Outdoor Leadership

 The Outdoors is filled with unlimited opportunities for the person seeking adventure, challenge, and opportunities for unexpected growth. Now more than ever the Outdoors needs professionals who understand the importance of maintaining natural areas for their power to invoke adventurous, challenging, and educational opportunities. The general area of outdoor leadership includes specific careers in outdoor recreation, outdoor education, adventure education, wilderness therapy, and tourism and leisure enterprises.

 At the forefront of this movement is COCC's Outdoor Leadership Program.  At COCC, we provide students with options for an associate of arts degree, associate of science degree, or an Associate of Science Direct Transfer degree designed specifically for transfer to OSU-Cascades and their Outdoor Recreation Leadership and Tourism bachelor's degree program.  Depending on your long-term goals, we have an option that will work for you.  Not sure which is best?  No worries... we'll connect you with an advisor to help get you on the right track!

   

Vision: The COCC Outdoor Leadership program will be a premiere provider of Associate's level preparation in outdoor leadership development and will be grounded in the principles of lifelong learning, environmental stewardship, personal growth and leadership.  The program emphasizes experiential methodologies to combine theory and practice in a strong field-based curriculum.  Students will gain current and accepted skills, knowledge and standards in the professional field, while being taught by highly skilled and knowledgeable faculty who exemplify the highest level of standards, integrity and ethics.  Faculty and students will be supported in their efforts to foster innovative practices in pursuit of excellence in outdoor leadership.

There are no entrance requirements for the outdoor leadership program, however, there are several pre-requisites for many of the OL courses. Please refer to the list below, which outlines the variety of courses. Students entering into the OL program are required to complete a set of first year courses before enrolling in second year courses.