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2009 ECOEE program participants in a tunneled-out Giant Sequoia tree in Yosemite (CA). Back row: L-R: Jeff Tindall (ECOEE coordinator/RPTA instructor); Nathan Barr, senior (Canton, IL); Peter Collins, junior (Northbrook, IL); Josh Boyer, junior (Elgin, IL); Grant Fleetwood, senior (Malta, IL); Shane Johnson, senior (Decatur, IL); and Ron Wildermuth, senior (Davenport, IA). Front row L-R: Sean Stowell, senior (Peoria, IL); Jake Boyer, sophomore (Elgin, IL); Kim Janus, alumna (New Lenox, IL); Christine Lagattolla (Dekalb, IL); Cassie Lundeen, senior (Galesburg, IL); and Mathew McCabe, senior (Marquette Heights, IL)
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The Expedition of a Lifetime: RPTA's ECOEE

March 23, 2010

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"I am never going to forget the time I had on ECOEE, and the awesome experience I have been through." -- Jacob Boyer

MACOMB, IL -- Imagine trying to put the finishing touches on a paper you're writing for a 400-level course while sitting on a bathroom floor in a U.S. national park. You're using the electrical outlet to plug in your laptop. Or, maybe, it's one of the only warm places you have been able to find in recent days, and you use it so that you can key or write with any sort of efficiency. For 12 Western Illinois University students in Fall 2009 -- as well as for hundreds of past students and alumni of the recreation, park and tourism administration department's Environmental Conservation & Outdoor Education Expedition (ECOEE) program -- this image, or ones like it, are part of the many memories they will keep with them for a lifetime.

Started in 1976 by Professor Frank Lupton, in what was then the recreation and park administration department at WIU, the ECOEE program began as a way to provide students with practical experience in outdoor leadership and education and wilderness travel skills. Since then, literally hundreds of WIU students have enrolled and completed the ECOEE, a semester-long experience that entails 18 credit hours of coursework, traveling to and camping, as well as working, in locations throughout the United States and even to Canada and Mexico.

"This is the only program in the country that offers this -- to take a semester and be on the road for almost the entirety of it," Jeff Tindall, ECOEE coordinator/instructor, explained. "Typically, other university or college programs offer this type of instruction in time blocks during a semester, or offer the wilderness aspect during the summer, but students in other programs are in the conventional classroom most of the semester. The students who enroll in ECOEE spend most of the semester out of the conventional classroom, experiencing the wilderness and learning in the outdoors."

In addition to being the only program in the United States to offer such an intense, on-the-road program, Western's recreation, park and tourism administration (RPTA) department, via Frank Lupton, is one of the institutions through which the Wilderness Education Association (WEA) began. According to the WEA's website (www.weainfo.org), "Internationally recognized for his pioneering role in the development of wilderness education, Paul K. Petzoldt was the impetus behind the founding of the WEA, along with Dr. Frank Lupton, Robert Christie and Charles Gregory, all leaders in their own right." The site also notes the mission of the WEA "is to promote the professionalism of outdoor leadership through establishment of national standards, curriculum design, implementation, advocacy and research driven initiatives."

Currently, RPTA Department Professor Michael McGowan serves as the vice president, an elected position, of the WEA. McGowan noted this year WEA is working toward the accreditation of university curricula in wilderness leadership; he explained that the department's assessment of the students who enroll in ECOEE is, in large part, the model on which the accreditation will be based.

"That accreditation of academic programs is patterned on ECOEE," he explained. "We are moving to an international registry called the 'International Registry of Outdoor Leaders,' and that effort is based on a qualitative rather than just a testing approach. Jeff is one of most qualified professionals using and fostering that qualitative method. Based on his work and Western's program, it is becoming the model for many academic programs that will seek to be accredited by the WEA."

McGowan noted Western's intense ECOEE program enables students to be introduced to and work with a variety of land-management agencies and recreation professionals. Students who enroll in and complete the program not only develop practical skills and professional contacts they will be able to use in their future careers, but they also develop increased self confidence, heighted self-awareness, improved understanding of group dynamics, a broader perspective on the field of recreation and get the opportunity to apply and demonstrate leadership skills.

The preparation for ECOEE comes in the form of two RPTA prerequisite courses, which students must take in the Spring semester before the annual Fall expedition.

"We spend a lot of time telling the students how rigorous the program is," McGowan noted. "We emphasize that it is academically rigorous, that time management is essential and that the qualities of being a self starter, a team player and a leader are all necessary to finish it successfully. While I think most of them hear us, they don't believe us -- until, that is, they are in the middle of the program, and they say, 'Boy this is the most work I've ever done in my entire life!' But when you ask them if it's worth it, most say it is," he added.

Quantity and Quality: ECOEE `09
In Fall 2009, the ECOEE started with a 24-day canoe expedition on the Missinabi River in Ontario, Canada. The students then headed to the western U.S. and worked and camped in Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park and Yosemite National Park. They also learned how to rock climb in Joshua Tree National Park in California, backpacked in Santa Teresa Canyon in Baja California in Mexico, went on a sea kayaking expedition in the Sea of Cortez and visited the Grand Canyon National Park. According to Mathew McCabe, a senior RPTA major from Marquette Heights (IL) who was enrolled in ECOEE 2009, the Fall 2009 group traveled nearly 9,000 miles during the semester.

While it might sound like a fun-filled adventure of a lifetime -- and for many of the students who enroll in it, it is -- the semester-long expedition is also a great deal of, at times harrowing, work, as the group has to set up and take down their camp sites at almost every location. In addition, the expedition has a demanding academic component, for which students have to maintain their individual load of 18 hours of coursework (hence, writing their papers in a national park bathroom), as well as participate in the rigorous wilderness skills training.

"They not only learn the skills, but they also have to learn and demonstrate that they know how to teach the skills. We go over such camping skills as choosing campsites to hanging bear bags to cooking. There is a real teach, lead and manage component to the wilderness skills portion of the program," Tindall said.

At the end of every ECOEE, students are not only assessed by Tindall, who is also an RPTA department instructor, but they also have to evaluate one another during the last two weeks of the Fall semester.

"The evaluation, as I tell the ECOEE students, has got six legs to the table. Their peers evaluate them at least twice during the course, and the instructors evaluate them at least twice. They complete their peer evaluations at Horn Field Campus at the conclusion of the semester, and this evaluation is based on WEA's 18-point curriculum. In addition, they have to complete a self-ability assessment form, a written exam and a practical exam," Tindall said. "The last part is their individual journals, which they are required to maintain. The journal identifies such things as leadership styles, decision-making factors and group dynamics. It also identifies the cognitive attributes of the individual students and helps me assess how they are growing and learning from the experiences," Tindall said.

The students who enroll in ECOEE every year also put out a newsletter, through which ECOEE alumni and others can access to keep track of the current expedition. (The newsletter editions are available online at wiu.edu/RPTA/ecoee/newsletter/.)

In the fourth edition of the Fall 2009 newsletter, "The End of a Journey: A Reflection," Jacob Boyer, a sophomore RPTA major from Elgin (IL), noted, "Now that we are in the final stages of our expedition, the time has come to evaluate each other once more. …The process took roughly three hours for each person and it got pretty intense. We needed to see if each person was a good enough outdoor leader to get certified through the WEA, so while we evaluated, we not only had to keep in mind how that person did throughout the trip, but we also had to tie in to see if they were up to the standards of the WEA."

In addition to the newsletter, the ECOEE students contribute multimedia content to the ECOEE website (wiu.edu/RPTA/ecoee/multimedia/). There, students post photos and podcasts that provide insight to their experiences on the expedition. The students also maintain a blog (ecoee.blogspot.com/), through which readers can also keep up-to-date of the students' experiences on ECOEE.

Boyer's last few sentences in his contribution to the fourth and last edition of the 2009 newsletter provides an endorsement of not only how valuable the trip is for the students -- many of whom will soon be going into the professional discipline of outdoor education and recreation -- but also reflects the growth experience ECOEE represents for many students.

"During the evaluations, we had some laughs and we had some cries, just like we had during the trip. I am never going to forget the time I had on ECOEE, and the awesome experience I have been through."

Learn more about the ECOEE at wiu.edu/RPTA/ecoee/.

Posted By: Teresa Koltzenburg (WIUNews@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing