Freshmen become leaders on wilderness journey

Photo courtesy of Fr. Rick Sherman

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Two groups of boys and two groups of girls experience the wilderness for three weeks. Father Rick Sherman (right) is the assigned priest for one of the girls groups.

SALT LAKE CITY ­— Wyoming Catholic College (WCC) spends almost a month over the course of the freshman year teaching students how to safely participate in the beauty of the wilderness around them. It is challenging to those familiar with the back country, although all the students need to succeed in the wilderness is basic physical fitness and a desire to learn.

“These students came with a sense of adventure. Some of them had never been camping before and they approached this wilderness training with a sense of adventure,” said Father Rick Sherman, pastor of St. Elizabeth Parish in Richfield.

Fr. Sherman, an avid backpacker, became involved in the outdoor adventure at WCC after meeting two sophomore girls in Moab who had experienced the leadership training. Fr. Sherman was assigned as pastor in Moab at St. Pius X Parish prior to August.

WCC provides their freshmen with this start to their college experience by partnering with the world-renowned National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), headquartered in Lander, Wyo. NOLS was founded in 1965 as a tiny outdoor school in a log cabin. It was founded to teach people how to lead, and to teach people responsible, comfortable outdoor living. NOLS has graduated over 85,000 people from its programs. It conducts the fall wilderness adventure of the Freshman Orientation Program for WCC.

The fall program is a 21-day, backpacking, wilderness expedition, which this year started Aug. 6 and ended Aug. 21, just before the fall academic classes began. The program provides instruction to those with little or no outdoor experience, yet also engages even the most seasoned woodsman. Students are assigned to groups of no more than 15 members with two NOLS instructors, one priest chaplain, one other WCC representative, and the rest being freshmen, enhancing the sense of community. The three-week course in the wilderness gives students the satisfaction of climbing 11,000-feet passes and summiting 13,000-feet peaks, trekking about 100 miles, fly fishing some of the most beautiful lakes in the Rocky Mountains, and cooking their own meals on open fires they build.

“They are to leave no trace in the wilderness that they were there, which included no toilet paper,” said Fr. Sherman. “They learned to use leaves and sticks in its place and after three weeks they said toilet paper may be overrated.

“They were exposed to learning many skills such as teamwork, treating all other members of the group with respect, doing a good share of the work, and tolerating adversity and uncertainty. These skills will stick with all the students for the rest of their lives. All they had was what they could carry on their backs. They learned to rely on God and each other as a team.

“Many of the students were home schooled. They loved attending Mass every day and praying before the Blessed Sacrament,” said Fr. Sherman. “They were very devoutly religious. You can imagine how going to Mass and being in the wilderness really pertained to the Scriptures. They literally came to life.

“We integrated the leadership skills with scriptural passages that put it into Christian Catholic context,” said Fr. Sherman. “Seeing NOLS, a secular group, collaborate so well with this Catholic college was amazing. It was also interesting how the students had a real love for the teachings of the church and a real love for the environment and were really learning how all those things all fit together. They were learning a sense of the sacramental universe, which made a lot of sense in the wilderness. It is our responsibility to take care of the earth; the earth teaches us.

“There were four groups of freshmen, two groups of girls and two groups of boys. They did not even have time to get homesick,” said Fr. Sherman. “It was interesting watching them learn how to survive, live and leave not trace in the wilderness.”