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.

He quickly fell in love with the community, mission and spirit of VOBS. He has returned year after year to foster the values of compassion, integrity, and grit as a means to improve the lives of his students and allow them to improve their communities when they return home.

Over the past five years, Will has worked as an instructor, trainer, and course director during the summer months in Ely, on canoeing and backpacking courses. Will has also filled those same roles for VOBS at its Big Bend, TX base in the spring, winter and fall, working with students on backpacking and whitewater canoeing expeditions. He has instructed nearly all course types that VOBS has to offer, from multi-element canoeing and backpacking, to Intercept, to grieving teens programs. In addition to his technical skills in canoeing and backpacking, he is skilled and knowledgeable in rock climbing, something on which he spends a great deal of his free time.

It was not until one Bachelor’s of Science in geology, 12 months in early childhood education, and five years of flirting with a comedy career later did Benji feel the undeniable itch for the passion, self-discovery and community he felt as a student at VOBS. Benji was not done with Outward Bound. In 2018 he returned to Outward Bound. He committed to full-time work in 2020, spending summers paddling around the Minnesota Northwoods and falls/winters stomping through the west Texas desert.

Collaboration is a big part of Benji’s educational philosophy, seeing himself as the student as much as the teacher. Expeditions are constant opportunities to learn about yourself, through and with others. Whether he is impulsively redesigning his curriculum, thanks to an acute moment of student wisdom, or encouraging his students to express their feelings through an improvised play, Benji is always seeking to draw on the creativity of others.

When he is not expeditioning you can find Benji practicing his calligraphy, writing poems to his friends, studying a map of the world, and yes… still flirting with comedy.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Justin decided to put camp on the back burner and stumbled upon the Voyageur Outward Bound school where he started working as a summer and winter intern in 2018. Justin immediately fell in love with the winter program, and the impact it has on the students that come through. His passion for mushing and leading winter expeditions kept him in the blistering cold of Ely, Minnesota where he has spent the past six winters instructing, course directing ,and training dogs. When Justin is not working, you can find him at a yard sale on an early Friday morning, or playing a game of ultimate frisbee with some friends.

and studied Outdoor Education.

Her classes were nontraditional, as she got to spend her time learning and doing the skills she was being taught, like white water canoeing. She developed her love for canoeing when she was younger and it has only grown since graduating college. Since starting as an Instructor at VOBS, she has had the ability to grow her Instructor skills and continue to learn her canoeing and camping skills. She really enjoys getting to share the joy of all things outside with my co-workers and Students.

After graduating she began her Outward Bound journey, first working with VOBS in 2018 as an Intern at Homeplace.

She returned to VOBS summer of 2022 after various jaunts, including working for NYC Outward Bound Schools, spending a summer guiding in Alaska, and teaching at a forest preschool in central New York. When not at the St. Paul office or in the field with students, you can find Claire riding her bike around Minneapolis, hiking with her dog Mud, and swimming in one of the many lakes the Twin Cities has to offer!

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 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!