BU & BUEE: A Tradition of Experiential Education

Boston University has a long tradition of outdoor and experiential education, starting with the purchase of Sargent Camp in 1930. Founded in 1912, Sargent Camp was one of America’s oldest teacher training facilities for outdoor education. In the 1950s, BU’s Sargent Camp started its residential school camping program as well as a coeducational, expedition-based summer camp. The 1970s saw the creation of BU’s Human Environment Institute at Sargent Camp, a progressive experiential education program that focused on the development of sustainable communities in a globalizing world. Also during this period, the BU School of Management’s Executive Challenge Program was formed and became a pioneering corporate adventure team building program in New England. In 2006, Sargent Camp—by then renamed Sargent Center for Outdoor Education—began combining experiential training programs with the emerging technology of GPS navigation. These programs are now the basis for Boston University Experiential Education.

Since 2006, Boston University’s GPS-based urban adventure programs have served over 10,000 participants in locations such as:

• Boston, MA
• Cambridge, MA
• Newport, RI
• Little Rock, AR
• St. Paul, MN
• Brattleboro, VT
• Brussels, Belgium
• Salem, MA
• Albuquerque, NM

Boston University’s GPS adventures have been incorporated into national conferences for:

• Association for Experiential Education
• National Orientation Director’s Association
• Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference
• American College Personnel Association
• Association for Challenge Course Technologies
• National Marfan Foundation