Learning & Growing Outdoors with Fulcrum

In which Dan explores the power of outdoor experiential learning with Fulcrum Adventures, a Los Angeles-based company and leader in the team building and outdoor youth development space. Their motto is Do. Risk. Grow.

Dan talks with Leo Van Warmerdam, program director, and Racine Camara,  one of Fulcrum's facilitators, about the power of learning outside, reflection, and, ultimately, letting young people be themselves.

As always, I welcome comments and questions on X, Threads, and Instagram @BigIdeaEd

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Mentioned in the show:
Fulcrum Adventures
It's time to log off and touch grass by Catriona Morton
Angela Hanscom has the remedy for our kids' overly structured, overly scheduled world from What's the Big Idea

Music by Stars in LA

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

When you tell a young person or a human being, hey, go find a partner, that for some people is scary. You know, like that is that's out of their comfort zone for some of us. Or some of us, of course, we can go up and talk to anybody, but for especially for young people, to go introduce yourself, ask the person their name, like for a lot of us, that is a scary moment. So I think to approach our entire work, not just ropes courses, but just working with humans in a way that that doesn't assume that they're comfortable doing anything and always giving them either an out or a space that makes it safe.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

We have the saying, sometimes an unprocessed experience is an unintegrated one. Um, meaning that if we do an activity and we just move on from that activity and do other things, yes, there can be learning happening, um, but we're not giving it that time to kind of reflect and see um all of the things that we've done.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Welcome to What's the Big Idea? I'm your host, Dan Carney. The great outdoors is good for you. I know, shocking, right? This has been shown extensively by research and through many of our own experiences, especially during the pandemic, when, frustrated, bored, and tired of Netflix, many of us ventured outside. And what did we find? Undoubtedly, all the things that science has been telling us all these years improved mood, reduced stress, improved physical health, connection with new people. I mean hell, touch grass became one of the most oft-repeated lines at COVID's height. Nature, in short, was getting its due. So it's no surprise that when we turn the conversation to education and child development, nature makes a strong showing. Back in December of 2021, I spoke with Angela Hanscom, founder of Timbernook, about the extensive benefits of getting kids outside, especially in our increasingly plugged-in and distracted world. One of Angela's most salient points during our chat and the focus of today's episode is that children get to be themselves outside. Here in Los Angeles, I've had the benefit of working with Fulcrum Adventures, an experience-based company that focuses on team building, leadership, and youth development. Their motto is Do, Risk, Grow. And I can't think of a better encapsulation of the experience of getting young people outdoors and putting them in scenarios where they can be themselves and learn in an authentic, human way. Today's show features two guests from Fulcrum, Leo Van Warmerdam and Racine Kamara. Leo has been with Fulcrum for 20 years and now serves as his program director. And Racine, well, he's just one of the most natural educator facilitators I've ever met. I hope you enjoy hearing their passion, and I really hope this episode encourages you to look up Fulcrum if you're in the LA area or seek out your own local outdoor ed organization.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

My name is Leo Van Womerdam with Fulcrum Learning Systems or Fulcrum Adventures. Um been with Fulcrum almost 20 years, actually.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

Maybe we could just start with some history of the company, just you know, how it got started. And you mentioned even as recent as five years ago was a much smaller operation. Maybe talk me through how Fulcrum was established and grew.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Yeah. Fulcrum was founded by uh Leslie Bourne um about 30 years ago. And she came to Los Angeles in her mid-20s, worked for the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, and she was in core member development. So she would lead trainings, uh, training the new core members on personal development. And she led some crews around LA. And um, there was someone who believed in her, Martha Diepenbrock, who had a grant and said, I want you to start doing this away from, you know, uh in addition to LA Conservation Corps and build this, and got her a grant, built a little tiny ropes course at Tumesco Canyon, which is right up the road from y'all in the Palisades, and uh started out doing, you know, working with the Conservation Corps. And over the last 30 years, as you know, we, you know, we do much more than ropes courses and anything in the realm of team building, personal growth, um, you know, corporate, uh, private school, public school, charter school, you name it. We get a lot of interesting calls and we usually say yes to everything.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

What's the mission of Vulcrum?

SPEAKER_02 4:56

I mean, our mission is to develop leaders and teams through transformational learning experiences, um, which is broad enough to give us a lot of freedom to, like I just said, work with people in so many different capacities. Um and it's really just uplifting human beings and teams and and having them feel seen and heard and validated and giving them space to, you know, connect, express themselves and have an experience.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

What's the most recent uh trip you were on?

SPEAKER_02 5:30

The last trip I was on, actually, I led a high school leadership retreat, uh or high school community building retreat uh for a school up the road from y'all, ninth through twelfth graders. Hundred, hundred of them. Um, and it was honestly one of, man, one of the more memorable retreats, not only of this year, but probably of my last five years.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Is there a moment from that trip you could talk about and maybe would help us sort of get into why fulcrum is so special?

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Yeah. Um, you know, unlike educators uh like you or or or who work at a school where you get to see students every day and you might see their growth over the course of a month, a year, the whole high school career. You know, fulcrum uh we get to work with some schools repeatedly, but a lot of our trips might be we get to connect with them for a day, two days, three days, and then off they go. We may not ever see that student again, you know, and we and we work with schools repeatedly, but you never know. We might just be a very small drop in the bucket of their experience. And so um on that trip, at the very end, you know, we had a circle open for anybody who wanted to share takeaways from the three-day trip. And there was a 10th grader, no, 11th grader, who pretty took on a pretty vulnerable moment, stood up, stood in the middle of the circle, and said, You know, I'm new to the school. I've been here three weeks, and the last three weeks have not been great. I thought maybe I made a mistake, haven't felt connected, didn't really know my place here. And in about a minute or two, he looked at every member in the circle, all of his classmates, and just thanked them for accepting him on the retreat and how magical the retreat was. And from that moment, he told them that he feels like he has a place there and that he made the right choice and he can't wait to get back to school to you know keep it going. And it was, yeah, I think that's the the essence of our work, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

And why do you think that is? What what what what activities, what kind of a program were you running that you think grounded him and connected him to his classmates?

SPEAKER_02 7:48

We try to do our best, especially on multi-day retreats, to have a variety of programming from you know, ropes course to art to archery to ground-based team building to game shows, you know, hikes. Like I think we we try to create an experience where no matter what kind of student comes out, they will connect with something. So to be totally honest, I don't even know if it was anything we did. Maybe we, you know, it couldn't, maybe it wasn't an activity, maybe it was the safe space to be vulnerable. Maybe, you know, there was something created. And I think that's when I said neutral earlier, I think that's what we try to do is create a neutral space for students to explore um themselves and the doing, which is the activity part, but also the being, which is I'm gonna get out of my comfort zone, I might connect with a new person. We try to mix them up in groups. So I think maybe, you know, to answer that question, tough to pinpoint the activity, but just I think our facilitators at Fulcrum, as maybe you've experienced, Dan, you know, we we we attract really wonderful human beings that just care, you know?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Yeah, and that answer you touched on a couple of the components that I really admire about fulcrum. One is the outdoor, being outdoors and being challenged in the outdoor space. And the other is that human connection, the social emotional learning. Maybe we'll start with the first one. What is it about being outside for anybody, for humans, but especially maybe for students, for adolescents, that's so powerful.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

Yeah, I think that I always share this with teachers before a trip or before a day to say, you know, as much as you can be engaged in the day with us, you're gonna learn things about your students that you do not learn about them uh in between four walls. And I think that when you get students out in a slightly different environment, and in our world, it would be outdoors, but it would really just be experiential learning and that primarily outdoors, but you know, just anytime you're we're we're giving them other opportunities to connect and learn, I I think it just I think it gives students uh an opportunity to just a lot of young people just to be a kid, you know, and and to play. You know, I think we always tell students you have permission to have fun when you're on our programs. And I know you guys do a great job at that at New Roads of building the whole person, not just the academic child. You know, I've always admired that about you all. And I think that's why a lot of our partnership works with you because you all do that kind of work uh, you know, on campus as well. But yeah, I think getting getting students outside. I grew up on a on a farm, you know. I I spent all my my youth outside, and I was I remember my parents just going, just go outside, just go outside, you know, and so I think giving students the opportunity, it's like almost limitless what they can experience outside, especially with the little, little, you know, with the little nudging and structured activities. It's not just a free-for-all.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

They're unplugged, right? There's no phones, there's no technology. And they're also they're challenged. A lot of your, you know, don't want to uh overlook how challenging some of your activities are, the ropes course. Uh, for a lot of students, getting up high in the trees and walking on ropes, jumping off platforms, it's challenging. And how how do you um help students get comfortable in that space and face their fears ultimately?

SPEAKER_02 11:14

Yeah. I think one of the things we've always done our best to frame at the beginning of any of our programs is that you know, we we do um kind of subscribe to the challenge by choice mentality, which is, hey, anything you do today, you know, you're gonna choose it. And that includes just putting on your harness, you know. And I think sometimes we for a student who's terrified of heights, for example, just stepping into that harness on the tarp, that that honestly might be out of their comfort zone enough to like get their stomach turning, you know? And so I think doing our best to train our facilitators to not assume that that anyone is comfortable doing anything that we have. And and I don't even think that that goes as far as the ropes course. I mean, I think when you tell a young person or a human being, hey, go find a partner, that for some people is scary, you know, like that is that's out of their comfort zone for some of us. Or some of us, of course, we can go up and talk to anybody, but for especially for young people, to go introduce yourself, ask the person their name, like for a lot of us, that is a scary moment. So I think to to approach our entire work, not just ropes courses, but just working with humans in a way that that doesn't assume that they're comfortable doing anything and and always giving them either an out or a space that that makes it safe. And I think when you can create as it and I safe is a tricky word on a ropes course because we try to mitigate every point of risk possible, you know. Um, and I think that that goes to the emotional piece as well, you know, the emotional safety that we're not gonna make fun of you. Um, in fact, and we're also gonna encourage the group not to, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

And a lot of that credit goes to your facilitators. Like our students love your facilitators. And can you talk a bit about the types of people that you have as your facilitators? Because it yes, they're they are leading safe activities and they're they're they're showing leadership to the students, but they're connecting and they really care about our students.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

The activities aside, like I always say, we can teach you activities. You know, we can teach activities, we can teach you how to run a ropes course. Do you really show up and care about the the participants, you know, no matter what age? And I think um we we do do trainings, but I do feel like the people that you that you're you're talking about that your students love are people that are just extraordinary humans that just like you care about the growth and the the development of young people and not just young people, and we work with adults too, but just you know, creating an experience for people to have growth.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

What do you think is the lesson for schools? You know, you're you're you're educators, uh, and we're educators, but we're in a more traditional sense in our buildings, in our content areas. What do you think schools can take away from the fulcrum experience? What's something that we can learn from you?

SPEAKER_02 14:19

The fulcrum experience, I love that. I've always wanted that to be our company name, the fulcrum experience, because we do all sorts of experiences. I think um one thing that comes to mind first is to meet students where they're at. Um, and I think that the traditional way of learning that probably you and I grew up with is dramatically different in this day and age. And obviously, so social media is one thing, but I think if you just look at the way that the world comes at you right now, how fast it is between, you know, billboards and social media and the way that movies are edited so fast, like everything is so fast. And I think that our the young learners are just they're different. And so as educators, I think we have to find consistently find creative ways to meet them where they're at. And it might be very different the way than the way you and I learned, and it might be different than what you did last year. So I think my, you know, and I think we try to do that as much as possible at Fulcrum, you know, like with ground-based activities and the way we approach our programming. But I yeah, I think it's just getting creative, um, meeting students where they're at and finding different ways to engage with them.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

I'm glad you brought up like the speed of life, the speed of content delivery, because you know, last spring I had the chance to go up to Big Bear with some eighth graders and and fulcrum. And there just were so many moments when everything was slow. Yeah. And even at the end, you know, you talked earlier about this sort of um closing council and giving students a chance to reflect. And we had that at Big Bear, and it was really powerful. And and so many students were um commenting on and really showing appreciation for those slow moments, just standing by the lake, just early morning, late afternoon, just standing with their friends by the lake and recognizing that that was a really special moment for them. Understanding, like, wow, I'm unplugged and I'm really enjoying just doing this slow nature thing.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Yeah, I mean, you you can't see through the screen right now, but I'm smiling big because that it that is so it's so true when you say slow down, you know, that that uh and that's one of the mad things of magic, especially at at Cedar Lake, is just like you said, there's an activity in and of itself of just being with the lake. And I think even as adults, we've sort of conditioned ourselves to be what are we doing next? What do I have to do? What do I have to do? And I think that is one of the magic of being outside, like to answer your question earlier, and on some of the retreats is unplugging in a way where and and not just being there, but also experiencing it with someone else.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

A big thanks to Leo for sharing his perspective on outdoor education and the work of fulcrum. You heard me comment how much students love the facilitators at Fulcrum. And so now I'd like to share another voice with you, the voice of one of those facilitators here with his own perspective on working with students, connecting with students, and teaching in the outdoors is Racine Kamara.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Hi, everybody. My name is Racine Kamara. I'm uh one of the program coordinators with uh Fulcrum Adventures. Um, and I've been doing uh kind of work for six years now, starting in 2017, um while I was in high school. I was born in a small country in West Africa called Senegal. Um, I'm a village boy, grew up in Chile, and uh at the age of 13, my parents decided to uh uh bring me along the rest of my siblings over here to the US. At first, we didn't even have an idea that we're coming over here until the last minute, like literally two days before, they're like, you're getting on a plane and going to the US. And that was very sad because I didn't have any um any friends over here, any family, um, nobody I knew besides my immediate family that was gonna be here. And that was uh uh a tough challenge, but I came nonetheless, and I'm glad they did that because I get to create this magic and get to work with um individual that individuals that I wouldn't have the opportunity of uh working with. You're just meeting folks for the first time, and you don't know, you just see this small surface um above, and everything else that's beneath you have no idea what kind of trauma or whatever it is that this student might be going through. Um, and the first step is just creating that space and getting them to buy into you. If they buy into you as an individual, as a friend, as a human being, then they're more than likely willing to open up and uh um step into whatever you're you're uh creating for them. If they're not bought into you, then uh it can be the funnest thing or the greatest thing, but uh they're not gonna be wanting to do it because they're not bought into who you are. A leap of faith is actually how fulcrum got started. Um, and it was just climbing up a tree, using a rope to kind of um keeping you secure so that you don't bounce off the ground. Um, but it could be something very powerful just climbing up a tree and believing in the system and believing in whoever is down there blaying you and taking that leap and not knowing whether or not you're gonna hit the ground or what's gonna happen. Um, and almost every time that I have students doing the leap of faith, I have them set a goal and which they would like to achieve when they get to the top of the leap of faith. Um, because if they can believe in themselves enough to take that leap, um then that belief can translate into goals that they have in everyday life, such as um getting all A's or whatever those goals are. Um again, the hope of this work is to um kind of set that space where people can have learning opportunities and bring that back to their um their homes, their schools, their uh sports or everyday life outside of that space. Most of our Leap of Faiths, um, we do something called a team ballet, where of course there is a certified Volker member who's there belaying, um, but their peers are also part of that ballet line um as a way to kind of share with them just because you set the goal and just because you're the one who's going out there achieving the goal doesn't mean you must do every single thing. You can you can have a support system that can be a a part of that journey and that can help boost you or propel you forward um through whatever those goals are that you set for yourself. Um, and just seeing your own peers being down there cheering you on and believing in you and and seeing you and hearing you um is something that can be very empowering and. And can empower us to achieve the goals we set for ourselves. We have the saying, sometimes an unprocessed experience is an unintegrated one. Meaning that if we do an activity and we just move on from that activity and do other things, yes, there can be learning happening, but we're not giving it that time to kind of reflect and see all of the things that we've done. Imagine and just imagine just going up a leap of faith that's about 45 feet in the air, and you can't even see the ropes that are holding you. And these people are like, yeah, you got this, and then you set this goal and you jump off, and then you're held by this rope and your peers that are down there supporting you. And slowly you come all the way down. That can be just an experience of I climbed up this tree or I climbed up this log and jumped off. Or it could be, wow, I was able to climb up this thing, set a goal for myself, and be able to achieve that goal for myself, um, using the the support of uh friends, family, classmate, whatever um that they are, and uh um again using that as a as a way to kind of support you and your everyday goals outside of that space. I think it's very important just stepping away from all of the digital things and the video games and all of things. And some of the shares from uh um your group recently was that I didn't think I can be without playing my games or without my phone for three days or without all of these things. And part of camp and retreats is just um kind of connecting on a human-to-human level because um I believe after COVID and all the lockdown, a lot of people kind of lost their people skills or um their ability to just conversate or connect with a human being from a human-to-human level. And so when they have that experience, um then they feel good about themselves. They feel that um they um are connected, they feel seen, they feel heard, and a lot of that is um challenging doing through social media. Yeah, you might post a photo and have a whole bunch of likes and feel good about yourselves or whatever that might be. But that's totally different than um coming to a place in nature and camp somewhere, and you're on top of a leap of faith, and you got your entire class there cheering for you and seeing you and the goals that you set and willing to support you in that process. Our job is to facilitate these experiences and see the greatness in others. Um, our job is also providing the space um for these individuals to see the greatness in themselves. And so a lot of times, like you mentioned on the ropes course, um, especially you see a student that goes halfway up the beam or the leap of faith or um the giant swing, and they feel stuck. They feel that they can't go anymore because of the stories that they tell themselves. Oh, I don't know if I can do this. I feel scared right now. What if the rope breaks? What if this happened? What if this happened? What if this happened? And um what I try to do is um ask them um kind of, hey, instead of focusing on the things that you don't want, what are some things that you do want? What would you like to accomplish in this moment right now? And when they start sharing and focusing on those things that they actually want, um, then they can see themselves moving forward because there's a difference between what we think about and what the reality is. The reality is they're fine. You know, we got a redundant system that has a backup to a backup to a backup. And so they're gonna be okay. Um, but what's going on in their head might be totally different, and just providing that space and seeing them step into that space and and accomplish the things that they want to accomplish is um is something powerful and and and um you know it makes it makes the work very rewarding.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

A big thanks to Leo and Racine for taking the time to talk about Fulcrum. And this episode was about fulcrum. And if you are living in the LA area, you're a teacher in the LA area, you're an organization in the LA area, definitely check out Fulcrum, an absolutely incredible organization. But if you don't, look up your local outdoor ed organization. There are lots of fulcrum's around the country, and the truth stands that getting students outside and letting them learn, letting them grow in authentic human ways with each other, making connections outside the classroom, it's a powerful experience no matter where you are. And I hope today's conversation got you thinking about that, shed some light on that, and and maybe has you thinking about ways that your school can engage with your students in a in a truly uh substantial outdoor way. Well that wraps up the show today. Uh I hope you're having a great school year, a great year. Um it's Thanksgiving week. Hope your holiday week has been a good one, and I really appreciate you listening to What's the Big Idea? Uh, tune in next time. Stay safe. Take care, everyone.