During Robert’s first summer he was challenged to learn and grow as a person and an educator. Robert has stayed with VOBS because of the communities and organization’s commitment to doing what we did today a little better tomorrow, learning from challenges and failures, and value of honest and open communication. Robert has seen how this program is able to change a person’s outlook on life and teach them about how to be the best version of themselves.

When Robert is not working you can often find him traveling around the country rock and ice climbing, mountain biking, or looking at birds.

He ended up applying for the internship at VOBS and has now worked for VOBS since 2019, at both the Ely, MN and Redford, TX bases.

Thomas loves the sense of adventure and purpose that comes with expeditions.

Thomas stays at VOBS in large part because of the continued challenge and growth everyone in this community – students and staff alike – experience. There is something about spending time in the wilderness that gives people permission to let their walls down and open up in ways that you don't see in “everyday life.” Thomas believes that these moments of challenge and authenticity that come with wilderness travel are what make Outward Bound expeditions a life-changing experience. 

When not working, you can find Thomas paddling his whitewater canoe, playing board games, fetch with his puppy, or scheming ways to get his friends to come on an adventure with him.

In 2011, Jack expanded his outdoor education work to Hong Kong, where he discovered a passion for expedition-based learning through jungle backpacking and island kayaking. While in Asia, he combined his love of rock climbing and exploration with trips to Southern China, Thailand, and Oman. In 2014, he joined Northwest Outward Bound School (NWOBS) in Washington, eager to test his skills in bigger mountains and open seas—and hopefully spot an orca or two. Over the next decade, Jack served as an Instructor, Course Director, and Staff Trainer, known for his creative teaching, focus on student growth, and ability to foster belonging. Before joining VOBS, he was the Program Manager at the Mazama basecamp, where he found the most joy in building a tight-knit, supportive community—and in making maps. Jack really loves maps.

P.S. He did see Orcas in Washington.

Jack moved to Minnesota in 2024 and quickly fell in love with the North Shore of Lake Superior. He began working for VOBS in the Twin Cities before making his way up to the Boundary Waters and Ely, where he hopes to continue creating community that feel like family both on and off course. 

she took an opportunity to study abroad for a semester in Madagascar. She graduated summa cum laude in 2016. 

After graduation, Julia eventually settled in Jackson, Wyoming, where she spent a few years field instructing for Teton Science Schools and ski instructing at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. 

Julia began working at VOBS in the summer of 2018. In 2021, she committed to working winters in Ely where she discovered the joy of dogsledding. She has been working year round at VOBS since. As an instructor, she is excited about curriculum, snow, dogs, sea kayaks and learning with students. She loves to share her love of the natural world—including local ecology—with students. 

When Julia is not working, you can find her trail running, knitting, skiing or playing with dogs. 

at Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound School for a year before returning to VOBS and committing to year round work in Ely, Minnesota and Redford, Texas. Yoshie's experiences with VOBS also inspired her to co-found Wheels for Mental Wellness, a cycling trip across America to raise awareness around mental health. In 2018, Yoshie and fellow Outward Bound instructor Catherine Dyer spent 54-days cycling from San Diego to St. Augustine, Florida. Along the way they conducted interviews and wrote blog posts about a myriad of mental health issues. This expedition challenged Yoshie to apply the skills she had learned at Outward Bound in a new context and further informed her love for expeditionary learning.

Outward Bound has opened a world of challenge, adventure, and discovery that Yoshie never knew existed as a teenager. Her time at Outward Bound has informed her values and given her invaluable tools to communicate with the people she cares about. She is honored to be a part of imparting those same experiences and tools to the students she works with and supporting them through challenge and adventure. She learns something new from each expedition and is excited to keep growing and challenging herself alongside her students.

After graduating from Loyola, Conner took a short break from VOBS to work for two years in Sweden. While living abroad, Conner learned countless things about herself and the world, and was challenged tremendously by the work involved in adjusting to a new culture. Though thousands of miles away, Conner still felt connected to her work at Outward Bound and eventually felt the pull to return back stateside.

Since 2017, Conner has split her time between Minnesota and Colorado, spending her winters in Aspen teaching skiing and summers at VOBS. So far, her passion for flying down mountains on skis has not been enough to pull her away from summers in Ely, where the growth she sees in an Outward Bound student is unparalleled compared to any other program she has experienced. Conner feels passionately that the wilderness is the best classroom and has stayed with Outward Bound for eight years because as of now, she hasn’t found a better place to be.

Initially he came to Outward Bound searching for adventure and the wilderness, but ultimately stayed because of the values and curriculum Outward Bound teaches. Dan resonated with the idea of restorative justice and that harm can be repaired through intentional communication and compassion. He continues to instill the belief that these skills can not only be taught, but also practiced and strongly believes the wilderness is the greatest classroom to learn this in.

When he is not working for Outward Bound, Dan can be found hiking up the Bridger Mountain Range with his snowboard, Kayaking on the Gallatin River and playing country music across Southwest Montana. He loves his job and is committed to working with young people and their families and seeing the “light bulb” moments happen as they solidify strong learnings on course and improve their relationships.

During this time, Arty developed a love and knack for Asian cooking and an adventurous spirit that led him to travel the world. He spent extensive time in India, Japan, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. 

In 2018, Arty made the decision to move across the ocean and work for Voyageur Outward Bound School (VOBS). After some time away from expeditionary learning, he was drawn specifically to the opportunity for longer expeditions and the Intercept program. Arty loves working with students to help them transfer the skills they learn in the wilderness to their lives at home. The opportunity to support families during this time of upheaval and transition is one of his favorite parts of this job. The learning and growth that he has witnessed at VOBS is more profound than he’s seen anywhere else. Since 2018, Arty has committed his life to Outward Bound and works year-round as a field instructor out of Ely, MN. He loves his work and is committed to providing the best support he can to instructors, students and their families. 

Throughout this time she learned how important outdoor experiences were for feeling a sense of connection to the earth and to yourself. Julia eventually decided to transfer to Western Colorado University to further pursue outdoor education and graduated with a B.A in  Recreation Outdoor Education. She wanted to continue to create learning opportunities for others through experiential education and was still passionate about understanding how people behave and how their minds work from her first few years studying psychology. 

2019 Julia was an intern for VOBS and quickly felt passionate about Outward Bounds' ideas of learning about oneself through the experience. She came back to work full-time in 2020 working both at the Ely, MN, and Big Bend, TX base camps for the following years. In 2023, Julia took a break from VOBS to gain some new skills helping run an outdoor program in Washington and learning how to dog sled by guiding day trips in the winter in Steamboat Springs, CO.  Even though Julia has moved around a lot and pursued many different passions she is always drawn back to the North Woods of Minnesota and plans to continue to spend her summers at VOBS as an Instructor, Trainer, and Course Director. She hopes to continue to pursue her other passions of creative expression through watercolor and ceramics, mountain biking, and climbing with her friends in her free time.

In 2020, Dan decided to look for a career that focused on helping others through nature. Dan discovered Outward Bound and began working there in the summer of 2021. Expeditionary learning was a great fit for his skillset and teaching style, and he felt right at home working with passionate educators who were always up for adventure. 

Dan continues to work at Outward Bound because he sees so much positive change in the students and staff he works with. It is a job that keeps him learning and growing. He believes this work is more important than ever, as the world navigates a changing climate and learning the balance of technology and connection.  

When Dan is not working you can find him rock climbing with friends or planning ways of exploring this earth through bikepacking or backpacking. Or you may just find him in the garden getting his hands dirty. 

After spending a summer learning to paddle and portage, Grace continued working for Outward Bound full-time but split her time between the northwoods of Minnesota in the summers and the concrete jungle at New York City Outward Bound School during the fall/winter/spring. However, VOBS’s unique expeditionary style of education compelled her to spend more and more time in Minnesota. She began working year-round for VOBS, cross-country skiing and dogsledding across frozen lakes with students and new fluffy canine co-workers, in 2022. She continues to return to VOBS for the opportunity to help her students and herself access the best parts of themselves in challenging environments, and bring the skills of resilience, compassion, and teamwork with them into the modern world.

When Grace is not working, you can find her cooking food for people she loves, reading a really good book, or writing a new story of her own.

After college, Phyllis knew that she wanted to continue working in the outdoors. She heard from one of her professors that Voyageur Outward Bound was one of the first outdoor education schools in the United States and that the community was second to none. This led her to start working for VOBS in the summer of 2021. She immediately fell in love with the community and the work that Outward Bound does and started working year-round for the Big Bend program immediately. 

Phyllis has stayed with VOBS because of the huge impact she has not only seen in students on courses, but that she has felt within herself. Seeing someone carry a canoe on their shoulders for the first time, finding water in the desert, or learning to work with someone totally different from them shows people that they are capable of so much more than they think. Having the privilege to see people learn that lesson over and over on course while also learning it herself feeds into the huge sense of purpose that this work gives Phyllis.

When she is not working, you can find Phyllis mountain biking, hanging out with dogs in the dog yard, or spending quality time with her community. Phyllis is excited to see what her future holds with Outward Bound!