Project Success Expeditions: On Campus, Around the World and into the Great Outdoors 

What are some of the best cures for the cabin fever and isolation we’ve all experienced over the last year? Connection, travel, the great outdoors – to name a few. For nearly three decades, Project Success has built programs that push students out of their comfort zones, literally and figuratively, through hands-on expeditions – to Theodore Wirth Park, to the Boundary Waters, to Chicago, to France and Mexico and places in-between. Replicating those experiences for students learning from home was a challenge, but we knew it would be necessary to rise to that challenge for kids this year.  

Outdoor Adventures 

Project Success has brought students on Boundary Waters Canoe Area Adventures for more than two decades. In recent years, outdoor adventures have expanded to include field trips to local wilderness areas like Theodore Wirth Park – smaller excursions that act as jumping-off points for students to gain more  enjoyment and confidence in the outdoors. 

Through distance learning, our Outdoor Adventures programming sought to bring the outdoors in with virtual events that focused on outdoor experiences, like Voyage to Antarctica and  A Year in the Wilderness with Dave and Amy Freeman. We also brought the indoors out, through middle school Outdoor Clubs that encouraged students to meet weekly on Zoom, then get outside in their own backyards and neighborhoods to accomplish fun outdoor challenges like identifying wildlife, learning how to tie knots, and more. 

“We were able to revisit some of students’ favorite activities, from last year’s award-winning BWCA: Minneapolis Edition, including BWCA map reading, route and trip planning, packing and meal planning and more,” says Jenny Batten, Program Manager for Outdoor Adventures and Global Experiences. “We designed challenges  that help students learn more about the outdoors and our relationship to nature, express themselves through art, and foster environmental stewardship.” Nearly 150 students participated in one or more Outdoor Adventures during the 2020-21 school year, and many took advantage of all of the Outdoor Adventures PS had to offer. 

Global Experiences

“All Project Success Global experiences, both in-person and now virtual, focus on a dedication to global citizenship,” says Anne Skold, Outdoor Adventures and Global Experiences Associate. “It’s about relating to people from other parts of the world, learning about yourself in the process and how you fit into that bigger world.” 

Through virtual events like Live Safaris, a K-Pop Dance Class, Guided City Tours and Cooking Classes, students had the opportunity to travel all across the globe from their own homes with PS this year. Building on the huge popularity of our Institute cooking certificate course, global cooking was a natural fit and next step for PS. ,As a part of Project Success’ “PS2U” delivery program which was developed during the pandemic,  more than 50 grocery bags full of delicious ingredients were delivered to families to participate inglobal cooking classes. 

Additionally, 200 students built connections to students around the world in our Pen Pal connections program, sending 600 videos, audio recordings, letters and emails to pen pals  Mexico, Sweden, Brazil, Senegal, South Africa, and the Czech Republic. 

College and Career Tours 

Innovation has been key for college tours this year, so that students still had ways to plan for and focus on their futures while at home. Though students haven’t been able to visit campuses in-person, PS developed College Connect Admissions and Student Panels, our College Conversations podcast, more than 30 pre-recorded admission chats in a library on our website, and our most recent College Success workshops held over spring break with more than 120 students. 

In many ways, the virtual world has afforded us opportunities to further personalize and target our programs to students’ needs.  

One of our most longstanding programs is our annual spring break Chicago College Tour, which has given hundreds of students the opportunity to travel to Chicago and tour schools over the years. With travel at a standstill, Project Success took advantage of distance learning to create a new, individualized way for students to plan for their futures during their spring break time: College Success Workshops.  

“This time allowed us to do something that a lot of times we don’t get to do on college tours which is, allows us to create more specified workshops to where students are at,” said Marc Bromaghim-Oropeza, Workshops Manager. “We could put students in categories of ‘Just getting my journey started’ and ‘farther along on my journey’ in the college search.” 

This approach allowed for students to participate in two different College Success Workshop tracks depending on where they fell in their college search. Some students even followed both tracks – eight workshops in all – to soak up all they could about their upcoming college search and experience. 120 students attended our College Success workshops over spring break, and staff delivered nearly 70 College Tour care packages to their homes!  

Whether it’s getting students outside, on campus, or around the world, Project Success expeditions have evolved significantly in the 2020-21 school year, continuing to give students opportunities to gain confidence in trying new things, visiting new places and formulating new dreams.