A Wilderness Stay: A Lifetime in the Blink of an Eye
The average length of stay for a student in our program is between nine to 12 weeks. Why is this the magic timespan?
Brennan Dougherty
Field of Dreams
Often, when speaking to prospective field instructors or parents of new students, the subject of sleep comes up in some fashion: “How will my child sleep out there?” “Are there tents?” and “How do you keep the [insert name of big scary creature] away?” are all common questions. I always look forward to these sleep-related queries because they allow me to highlight our risk management, the natural beauty of the high desert at night (truly my favorite time of day out there), and talk about just how good the sleep in the field can be. The truth is that there are no scary monsters lurking out in our field area and the weather typically allows for us to sleep out under the stars without tents. (We teach our students how to create primitive shelters in case of inclement weather.) It is this last piece, the importance of good quality sleep, that I want to touch on in this post.
What Are the Traits of a Successful Field Staff?
Often when I am talking to a prospective field staff during the interview process, they ask me what traits I look for in a candidate. From my time in the field, working as a field staff, talking to successful high-level employees, and examining the commonalities between past staff and others who did not thrive in their previous employment, I have boiled down what I believe to be the five essential traits that seem to be universal among successful people and field staff alike.