By Stasia Raines, Director of Marketing and Communications, The Outdoor Foundation

Outdoor Nation—The Outdoor Foundation’s signature program—partnered with the National Park Service this year to select ten Northeast schools to participate in the Northeast Campus Clubs program, which is dedicated to getting more young adults outside and active.

Together, they are investing a total of $40,000 in these campuses with the goal of empowering schools, students, and faculty to change how their campus communities engage with the outdoors.

They want to make the existing network of outdoor clubs and programs on college campuses even stronger.

NIRSA supports the Outdoor Nation’s efforts to empower schools, students, and faculty to change how they engage with the outdoors

Over the past several years, with a cultural emphasis on technologies and devices, young adults have steadily become more and more disconnected from the outdoors. This has led to a crisis in  health across generations as well as created a gap in environmental appreciation and conservation. Urban, suburban, and rural populations are all affected, and the unique needs of individuals from these populations are often not addressed once they’re too old for typical youth outdoor programs. This is why millennial input into program development—and an infrastructure that is culturally relevant and can support a continuum of outdoor experiences—is so crucial.

“The National Park Service is increasingly focused on engaging the next generation in the outdoors,” said Julie Isbil of the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program. “As part of the Campus Clubs grants, the ten colleges selected will all visit national parks, go on overnight trips, and include other youth in outings. We are pleased to team up with The Outdoor Foundation to provide more opportunities for young people to develop a relationship with nature and our country’s great outdoors.”

“Our aim is that this grant funding will radically increase outdoor participation on campuses throughout the Northeast.”

Enter the Outdoor Nation Northeast Campus Clubs program, which wants to encourage university students to promote outdoor participation to their peers—and to do it in their own way.

“College students have great ideas and unique perspectives on how to get things accomplished,” said Chris Fanning, Executive Director of The Outdoor Foundation. “The Northeast Campus Clubs program and our other campus work identify and foster these ideas –helping them come to life. Our aim is that this grant funding will radically increase outdoor participation on campuses throughout the Northeast, empowering schools and the surrounding communit[ies] to change [how] they engage in the outdoors.”

The 2014 Northeast Campus Club grant recipients include Amherst College, Binghamton University, Brown University, Colgate University, Green Mountain College, Loyola University Maryland, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Shippensburg University, University at Buffalo, and Wilkes University.

Winning schools outings will take place from Fall 2014 through Spring 2015. Visit the Outdoor Nation Grant page to learn more.