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ÑAdventure, Risk, & ChallengeSummer Literacy and LeadershipProgram (ARC)Participating Reserve: SAGEHEN CREEK FIELD STATIONFunded by: PRIVATE DONATIONSAdditional Information: Transect 23: 2 (Autumn 2005): “Summer at Sagehen Reserve transforms teensthrough program of Adventure • Risk • Challenge” (pages 7-13). A PDF of thisarticle can be accessed at: .Based at the Sagehen Creek Field Station, this intensivesix-week summer program combines outdoor adventureand leadership activities with English and scienceinstruction. Serving at-risk tenth- and eleventh-gradeEnglish Language Learners (ELL) whose first language isSpanish, ARC has dramatically improved its graduates’performance on the English portion of the California HighSchool Exit Exam.The program aligns closely with California StateStandards, and all key ARC instructors are credentialedteachers. Program director Katie Fesus holds an M.A.in Education from Stanford University and a Californiateaching credential from Mills College in Oakland.Most ARC students are drawn from the local Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District, where 25 percent of thedistrict’s students are designated as ELL. Ninety percentof these ELL students are achieving below grade level, and60 percent drop out before graduation. Each year Fesusworks with school faculty and staff to identify eight to tenELL students who have both leadership and academicpotential, but who are struggling with English. She thenmeets with the students and their families to determinetheir interest in participating in the program.The ARC curriculum consists of a series of outdoorexpeditions interspersed with academic time spent atSagehen. Each program component has been designedto gradually build the students’ confidence and selfsufficiencyuntil, by the end of the six weeks, they arecomfortable with spending twenty-four hours on their ownin the wilderness, teaching younger students basic scienceconcepts, and reading their poetry in public.The program’s tone is set on the first day when thestudents head into the Desolation Wilderness for an eightdaybackpacking trip. Because most of the participantshave no camping experience, ARC instructors carefullyguide this trip, ensuring student safety while teachingbackcountry survival skills. During this trip, participantsbegin to establish their group culture as they takeresponsibility for essential day-to-day chores.12