Brevard College Wilderness Leadership & Experiential Education - WLEE

25/04/2026

Great to see this photo of senior Olive Leonardi on the Upper Nantahala! Amazing open boater and soon to be alum of Brevard College Wilderness Leadership & Experiential Education - WLEE. Brevard College Alumni Association

Photos are in from this weekend, and they are ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.
Find Saturday and Sunday images here: https://bit.ly/4eFMHlf

08/11/2025

Our Immersion Crew is one week into their three-week expedition. They report that all is well and there have been many lessons learned. It will be a great few days canoe camping on the French Broad River. Here’s a photo of their departure, and their fan club! Happy for alum Austin Donnell to join our as co-lead with faculty Dr. Austin Souto.

30/09/2025

After thoughtful planning and reflection, the Board of Directors is pleased to announce that we are hiring a new Executive Director to lead our organization into its next chapter. This leadership transition marks a significant milestone for AORE, and we are confident it will strengthen our ability to fulfill our mission, and serve our community. The application for this role is now officially open and we will be accepting priority applications through the end of October.

If you or someone you know may be interested in applying for the Executive Director position, please view and/or share the position prospectus and the official application.

Position prospectus: https://mms.aore.org/ct.php?lid=357487225&mm=253670650133
Application: https://mms.aore.org/ct.php?lid=357488447&mm=253670650133

30/08/2025

Cheering on our Wilderness Leadership/Outdoor Leadership & Experiential Education majors on the cycling team at the first race of the season! Brevard College Tornado Athletics 🌪️🚵‍♂️💙

Cycling: RACE DAY - The first event of the 2025 Mountain Bike season for BC Cycling is underway in Cleveland, Georgia at Truett McConnell!

19/08/2025

Welcome 2025-26! 🌟We’re so excited to be back together, welcome new students, and start our year of adventures.

18/06/2025

5/22/25
Payton

Today our morning started early, waking up at 6am! Luckily we weren’t greeted by our raccoon friend from last night. We packed up all our personal gear, and tents, and enjoyed our breakfast of cinnamon rolls! We departed from our 2 1/2 hour-long drive to SC at 9:30! Some took naps, and some snaked and/or danced and sang!
10:15, we arrived at Walmart for p*e breaks and snacks from the road.
11:40 The paved road quickly became a gravel road which quickly woke me up, now we shall unload/ pack up kayaks, and hit the water.
3:30 We arrived at our camp for the night! The first day of sea kayaking was a success and sp*edy (7 miles, in an hour 1/2)! We’re now waiting till the civilians leave, and the cave people will make their way.
6:30 We’re waiting for chili for dinner, playing ultimate tictactie with Kyle… he’s not the best. How can you get beat by a person playing for the first time?
6:50 I was talking too much, Kyle won… but din din was delicious, but our t***s will be lethal.

17/06/2025

5/21/25
Ryan

We stated off with a good soaking rain and a light lighting & thinse, but all quickly retuend to bed if they woke up at all.
The Breakfast crew woke up early to start on a spread of bacon, eggs, hashbrowns. Of which Kyle “Claimed” to have eatend 8 eggs. We took a hike to the office & museum but on he way were relived to see the arrival of our Mothership KATE! We conuined on our jouney where we palyed improto games of Willow in the Wind & Black Magic.
The 2nd of which frusterated Jaxsen into Rage Quitting… almost.
At the museum an unknown group of marauders cut us off in line & made us wait to enter the museum. Before departing we had t ocall from the Ford Transit Rescue Squad to help Bre return to camp. We retuned to camp in a catatonic state likely from the large breakfast. We perkedup after lunch and set off for the town of Badin and discovered… not much… so we went to a bigger town Albermarle looking for exciting shops, food, and entertainment and found… not much more.
We headed back to camp and on the wat Kathleen speared Ryan with a “Momma joke”. He alsomt cried, but they reconviled all was forgiven. We drove to the top of Morrow and saw… a pretty good overview! We departed the moutian nad headed back to our campsite to clean up the presnet a squirrel left us. Once getting a start on a classic german dinner of brats & saurkraut & there was even a romire that Gunter might make us strudel.

17/06/2025

5/20/25
Delaina

After a deightful beagle breakfast at our Boone cave pavilian, we departed on our jounrey on the river at 9:30am.
9.5 river miles later we arrived at the take out at 12:50 just in time to see our lord and savior Kate reterve us!
Loading up the trailer, we headed to Wallie World to fill our shopping needs. Ryan supplied us frozen red40!
Swiftly arrived at 4:13 to our new home for the next few days (Morrow Mourtin State park). Everyone took much needd showers and a short slump before dinner
Burgers and dogs for dinner.
Burgers were 10/10
Next up was Kyle’s Quiz.
BOOO!
Now we all sing C**n Bye yah and sleep.
Good job guys
- Delaina

17/06/2025

5/18/25
Hailey

Today started a LOT more
calmly than yesterday with a Happy Birthday song to Olivia, after a delicious breakfast of course. Then, we found out the sneaky soldier giver was Kate, although most of us already suspected that. We got on the water at about 9:30am and set out from our little island for a 13.5-mile paddle.
Today was a beautiful day, with lots of sun and wildlife out. 5 red tail hawks, a blue Harring, a bald eagle, and two snakes were spotted. Throughout the day, Olivia received presents from us, including a hubcap, part of a car’s suspension (both from Jaxsen), and much more. While paddling we sang and learned a Voyagers song to scare Kate with later. We had a build-your-own sandwiches lunch on a rocky river bank and finished off our paddle at around 2pm. Our campsite for the night is under a bridge on Highway 64. We are sharing it with LOTS of sparrows and a rat snake that vanished into the grass. (The other snake we saw was on the water Jaxsen wanted to rope swing into, giving Ryan the perfect reason to say “Nope.”) We are ending off our night with cupcakes and birthday songs, and prepping for an alpine start tomorrow.

09/06/2025

5/17/25
-Jaxsen

CHAT LOCK-IN
LOD - Bre
CO-Kathleen
VAV- Marchella
Historian- Jaxsen

6:00 We woke up w/ rain + thunderstorms. “Great day in paradise”
6:26 We were visited by a beaver next to an extraordinarily build dam.
Mission of the day: Find the toy soldier gifter…To be continued on the water. 
Well… we almost lost Hailey off rip today.
7:21 The dam rapids.
7:45 We leave for breacky.
Breaky was light w/yogurt + bagels still raining we sent back out at 9:30.
12:05 we are 9 miles in with Marchella w/ the navigations. Might float an inch right stop no one knows. I got to tell 9 fun stories on the river + some chill chats on the water. It was a long scorcher of a day. Plenty of burns, plenty of fatigue. 
Slow paddle day quick raft day 
# Slacking 
20 miles later we arrived at the dam where we had to wait forever!!! Because the outlet was challenging but we got our lines right + got er’ done. The island is dope saw some fishermen + we maneuvered the rapids + made it safe. We got ready quickly which left time for wading + exploring. Dinner was nice + simpe where we finished w/an overly watered brownie mix w/ protein powder. GET JACKED.
Can’t wait for a shorter day tomorrow but the island is most definitely the coolest camps spot yet.
Jaxsen K. Wilkerson

22/05/2025

5/13/25
- VOR Team
First full day! Today we woke up at Bandits Roost Campground. Thankfully the rain stopped, but because of how much we got we were not able to paddle on the river today. However we were able to take advantage of the W. Kerr Scott Reservoir that we have access to right at camp. We talked about the NOLS Leadership roles and had stirfry with chicken and veggies for dinner. We are all really looking forward to getting on the river tomorrow!!

04/05/2025

A paddle day with these awesome students to close the year! Looking forward to hearing about their summers and the next year of learning and adventures.