Over 80 years of commitment to sparking growth through challenge.
Outward Bound began with a clear idea: young people grow when they take on real challenges—together, outdoors, and guided by educators who believe in them. That core has held across generations while adapting to new contexts and cultures.
There is more in us than we know if we could be made to see it; perhaps, for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.
Educators Marina Ewald and Kurt Hahn built a new kind of learning that paired rigorous academics with expedition and service. In 1925, Ewald led a month-long student journey across Finland—what we recognize as the first Outward Bound expedition—proving that real responsibility in the field could spark confidence, curiosity, and character.
During World War II, Hahn helped launch the first Outward Bound school in Aberdovey, Wales (1941). What began as training for resilience at sea quickly became a broader model for cultivating courage, compassion, teamwork, and service—principles that still guide our programs today.
Joshua L. “Josh” Miner introduced Outward Bound to the U.S., opening the first American program in Colorado in 1962 and helping tailor Ewald and Hahn’s ideas for American schools and communities. Within a few years, new Schools opened across the country; Minnesota was the first to offer courses for women in 1965.
Since the first American Outward Bound program launched in Colorado in 1962, the work has grown into a national network of nine schools across the United States. Each school carries the Outward Bound approach into its own landscapes, communities, and partnerships — bringing learning by doing to life for students where they live. Outward Bound USA supports that shared work nationally, helping strengthen the collective reach and impact of the network.
We simply want the opportunity, too often denied, to enable young people to discover what wonderful qualities they really possess.
Our founders believed education should draw young people outward—into nature, into community, and into purposeful lives. Today, Outward Bound helps students build confidence, collaboration, and belonging in a tech-saturated world, applying time-tested practices—purposeful challenge, reflection, and service—to the needs of this generation.
Our nine schools lead programs directly in their own regions and communities across the United States.
Outward Bound USA Home