Today’s competitive academic environment puts increasing demands on students to spend greater and greater amounts of time in the classroom, and less time pursuing other activities
Initiative Outdoor (I.O.) is a Nepal-based company established on 2003, that operates outdoor leadership and adventure courses for participants of all ages and all walks of life. Our courses are as much journeys of challenge into remote and rugged land as they are voyages of discovery of one's surroundings both natural and cultural, of the ins and outs of teamwork, and of one's own potential.
The aim of all I.O. courses is to assist participants in developing leadership and technical skills, to foster awareness and appreciation of the environment, and to nurture within individuals new attitudes, perspectives and ways of thinking and participating in the world around them. I.O. courses are based in Nepal's incredible wilderness and consist of activities such as white water rafting and kayaking, hiking, mountaineering, rock climbing, canyoning and caving. Programs are either activity-specific or include a combination of these activities.
On I.O. expeditions participants will test their physical abilities, develop skills and come to master activities. Moreover, they will gain confidence in their own ability to work with a team to meet defined goals, and lead the team safely, courageously, and with integrity when called upon to do so. These abilities require skills of communication, cooperation, sound judgment, reflection and awareness- qualities that are carefully fostered in all I.O. courses. Such skills are ones that students take with them long after the course is over; they are Life Skills.
At the basis of all that I.O. does lay the following core values. These assist us in creating a safe and trusting environment in which participants can discover the outdoors, develop skills and open themselves to the world around them and within them.
Challenge and Adventure Both of these terms invoke an element of the unknown, the unusual, something exciting, even risky, which demands great effort. When we are taken out of our comfort zone we are invited to test our limits and discover our strengths. To embrace the unknown is to be able to adapt readily in the face of adversity. We move beyond personal apprehensions and fears in order to grow into our innate abilities.
Leadership requires several factors, namely judgment and decision making, safety, communication, teamwork, and the ability to plan ahead and be prepared.
Sangha is the sense of community when we come to understand and experience ourselves as part of a bigger whole.
I.O. strives to inspire participants to uncover their own potential and develop qualities essential to becoming creative, compassionate and balanced human beings. Those qualities are:
Awareness is the quality of knowing, or having an understanding. By awareness we refer to that quality of having an understanding of ourselves, others and the world around us.
