Because Mountain SOL has such a diverse class offering, we have organized our curricula into five official paths through the Mountain SOL curriculum. This allows students to specialize in the areas in which they are interested, and the paths provide a defined route to developing their practical skills, advancing their leadership and teamwork abilities, and becoming a role model community member. After completing each path, the student will graduate from that path, and they will be honored at our next upcoming Solstice or Equinox Mountain SOL events.
Our core curricula is completed first in our Ranger path. After that, students may specialize in and complete four additional paths: Scout, Provider, Responder, and Steward. Students can complete more than one path, but they are encouraged to focus on one at a time. Once a student completes a path, they become a guide, or guĂa, for that path, and they help mentor other students through that path.
The Scout path is currently primarily completed at Cheat Mountain. Scouts learn basic sur-thrival skills such as fire building, building shelter, foraging wild edible plants, and finding clean water, as well as skills designed to prepare our scouts to be comfortable and confident as an advance team for a larger group. These skills include camouflage, efficiently packing a backpack, and advanced navigation. As students progress through the path, the focus shifts to learning how to work as an effective scout pack and developing interpersonal and leadership skills. As the final step, students choose three projects that they believe will sufficiently challenge their practical and mental abilities before graduating the path.Â
The Provider path focuses on the functioning of the larger group. Providers learn basic sur-thrival skills such as navigation, how to build shelters, make fires, forage for wild edibles, and find potable water, but they also learn skills that help them provide for their group such as fishing, the making of multi-person shelters, cooking over an open fire, and proper storage of firewood. Beyond this, providers spend time developing leadership and group communication skills, including being the official Provider on a campout, trip, or class, and complete individually selected projects to develop leadership and communication skills. Providers also choose a skill specialty which they develop and then choose a final project to demonstrate their abilities.Â
The Responder path trains students to be prepared for first aid emergencies. Medics build on their basic first-aid training that they learned in the Ranger path, solidifying and strengthening their medic skills. They complete a medic elective and learn about wound management. As a capstone class, they will take our Wilderness First Aid class and gain an nationally recognized WFA Certification under the Emergency Care & Safety Institute, which includes formal medical notes and preliminary injury treatment. After gaining their WFA card, students practice their skills in real life and are an official medic during a trip or class, which includes caring for any minor injuries and responding to various situations that may arise. Throughout the Medic path, students are given challenging scenarios that test their instincts and knowledge retention and develop their ability to stay calm and focused while under pressure, preparing them for real medical emergencies they may face.
The Steward path, our newest path, focuses on stewardship of our land, plants and creatures. Students will learn about soil and watersheds, foraging and stewardship of plants, ecosystems, food webs, and caring for the animals. They will learn about climate change and human impact on the Earth, take a communication elective and learn to use their voice, and they will learn about peaceful activism from JenOsha. Finally, they will complete a self-led stewardship project, which may include organizing people to help with a land reclamation project, or creating a social media movement, or many other possibilities.
Additionally, Mountain SOL has a Lobos program, which is not part of our main paths. The Lobos program is our teacher training program, where we guide our older students and new teachers to become fully-trained Mountain SOL teachers. This includes time spent shadowing teachers, serving as a teacherâs apprentice, and interning, all of which is laid out as organized and defined expectations of progression. In addition to learning the teaching values and methods of Mountain SOL, all Lobos are required to be certified in Wilderness First Aid. If your student is interested in becoming a Lobo/a, please reach out to us.
A huge thank you to The Human Path; this structure of paths came directly from how they have organized their school. With their blessing, we adapted the system and created our own paths. The Human Path is a school based in New Mexico that teaches wilderness survival skills, first aid, herbalism, off-grid engineering, self-defense, and much more to adults both in their area and online. So, parents of our Mountain SOL kids, if you’re interested in the same skills we teach your kids, go check out The Human Path.
We are able to offer first aid certification for our Mountain Medic program through the support of our friends at the Herbal Medics Academy / Human Path. Our Jags paths were also largely influenced by our mentorship from Sam and Suchil.