Outward Bound

Did that kind of self-reliance, did that happen when you were in, in Africa or in Ecuador, or did- have you always had that?

Yeah, actually, you know, I was, when I was younger, I was getting into all sorts of trouble, and my parents ended up sending me off to Outward Bound.

You know, they're just like, "What am I gonna do with this, this kid? He's just like..." So I was like, um, I don't know, I was probably 12 or 13.

And so, yeah, I was in Oregon for three weeks, and it was a great experience.

[laughs]

Atlanta Education Fund, um, and Outward Bound Atlanta, then you served as a state, uh, fidelity manager-

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

... for Children's Aid Society Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention program, director of the Salvation Army's National Pathway of Hope initiative, which ensures, uh, quality and consistency of social services across, um-

... then I wanna be vice president, I wanna be-

Yeah.

So I was on that track for a while, and then I got to Outward Bound Atlanta.

I was executive director, so that's the highest of the highest, right?

Um, but we really like to bring all of our graduates and apprentices together, so you feel like you're part of that, that cohort.

Um, and something else we also run, um, as part of induction, but then it runs through your program, is what we call, um, Outward Bound, so you get the opportunity to go, um, somewhere really cool, places like the Lake District, um, do lots of outdoor activities, um, but again, learn about yourself, your, your teammates, your colleagues.

Um, learn about the Rolls-Royce values, behaviors, things like how we act safely, understanding, um, our environment and our products.

Um, and that's something that runs throughout the program and kind of into some of the wider development, um, opportunities that we run.

And so how did you come to be involved in this to begin with?

Believe it or not, I used to work for Outward Bound.

which I believe was founded in Aberduffy Wales in the 40s.

I did some of my training in Oldswater later than that.

Outward Bound is an outdoor experiential adventure organization, but part of it was deep immersion into ecosystems.

And when I was working there, I just really got excited about, you know, basically nature's brilliant designs and learning.

And then I was working for a period when I was working at Outward Bound.

Somebody gave me a book called The Fifth Discipline and The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge.

Although how those lines are blurred are pretty clear or unclear, and mentorship and rites of passage is something that we've kinda lost sight of for adolescents.

And, and, and I'm hearing in many ways sort of the idea of Outward Bound from Kurt Hahn was-

Mm

...