The Adventure Capstone

OM 3772

The woodstove crackles and the light from the flames dances across the student’s face as she introduces the first question for the group to address. “How has education got in the way of your learning?” This is not your typical university capstone experience. The Adventure Capstone is the final culminating undergraduate level course and exit point for adventure students in the Bachelor of Tourism Management. It is also available to graduating Adventure students in the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies. This course is a unique progression point for adventure students about to leave the security of the university environment and head out into the unknown. For a typical student this may be the culmination of 17 years of schooling and a terrifying step into a new world. To borrow from Kurt Hahn, they are outward bound. There are two typical formats for Post-secondary capstone courses. One is a summary project that demands a demonstration of the collective skills and abilities developed over the duration of the degree. The other is more reflective in nature. It is this second model that was selected for the TRU Adventure Capstone. Boyer (2004) describes the scholarship of integration as the gathering of isolated concepts to create meaning by generating perspective. A capstone course integrates the many diverse facets of the undergraduate degree into a cohesive meaningful entity. By organizing and making sense of the diverse parts, the student is able to move forward into a post-university work environment (Durel, 1993).