The Sunriver Wilderness School is an outdoor behavioral health and accredited high school program located in Montana. [1] It uses the wilderness as a classroom to provide wilderness therapy for troubled teens, with the goals of improving behavior and relationships. [2] Students live and take classes in small groups accompanied by guides and therapists during multi-week backpacking trips, earning high school credits in various subjects. [3]

1. Sunriver Wilderness
School
Outdoor Behavior Health and Accredited High School
Program

2. Mission
Statement
an outdoor behavioral health
program that provides wilderness
therapy for troubled teens with
particular focus on working toward
internal change, improved behavior,
and harmonious relationships with
parents, teachers and peers

3. Location and Structure
• Base camp located next to Forest Service barracks in
Choteau, Montana
• Bob Marshall Wilderness, Sunriver Wilderness, and the Great
Bear Wilderness act as classrooms for our students
• Sunriver Wilderness School accommodates 60 students per
summer with student groups of 12 accompanied by two
therapists and three guides (highly qualified teachers trained
to guide in the Wilderness and certified in Wilderness First
Response)
• Teacher to student ratio: 2.4 to one

4. Therapy
• focuses on teens who have made at-risk
choices
• teaches teens to make healthy choices
• empowers teens to take ownership of
change
• teaches teens to challenge old thought
patterns and behaviors

5. Academics
• program participants may earn up to three
credits during the summer program
• programs serves students ages 13-18
• experiential learning with the wilderness
acting as the classroom
• interdisciplinary classes that provide
English, Art, Social Studies, Environmental
Science, and Physical Education credits

6. Nature of Classes
• interconnected • philosophies guided
nature of academic by Barry
subjects Commoner’s rules
of ecology
• the interconnected
relationships existing • “Everything is
in society and the connected to
natural world everything else.”
• “There is no such
thing as a free
lunch.”

7. Wilderness as
Classroom
• classes are conducted
during two to three
week long backpacking
trips (program lasts nine
weeks)
• students return to base
camp for therapy
sessions with counselors
and parents

8. Connectivity and Place
• backpacking trips are
planned to coincide with
activities in all subject
areas
• watershed ecology and
reading “A River Runs
Through It” takes place
on the Sun River

9. Assessment for
classes
is portfolio based. Students carry
journals on the backpacking trips.
Their journals feature different
sections for English projects and
reflections, Social Studies research
papers and interviews, artwork, and
Environmental Science labs.

10. Accessible to All
• most outdoor behavioral therapy programs
cost $500/day
• SWS offers full ride scholarships and is
accessible to students from all socio-
economic backgrounds
• SWS selects students based on greatest
psychological and behavioral need

11. Philosophy
• students learn to take
responsibility for choices
and behavior
• students work in teams,
build trust, and develop
helpful and healthy
relationships
• students with learning
disabilities benefit from
the quiet classroom of
the wilderness

12. Teamwork

13. • students are evaluated weekly by a
therapist responsible for monitoring
attitude, willingness to act a member of a
team, and social and emotional awareness
• students learn to trust their peers,
teachers/guides, therapists, and parents and
discover the empowering nature of
working collaboratively

14. Spirituality

15. • our program is nondenominational
• however, spirituality is part of the healing
process
• a student is more likely to promote internal
change with an intense experience in
nature and the presence of caring staff
• SWS refers to the spirit that connects us
to all life and to the Earth

16. Teachers/Guides
• highly qualified in two
content areas
• experience with at-risk
youth
• certified in Wilderness First
Response and trained to
lead groups in the Bob
Marshall Wilderness
• tailor classes to meet
individual needs

17. Methodologies
• teens need to learn to
communicate openly and
honestly with parents,
teachers, and peers
before experiencing
academic success
• strong emphasis on
cooperative and
experiential learning

18. Standards and Accreditation

19. • curriculum aligned with Montana state
standards
• National Association of Therapeutic Schools and
Programs (NATSAP)
• North Central Association Commission on
Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA
CASI)
• The Commission on International and Trans-
regional Accreditation (CITA)

20. For more
information
refer to our detailed program
packet with application and
scholarship form
We are changing the lives of
teens and parents.

21. Curriculum
Development
ED 620 J01
Ann Marie Stone
December 11, 2008