Michigan Technological University; University of Central Florida; University of Iowa; and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
