Trekkers Inc

“The relationships I have formed over the past 15 years have been the ones that have gotten me through some of the toughest times of my life. They have allowed me to see what it means to have true authentic friendships and how to surround yourself with people who embody true happiness. Trekkers allowed me to see the world as a blank canvas and to do with it what I choose.”     - Trekkers' Alumna

Each year, Trekkers provides educational, experiential, and cross-cultural opportunities to more than 200 young people from six communities in a rural part of midcoast Maine. With an emphasis on relationship building and an appreciation of the earth as "educator," our goal is to be a part of students’ lives from grade to grade and year to year.

Trekkers' long-term mentoring model follows students as they "graduate" from one program into the next along a six-year journey that starts when they are in 7th grade and continues until they graduate. Students are actively involved in planning, designing and implementing their grade-specific expedition each year. These life-changing expeditions incorporate five educational components: community service, cultural awareness, environmental stewardship, wilderness exploration and adventure-based education.

Students collectively decide how they will fulfill the five educational components. They use consensus-based decision-making to determine a set of rules that will govern their participation in Trekkers, including academic requirements (such as maintaining a passing Grade Point Average and minimizing the number of school suspensions, etc.), along with expectations for sharing tasks, and the agreement not to use drugs, alcohol or tobacco while in the program.

Trekkers teaches valuable life skills and develops each student’s self-esteem and leadership potential through hands-on experiences in wilderness areas and community settings. Students study the environmental issues of unique bioregions, hike/camp in national parks, learn U.S. history on the National Mall, and give back to their communities by volunteering with groups like the Habitat for Humanity.

Trekkers:

• Collaborates with teachers and parents to foster personal and educational development in the lives of students;
• Recruits, trains, and encourages local adults to take a leadership role in meeting the critical needs of students; and
• Provides students with alternative learning communities which cultivate responsibility to self, others, and the planet.

Since 1994, Trekkers has changed the lives of more than 500 area youth through its unique outdoor-based, long-term mentoring approach:

• 93% of students who enter the Trekkers program graduate from high school, compared to 78% of their peers (Maine Dept. of Education (2010))
• 85% of students who enter our program in 7th grade stay with the program until they graduate  (7% of the students move out of the service area)
• 72% go on to some form of higher education or the armed services (compared to 62% of their peers)
• 46% of all our students choose to take part in our Leadership Program when they are eligible,
  and become student leaders for their younger counterparts in the program.