Risk Management in Study Abroad: Lessons from the Wilderness

Authors

  • Mark A. Ritchie

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v9i1.115

Keywords:

Risk Management, Study abroad, Wilderness

Abstract

This essay seeks to lay out some principles from the field of wilderness education and apply those to study abroad. It will discuss judgment and risk management, with a special emphasis on practical suggestions for programs and the study abroad field more generally. While this comes out of experience in risk management in developing countries, much of it can be applied to study abroad in industrialized countries. This essay is not intended to be a comprehensive literature review on risk management in study abroad or in wilderness education. Rather, its purpose is to share some of the experiences and lessons learned from wilderness education so that they may be put to use in risk management in study abroad.

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Author Biography

Mark A. Ritchie

Mark Ritchie is the director of the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute, an initiative of Kalamazoo College, based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He has been Kalamazoo College Thailand program’s resident director for the last five years, having lived and worked in Thailand off and on since 1989. While a Ph.D. student at University of California Berkeley, he received a Fulbright scholarship to study the impact of development on Northern Thai villages. In addition to teaching in and leading study abroad programs, he is active in program evaluation and assessment for international development organizations throughout Asia.

References

Graydon, Don and Kurt Hanson, Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. Seattle: The Mountaineers. 1997.

Harvey, Mark. The National Outdoor Leadership School’s Wilderness Guide. Fireside, 1999.

National Outdoor Leadership School. Leadership at NOLS. Lander: NOLS. 1999.

Priest, Simon and Michael Gass. Effective Leadership in Adventure Programming. University of New Hampshire: Human Kinetics. 1997.

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Published

2003-08-15

How to Cite

Ritchie, M. A. (2003). Risk Management in Study Abroad: Lessons from the Wilderness. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 9(1), 53–69. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v9i1.115

Issue

Section

Research Articles