If Mike Hanselmann could take the reins of the Academy in his hands and turn the school into his outdoorsman’s utopia, he would have a long list of reforms to enact right away. They range from the less-than-practical—a multimillion dollar whitewater kayaking play park on the mesa, next to an artificially constructed hill for hang gliding practice—to the serious—half of every other Wednesday dedicated to seminar classes such as immersion study in language classes, large-scale art projects, and of course extended trips for outdoor education. Mike Shaw has a more grounded response: “I already have,” he said.

Shaw and Hanselmann both work in the Experiential Education department, teaching classes and taking students out in the field. Each has their specialty area: Shaw is a rock climber, while Hanselmann runs river trips. But both spend their professional lives guiding Academy students, from sixth grade hikers to seniors on project, beyond the paths they tread during their normal lives. The chance to develop relationships with students over the course of their time at the Academy is one that few teachers have. “I get the satisfaction of introducing kids to the thing I love most,” Hanselmann said.

Hanselmann and Shaw both came to the Academy seven years ago, but each already had a long history of outdoor experience behind them. Shaw had been a ski patroller, college canoe expedition leader and full-time National Outdoor Leadership School instructor living out of his truck. Hanselmann had been kayaking and rafting since his childhood, then worked at a local river company as assistant, was promoted to head instructor and finally took over as the owner. They were both started on the path of the outdoorsman from their childhoods, and continue to pass their passion on to generations of students.

Sharing that experience is what makes their work so rewarding, both said. Every year, they organize and lead dozens of students out of their everyday lives to get back in touch with the lessons they can learn by developing their relationship with the wilderness and with the simplicity of their own existence. “One of the most powerful things that people can transfer into everyday life from the woods is that it’s important to be able to take a step back and live simply and see how much sanity that can provide,” Shaw said. “We’re constantly bombarded by the idea of bigger and better…. Feeling taken care of—that’s all it takes to be happy. Life is a really simple thing and it’s easy to make it really complicated. But happiness is not rocket science.”

They also want students to leave trips with a take-away message: an increased comprehension of what the wilderness is like. The most highly-espoused set of wilderness ethics is Leave No Trace, an integral part of teaching students how to behave toward the world they live in. Hanselmann said that he wants people to come out of trips with an understanding “that we need to take care of these places, so that someday when they’re adults…they’ll have some idea of stewardship of the land.”

But there are challenges to their jobs too. The Experiential Education department has frequent conflicts with teachers who resent losing their students for a week at a time in the middle of the school year. “It is disruptive to classroom teachers,” Shaw said. “I’m fully willing to admit that…. Outdoor [education] has fought hard to legitimize itself because it’s very hard to quantify the benefit and learning on a trip.” The short trip lengths also cause some frustration, because by the time students start to get comfortable in the field, the four- or five-day trips will be over. “Just about the time the kids start to get really dialed, it’s time to come home,” Hanselmann said.

But the rewards of the job keep them in it. Their work allows them to simply bring students into contact with a side of the world that many of them don’t experience regularly, and they have learned how to step back and let the experience guide what students take away from their expeditions. “The most powerful lessons…have little to do with what we tell them,” Shaw said. “Simple pleasures are what people lose sight of. But [when they are] away from other influences, students have a chance to really come into their own.”