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The Clarion \ March 18,2011
Clearing misconceptions about immersion
Perspective I
By Jana Eilermann
Contributor
Every semester, a group of 10 students and
one professor assemble at Ross Hall to embark
on the adventure of a lifetime.
While the Immersion semester is something
most students in the Wilderness Leadership
and Experiential Education (WLEE) major
look forward to, it is hard for students, both
WLEE and otherwise, to understand what the
Immersion Semester is or what it does until you
are living it.
The Immersion semester is a requirement for
the WLEE major that consists of six interrelated
courses that are integrated throughout the
semester The mission of the semester is “to
develop and enhance abilities to teach and lead
in the outdoors.”
While many students know Immersion for the
21 day expedition the group embarks on, the
semester is much more than that. The Immersion
semester focuses on leadership and group
dynamics, wilderness first aid, environmental
skills and ethics, teaching and leading outdoor
activities, both land and water based, and
planning and executing a 21 day expedition.
The adventure begins on the first day of
classes with piles of forms and waivers which
students read carefully and sign recognizing the
risks involved in the semester and activities.
From there the class turns the focus to building
group strength with group games, initiatives,
trust building activities and quizzes to assess
personalities and tendencies.
These quizzes are designed to highlight
strengths and weaknesses as well as open minds
to others’ strengths and weaknesses to facilitate
harmoniously and be an efficient, productive
group.
A big part of the Immersion semester is
earning certifications. Every student in the
Immersion semester takes a nine day intensive
course in Wilderness First Aid offered by
Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA) and
Landmark Learning.
After nine days of classes, students are tested
(written and practical) to receive their WFR or
certification as a Wilderness First Responder
After becoming WFRs, the group embarks
on an overnight camping trip focused entirely
around Leave No Trace and developing a land
ethic. Each student teaches a lesson on one of the
seven Leave No Trace Principles and writes an
action plan for how they can implement Leave
No Trace at an organization for which they hope
to work. After completing this, students earn
their certification as a Leave No Trace trainer
allowing them to teach others about Leave No
Trace and its importance in the outdoors.
After gaining these certifications, the classes
are split between trip planning and learning
to teach in the outdoors. Students teach a
variety of lessons from canoe strokes and basic
backcountry living skills, to natural history
lessons like River Ecology and the History of
the Forest Service.
The semester is wrapped up by living out the
motto of Brevard College: “Leam in order to
serve”. The group devotes two days to giving
back by helping with trail maintenance, stream
restoration, and invasive species removal among
other things. The service days are a good way for
students to give thanks and appreciate the work
that goes into managing the outdoors.
As a student of the Immersion semester you
can expect long class days often exceeding eight
hours per day, severe lack of social interaction
with students outside the Immersion semester,
lack of personal hygiene, physical, mental and
emotional exhaustion, relationships stronger
than any other, the most unique classroom
setting, and the urge to shout from a mountain
with a boyfriend because “we didn’t have time
to hang out as much as we wanted to. We were
both swimmers and the majority of the time we
saw each other was at practice.”
She is on the junior board for Robert Crown
Center for Health Education, a nonprofit
organization that teaches sex ed to students in
the Chicago area.
She sees sex, alcohol, smoking and drugs
as distractions to her goal of getting a college
scholarship in swimming, she said.
“This generation is very focused on their
future and not necessarily getting laid,” agreed
Washington, D.C.-based sex educator Yvonne
Fulbright.
But she also suggested that some young men
aren’t making time for relationships.
“Some guys, at the end of the day, they’d
rather channel their energy into music, playing
their guitar or playing computer games,”
Fulbright said. “That’s immediate gratification.
People forget it takes work to woo somebody
and keep her happy.”
The study showed that 27 percent of young
men and 29 percent of young women reported
no sexual contact.
It looked at older adults, too. It was based on
in-person interviews of about 13,500 men and
women ages 15 to 44, conducted in the years
top “I’m in class right now!”
Immersion students have the opportunity to
travel all over the Carolinas, into Georgia and
Tennessee to leam how to facilitate canoeing,
kayaking, backpacking, rock climbing, and
caving. While most trips stay local, paddling
the French Broad, climbing in Pisgah and
mountain biking in Dupont, each semester
students travel to the coast to leam coastal
kayaking and trips to Congaree Swamp, Lake
Jocassee, and into nearby caves (dependent on
the progression of White Nose Bat Syndrome)
are not uncommon.
The Immersion semester forces students
to use what they leam in the field on a daily
basis where the consequences for failure are
far more significant that that of failing a test.
Students leam to keep a positive attitude and to
get through even the roughest days while still
remaining professional.
Immersion students are not only learning
material valuable to the industry of Wildemess
Leadership and Experiential Education, but also
acquiring people skills, life skills, and skills that
are key to being a good professional.
2006 through 2008. The results were compared
with those of a similar survey done in 2002.
Participants were offered $40 for sitting for
the interview, which usually lasted an hour and
included answering very specific questions on
a computer about oral sex, anal sex and other
sexual activities.
The explanation for that finding seems to
be that women are much more willing to
describe themselves as bisexual, or to at least
acknowledge they find others of their gender
attractive.
That may have a lot to do with television
shows and other pop culture, which at times
seems to celebrate woman-on-woman sexual
contact, but not the same kind of behavior
among men, said Michael Reece, director of
Indiana University’s Center for Sexual Health
Promotion.
“My guess is women are just more likely to
feel that’s OK,” he added.
There is an assumption that sex between
females is more common among more educated
women, perhaps experimenting with their
sexuality during their college years. But the
CDC study found that such behavior was more
common among less educated women, Chandra
said.
'Doing it'
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