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| It’s October 10 at 9:15 a.m. I will be leaving my house in Gainesville, GA in about one hour for one of my favorite places in the world—Montreat, NC. What brings me here is not a vacation, not catching up with friends, not visiting the shops of Black Mountain but a desire to see my alma mater equipped with the best possible tool to facilitate learning for the Outdoor Education department. Some people call this a Challenge Course; I call it opportunity. I am excited about the next several days of building and about the thousands of participants and students this facility will serve. Montreat College, the best college in the world: thank you for the opportunity to serve. |
It’s 8:00 on a Friday morning, and nine students are sitting in a circle in the corner of the Manor House gym on the Black Mountain campus with Montreat alumnus Shane Sullards (‘99), their instructor. On this particular morning, Sullards tells his students that he might be a little bit groggy because his wife just had a baby last week (a girl, Kiralese), and he hasn’t had a normal night’s sleep since.
He takes the time to listen to one student’s difficulties over the past week, then opens with a devotional that involves group sharing. Sullards’ approach to teaching clearly entails getting involved with his students’ lives and bonding as a group.
After the devotion, Sullards tells the group what they’ll be doing today: unloading, sorting, and learning about the tools and equipment that arrived the previous day; taking advantage of free mulch that was left for the taking in Swannanoa; splicing ropes for a net on one of the elements; purchasing timber; and building a couple of course elements. At this point, the design has been approved, the poles are in the ground, the grading is done, and in a few days the decks will be framed and built. Now the real building can begin, and the students will spend their fall break getting four solid days of work in.
The class is Field Studies: Challenge Course Design and Installation, a 5-credit, 400-level course in the Outdoor Education department, of which Sullards is a graduate. Sullards makes the trip each week from Gainesville, GA to teach the hands-on, all-day class, and at the end of it, the college will have a state-of-the-art challenge and leadership facility (high and low ropes course and climbing wall) to rival any course in the country.
Make no mistake—this is not a get-out-of-school free pass, a chance to be outside and get an easy A. The students will work, and work hard—both outside and on their required classwork, which includes four three-page papers, a 23-page journal, a final paper, and a final exam. In today’s class, Sullards was handing back the students’ first paper, reminding them that they had been warned in the syllabus that a late paper would cost them 20 points. “So some of you were starting out with an 80,” he said.
The students also participate in the ordering of gear and equipment as part of their grade, and one of the stated goals of the course is to be able to identify and provide verbal explanations of more than 50 challenge course elements—so in addition to the satisfaction of a job well done, these students will have extremely valuable experience in the design, construction, and utilization of a challenge course.
Those who have a history with Montreat may remember that there  used to be a high ropes course in the trees behind the college's maintenance building. This course was used for leadership training and group development until one of the main anchor trees was struck by lightning in the 1990s. Since then, the College has been without a course, and its ability to train students in Challenge Course facilitation techniques and also to serve the public through such programs has been limited.
The closing of that course and the desire for Montreat students to be able to be trained on a state of the art facility prompted Sullards to submit to the Outdoor Education department a proposal for a class in which students would design and build a new challenge course under the direction of Sullards and his staff at lapdog, inc. He didn’t want to simply donate his time to build the course—his passion is for students to learn, so he was only going to build it if it was done with the involvement of students. The proposal was passed and received support from the College’s administration and the Town of Black Mountain’s Corporate and Community Task Force last spring.
Many individuals have generously contributed materials, time, and financial support to make this project a reality. Gifts of cash and materials from local Black Mountain donors, trustees, alumni, and local building supply companies are valued at nearly $250,000—not to mention the incredible donation by lapdog, inc. and Shane Sullards to travel from Georgia each week and engage our students in the design and construction of this facility.
It truly will be one of the premier challenge courses in the country—with the capability to accommodate hundreds of people simultaneously, including those with various physical disabilities. The goal is for the course to be open to serve the public in the spring of 2007. The course will be managed by the College’s Outdoor Education outreach program, BackCountry, under the direction of Mr. John Rogers. If you know of a group who could benefit from such a program, please contact John Rogers at BackCountry at jrogers@montreat.edu or 828-669-8012. |