Adventure Based Education
We offer programs that actively engage students to step outside their comfort zones in order to discover their strengths.
Challenge by Choice
Students are respected and empowered by choosing their own level of participation in the challenges we provide on our various courses.
Trauma Informed & Engaged
As a trauma sensitive school our programs focus on supporting students’ mental, emotional and physical health. Students can count on an environment where they feel safe to confidently engage in learning and create positive connections with their peers and instructors.
Experiential Learning
Experiential education is a philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people’s capacity to contribute to their communities.
Placed Based Education and Land Acknowledgement
We integrate experiences that connect students to local heritage, culture and the environment both community based places/organizations and Alaska’s natural environment.
The Upper Cook Inlet of Southcentral Alaska is Dena’ina and Ahtna homeland. Onward & Upward’s Land Acknowledgement is a formal statement recognizing the Indigenous people of this land and place. It is a public gesture of recognition and appreciation for the past and present Indigenous stewardship of the lands that we now occupy. Land Acknowledgment opens a space to develop understanding, gratefulness, and respect for the contributions, innovations, and contemporary perspective of Indigenous peoples. It is an actionable statement that marks our community’s collective movement towards inclusion, decolonization, and equity.
Through our courses, Onward & Upward facilitates education that furthers the goals of land acknowledgement and the recognition of Indigenous land, language, and culture.
Risk Management
Our staff are professionally trained & hold multiply certifications that attest to their ability for assessing and mitigating risks for outdoor education programs. All of our programs undergo a thorough risk assessment and mitigation planning process. Furthermore, risk management is an integral part of our curriculum in which students develop critical thinking and decision making skills for necessary for assessing and mitigating risk.
Accredited
Onward & Upward’s programs are accredited by the Association of Experiential Education. Accreditation is important to us as it demonstrates our commitment to providing quality programs that adhere to professional standards. It also validates that our programs follow industry standards for ethical care, curriculum and risk management practices.
Leave No Trace
We are proud to partner with Leave No Trace to sustain healthy, vibrant natural lands for all people to enjoy, now and into the future. Our programs teach and follow environmental ethics and the 7 Leave No Trace principles. We are committed to protect the outdoors by teaching and inspiring people to enjoy nature responsibly.