Member Profiles
Jim Sibthorp, Assistant Professor, University of Utah, Salt Lake City
Will Marble, Alabama School of Fine Arts, Health and Wellness Coordinator
Deb Piranian, Director of Wilderness and Therapy, Naropa University
| Jim Sibthorp, Individual Member, Salt Lake City, Utah |
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Describe your role as an experiential educator
I am primarily a college professor and some of the classes I teach are on experiential education techniques; others simply employ them. I am also involved in staff training for both a camp and an adventure program for teens. In addition, my role in graduate education tends to keep me involved in a number of research projects.
I've always been a big believer in the transformational power of an experience. I believe that we, as educators, can help craft experiences to be educational in a variety of ways and to meet a variety of needs. Helping people to learn something useful, and a love for learning – that is what really excites me.
What are the biggest challenges facing Experiential Education right now?
One challenge facing Experiential Education at this time is the movement to outcome achievement and the bias toward objective testing. This is going to be a challenge for EE. EE tends to be more process oriented and very student/learner centered. This constructivist approach makes any type of “standard” outcome assessment a challenge despite political pressures moving in this direction.
I also think that experiential education is a very broad term – thus some folks resonate with parts of it (e.g., adventure education or service learning or environmental education) more than the overarching approach (experiential education). The philosophies and techniques are not distinct to “experiential education.”
Describe your involvement with AEE
I came to the field of EE when I was a graduate student at Indiana University. I was introduced to AEE and attended my first AEE conference (N. Tahoe –Incline Village). I loved the conference and have been involved with AEE since. I have been a member since 1998.
The most valuable benefit of being an AEE member is getting to meet folks and develop friendships with people who are passionate about experiential education. Without a doubt, it is the community and people that keep me involved. The conference is a big part of this for me. I also enjoy my involvement with the Journal of Experiential Education, and I see it as the premier journal in the field.
Lately, I’ve segued out of SEER; this year I’ve been a little less involved. However, I’ve had some great the opportunities in the past, including (up until this year) my involvement with SEER and the support Alan Ewert and I got from AEE in the early years of SEER. I am also appreciative of invites, such as the recent one by Natalie, to publish and disseminate work.
The following are the volunteer leadership roles I have taken on as a member of AEE:
- SEER co-coordinator, 2002-2006
- Co-chair of the AEE Rocky Mountain Regional Conference 2004
- Regular Reviewer of the Journal of Experiential Education since about 2000
- Member of the Publications Advisory Committee
- State (Utah) representative on the Rocky Mountain regional council for a couple of years
| Will Marble, Individual Member, Birmingham, Alabama |
 Will and his daughter, Gracie, when she was 9 months old. |
Describe your role as an experiential educator
I am the Health and Wellness Coordinator at the Alabama School of Fine Arts which is a public, specialty school based in Birmingham. I am at the end of my third year here having been charged with developing a new health and wellness program. The program continues to evolve in an effort to support the education, health and wellness of students who have demanding academic classes coupled with high octane exposure to one of six specialties; those being Theatre Arts, Visual Arts, Math/Science, Music, Dance or Creative Writing.
I am excited about EE because of the people, both the dynamic teachers/facilitators and the students/clients. People never cease to amaze and inspire me in ways I can seldom predict. That EE allows for and builds in time for reflection, creates space for our human experience to be articulated. Rather, I should say, we attempt to put words to our experience and by continuing to explain our experiences and listen to others we come to a better understanding of self and community which increases our ability to become all we hope or dream (or fear) to become.
What are the biggest challenges facing Experiential Education right now?
The biggest challenges facing Experiential Education right now are the lack of access and buy in due to high stakes testing; misperceptions of the cost/benefit of EE; and a lack of trained Experiential Educators. I also have big concerns about many who represent EE but who are under qualified and uninformed.
Describe your involvement with AEE
I came to EE when I was on a semester odyssey with the North Carolina Outward Bound School and we served on the service crew at the 1984 Lake Junaluska conference. The pages of my photo album from that experience have yellowed but AEE continues to fuel my heart in much the same way as it did when Michael Jackson was huge, Reagan was president and a gallon of gas was, well, cheaper.
How long have I been a member, aw gees, I always have a hard time figuring this out. Call it 20 years, though I am not sure I was an institutional member when I worked for the Voyageur Outward Bound School or for Touch of Nature.
The most valuable benefit of AEE membership is, I have to say, the people. I have attended dynamic workshops at conferences and can call members to help with any number of professional challenges. AEE also is clearly advancing the field through accreditation and keeping on top of current trends in the many fields of EE.
However, the NUMBER ONE benefit of AEE is that I met my wife at the Vancouver, BC conference. We now have an amazing AEE baby appropriately named Grace.
AEE is a continual source of inspiration.
I have served on a conference host committee at the Touch of Nature conference, served as convener of a regional conference in the Southeast, served on the board of directors, am an accreditation lead reviewer and currently chair the awards committee.
| Deb Piranian, Organizational Member, Boulder, CO |
 Deb Piranian is the second from the right in the front row. Deborah Bowman, who had the original vision for the program and got Naropa to accept it is second from the left in the back row. |
Describe your role as an experiential educator
I am the director (primarily a teaching position) of the Wilderness Therapy Track within the Master’s level Transpersonal Counseling Psychology Department at Naropa University. Our program trains people to be counselors in both traditional settings as well as in nature-based counseling. Students are exposed to a wide range of nature-based modalities from horticulture and equine-assisted therapy to backcountry adventure therapy and ecopsychological approaches. Our program is very experiential, whether indoors or outdoors. An important aspect of training to be an effective counselor is self-knowledge. Experiential education is the best modality I know for accomplishing this. Our MA program is 3 years. We begin with a 10-day intensive. The second year happens primarily outside although it includes a practicum in more traditional counseling settings. The third year focuses on a 9-month internship, with classes supporting that process. The vast majority of our graduates end up working as therapists in a variety of settings from traditional wilderness-based therapy programs to residential therapy programs to schools to equine-assisted private practice to addictions centers. In addition, our graduates are getting licensed as counselors in a variety of states, which helps bring greater visibility and professionalism to the field of wilderness therapy.
I love the power of experience. It has the ability to inform us not only cognitively, but also physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It engages the whole person. This is its transformative capability. And it also is often much more fun and playful than traditional learning, both for the educator and the learner.
What are the biggest challenges facing Experiential Education right now?
My area of focus is primarily training people in wilderness therapy in its broadest sense, i.e. nature-based therapy whether it is in the backcountry or the front-country. In the process of training master’s level students, a significant challenge is balancing traditional academic learning and experiential education. Both are important to developing a well-rounded, competent therapist. Weaving the two together in a coherent whole takes creativity. An on-going challenge is to help the general public and organizations (e.g. insurance companies) understand the efficacy of wilderness therapy, as well as experiential education so that these ways of assisting people’s growth are supported both in spirit and financially.
Describe your involvement with AEE
It has been so long I do not even know when I first found out about AEE. I started working Outward Bound in 1984, so it was sometime after that that I was introduced to AEE. However, my own experiential learning happened much earlier, in my language studies. In the early 1970’s I was involved in emersion language learning – no English for months.
Naropa University became a member of AEE when we first started the Wilderness Therapy program – in 2002.
The networking that happens through both national and regional conferences, as well as through various AEE groups are my favorite aspects of AEE. As well as the publications. Lately I have really enjoyed the electronic education and information sharing that has happened through newsletters and other e-mails. The jobs clearinghouse has been a huge asset for both employers and people seeking positions.
Lately, AEE has provided lots of “latest news.”
I have to say I have been remiss in this area…too busy with running my program. However, I would be interested in finding some ways to give back.
