North Carolina Outward Bound School: Women Leading the Way in Challenge and Discovery
For more than 50 years, North Carolina Outward Bound School (NCOBS) has offered challenging expeditionary learning and outdoor adventure programs to help individuals find their inner strength, develop character, an ability to lead, and a desire to serve others. While Outward Bound has existed overseas since 1941, it had just begun to make its introduction in the United States in the 1960s, finding its way to North Carolina in 1967.
The implementation of Outward Bound in North Carolina was pioneered by a female trailblazer in a male-dominated industry. The story begins with Goldsboro, North Carolina native Marjorie Buckley. At the time, Buckley was working at the North Carolina Fund, an organization nationally recognized for its unique approach to North Carolina’s “assault on poverty” with a focus on education as the tool for change. It was Buckley who convinced Jack Mansfield, Director of Special Projects at The Fund, that Outward Bound needed to be considered. Buckley became the driving force behind the establishment of the North Carolina Outward Bound School. By the end of 1965, Buckley had gathered a board of directors of NCOBS who came together to decide on the school’s first base camp. They chose the Linville Gorge Wilderness in the Pisgah National Forest. Like many Outward Bound schools at the time, NCOBS’ first courses were only offered to adolescent boys. NCOBS programs eventually grew to include courses for women, educators, college students, corporate managers, military veterans, and adults.
Now, 55 years later, some of the most important people leading the programs and classes are female instructors and board members who are carrying the torch of NCOBS’ history of female leadership.
One of these leaders is Alexys J. Taylor who is now the Program Coordinator for the Charlotte Unity Project at NCOBS. Taylor’s love for the outdoors started as a Julius L. Chambers High School (formerly Vance High School) student. After embarking on the program’s wilderness expedition, she realized that she wanted to pursue a career involving social justice and the outdoors. “Doing that course really opened my eyes, and I fell in love with the outdoors. I knew I had to keep doing it somehow and in some way,” Taylor says. The following year, she continued with NCOBS as an Unity Project intern. After graduating college in 2014, she was asked to join the NCOBS Charlotte Advisory Board. She had served on the board for six years when she became a full time employee managing the Charlotte Unity Project.
Founded by Charlotte Advisory Board Member Jean Sullivan, The Charlotte Unity Project operates in partnership with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and is a key component of NCOBS’ commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In the program, twelve students from each Unity school are chosen to represent the diversity in their community. They embark on a seven-day backpacking and rock-climbing journey to develop their courage, compassion, leadership skills, and understanding of others’ perspectives while learning to work as a team toward common goals and engage in meaningful conversations around social issues. When they return home, the group creates a Unity Project Club to organize and carry out projects addressing issues in their community. For the duration of their expedition, they do not have access to any electronic devices or internet connection.
“This really gives them the opportunity to disconnect in order to reconnect,” Taylor says of the program. “So while they’re out there in the middle of the wilderness, they also have discussions about some hard topics that are happening in their community and in the world,” she says. “Essentially, the Unity Project is an opportunity to empower the youth to make social change.”
Taylor says what she loves most about her job is getting to know the students of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, and having a chance to work with them. “I love the opportunity to expose the youth to something that they may never have experienced before, or something that they maybe would have never thought they would like,” she expresses.
NCOBS is continuing forward with incredible female leadership with the new appointment of its first female Executive Director Bea Armstrong earlier this year. Armstrong brings over 25 years of experience in senior nonprofit leadership and consulting roles to NCOBS. Straight out of college, she started her career in experiential education as a wilderness guide in the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. She then went on to work for Pacific Crest Outward Bound School as an instructor, the Director of Admissions, and a staff trainer. Armstrong also worked as the Director of Communications, Marketing, and Development at the Deschutes River Conservancy for over twelve years and previously served as the Director of Philanthropy & Institutional Advancement Strategy at Hong Kong Academy before taking the position as Executive Director at NCOBS.
As a former Outward Bound instructor, Armstrong understands first-hand the life-changing effects of Outward Bound programs. As Executive Director, she will work with the NCOBS board and staff to see that the organization continues to grow its community-based educational programs, such as the Charlotte Unity Project and many others.
“I am honored and humbled to be the first female director of the North Carolina Outward Bound School,” Armstrong expresses.
Armstrong says she is excited to start working with the staff to begin re-establishing their programs post-COVID-19. “As we continue to navigate unprecedented times, we will be focused on our people, programs, and priorities,” she states.
As a lifelong learner and adventurer, Armstrong looks forward to leading NCOBS into the future and connecting people with outdoor adventure through impactful and meaningful experiences. “We help individuals understand the gifts they have and how they can bring those attributes back into their schools, neighborhoods, and communities,” she says. The future of Outward Bound is full of opportunities, and the women leading the way are helping NCOBS find them through challenge, discovery and adventure.
Written by Rosa Linda Fallon