From Classroom to Canyon: Experiential Learning in a National Park

Background: As educators seek innovative ways to engage students in transformative learning, immersive service-learning provides unique opportunities to develop leadership and stewardship. The program explored in our research study provides undergraduate students with intensive volunteer experience with the National Parks Service (NPS). Purpose: Our research study is designed to describe and investigate how a service-learning experience transforms students’ understanding of leadership and stewardship. Method: The program integrates formal learning with experiential community-based learning through interactions with university faculty and park rangers within the national park. These course-based experiences help solidify the main concepts of servant leadership, stewardship, and service throughout the experience. Qualitative data used in the study was collected from impact videos and written reflection questions from ePortfolio workbooks of 23 undergraduate participants. Findings: In analyzing the data, it was clear that transformational experiences helped students in their understanding of leadership, stewardship, and building of cultural awareness and community. Through experiential learning, students were able to immerse themselves in the beforementioned concepts in interactions throughout the trip with many crediting these interactions for a shift in their perspective. Implications: These findings stress the importance of immersive, interdisciplinary experiential learning on students’ personal development and understanding of course content.