Directors Message

Greetings from Strathcona Park Lodge and the COLT program

I appreciate your interest in our COLT program and hope you find our web site interesting. We have put a lot of effort into designing the site so that it is easy to use and displays and describes our program as best we can. Although we recognize that we are in the technological and social networking age, we still depend on personal contact to communicate what we do and how we go about it – so please drop us an email, pick up the phone or visit us in person if you have any questions or just want to talk to a person about the program.

2010 will mark our 33rd year of training outdoor leaders! We are proud of the fact that after taking COLT, graduates are ready to be employed in the exciting world of outdoor education or guiding. We feel that many of our graduates are better qualified than some established instructors. Certainly all should have the confidence to immediately make an impact as an educator.

I am often asked, ‘Does it really take 93 or 100 days to get these qualifications? Couldn’t it be shorter?’ Well…no. If anything, we wish we had more time so that students could practice even more. We are a hands-on, experientially based, field oriented program that believes learning is best done within a group. To facilitate this we spend almost all our time actually doing the activities – on the river, on the ocean, in the mountains and on the rock – day after day. We do not have many theory sessions; 90% of our time is spent outside. Even our First Aid course is active. Our class size is never more than 10 and we have two instructors with every field session, so the instructor/student ratio is always small and each student receives excellent individual attention.

That’s part of the reason we honestly feel that the COLT program is the best outdoor leadership semester in North America. When you look at the cost, efficiency and learning environment, we’re tough to beat.

COLT is demanding. It is constant and it is varied, but the central theme is learning, learning, learning. You do not have to be an athlete to attend, but good health and a positive attitude is a must. Our average age is 25 years old and we generally have a good mix of female and male students. Most of our students are serious about what they want out of the program and we ask for 100% commitment. Yet, I have found each student to be fun loving, quick to laugh and all bring a variety of interests to the group. This makes it fun for all of us, and brings our instructors back year after year.

I hope you will decide to join us in 2010! I look forward to meeting you soon.

Cheers

Jim Miller
Program Director