Adams State Adventure Program

ASAP is about getting outdoors, having fun, and challenging ourselves and others through adventure experiences. We believe that activities like hiking, rock climbing, backpacking, whitewater kayaking, mountain biking, and many other adventure sports challenge us to improve our skills, help us stay healthy, and provide unique opportunities for building meaningful relationships.

We also believe that we are stewards of the incredible natural resources available to us in and near the San Luis Valley. As special permit holders for our local public lands it is important to us to give of our time and resources through service.

Finally, from its humble beginnings in 1925, the Adventure Program has evolved into a highly capable leadership development program with significant potential to become a leader within university adventure education and recreation. The Adventure Leadership and Programming (ALP) Apprenticeship was created as a co-curricular program to supplement academic coursework with practical experience, mentoring, and continuing education. The ALP Apprenticeship is built on a two year training, continuing education, and advancement model for student employees of ASAP. The term “apprenticeship” was selected due to the ongoing education, mentorship, and feedback inherent in the nature of adventure education and typical of such intensive leadership development programs. A student will typically enter the program as a sophomore and begin working toward the goal of becoming a Trip Leader in one or more outdoor disciplines. This process most often takes a minimum of one and a half years and advancement is based on completion of trainings, experience, and demonstrated competency in specific human, outdoor, and educational skills. Students who remain in the apprenticeship beyond two years have the opportunity to continue to develop their skills and are often at a level of development where they are performing at high levels of competency, contributing to the development of newer apprentices, and take part in the continual critical and creative evaluation of the entire program.