How Outdoor Education Transforms Young Lives
As summer hits its stride, the outdoors becomes the perfect place to explore, grow, and find adventure. June signifies the start of a season filled with discovery. And at the Princeton-Blairstown Center, specifically, this month marks the beginning of our annual Summer Bridge program.
For over a century, we have used outdoor adventure as a tool to empower youth from under-resourced communities. As we prepare for this year’s program, we’re reflecting on how our programs intentionally utilize nature to foster growth, confidence, and connection.
What is Summer Bridge?
Launched in 2015, the Summer Bridge Program is an award-winning, week-long experience that combines leadership development, academic enrichment, and adventure-based learning. The curriculum is specifically designed to support young people from historically marginalized communities. Through our program, students build confidence, strengthen critical thinking skills, and form deep connections with themselves, their peers, and the natural world.
Our small group approach provides students with individual support throughout the program. Students are grouped into small teams of 10-12, and paired with a highly trained facilitator and a chaperone from their school or community agency. They participate in hands-on, experiential, and adventure-based activities that aim to promote social & emotional learning (SEL). From literacy and STEM lessons to group problem-solving, high ropes challenges, and reflective campfire circles, every moment is designed to help students:
Lessen summer learning loss;
Build essential 21st century skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking;
Develop supportive relationships with peers and adult mentors;
Increase their comfort in and appreciation for the natural world.
The program was honored with the New York Life Excellence in Summer Learning Award, recognizing its success in combining academics with social-emotional growth to foster confidence and connection.
Why Outdoor Adventure-Based Learning?
At the Princeton-Blairstown Center, nature is both a classroom and a catalyst for growth. Research indicates that spending time outdoors reduces stress, enhances focus, and promotes emotional well-being. We intentionally design our programs to create space for students to connect with themselves and others through nature.
Adventure-based learning uses physical, hands-on challenges in natural settings to build critical life skills, and our 268-acre Campus is the perfect environment for it. Our adventure-based programs give students the opportunity to stretch their comfort zones and work together to solve problems.
Our trained facilitators use proven methods, such as Challenge by Choice and the Full Value Contract, to create emotionally-safe environments rooted in respect, autonomy, and support. Whether students are confronting their fear of heights or sharing in a group discussion, they are guided, not pressured. In this way, our Campus becomes a facilitator for growth, and with each activity ending in reflection, students connect what they’ve experienced to their lives back home, in school, and beyond.
Why It Matters?
Summer Bridge is not just a week of adventure. It is about building the social & emotional learning (SEL) skills students need to succeed far beyond our Campus. These include empathy, self-confidence, responsible decision-making, and resilience.
A study by Princeton University researchers showed that students in our SEL program made significant academic gains, improving over 13% in reading and making measurable progress in math, while control group peers declined. Just as importantly, students reported improved self-esteem, lower academic anxiety, and more positive attitudes toward school and learning.
These outcomes aren’t just statistics; they represent the lived experiences of students who leave our Campus more grounded, confident, and hopeful than when they arrived. In an era when many young people face chronic stress, academic pressure, and disconnection from nature, these outcomes are more critical than ever.
Looking Ahead
As we kick off the 2025 Summer Bridge season, we’re filled with excitement for what lies ahead. New friendships will be formed. Fears will be faced. Strengths will be discovered.
We know the impact that just one week outdoors can have on a young person’s life trajectory, and we don’t take that lightly. At the Center, adventure isn’t a break from learning. It is learning. And nature isn’t a backdrop, it’s a co-facilitator, guiding each student toward confidence, connection, and courage.
Every moment at the Princeton-Blairstown Center is an invitation to grow. And for the hundreds of students arriving this summer, that journey begins now!
