This article describes the creation of a First Year Experience learning community in a teacher education program. The First Year Experience model was adopted by the university because of declining enrollment, retention, and graduation rates and has been generally successful in the education department. With little information available for teacher…

When the author thinks back to all the wilderness educational expeditions he has led, one thing sticks out in his mind: While he knows these were amazing experiences for the students (primarily university undergraduates), could he have done more to help them transition into the experience and out again afterwards? The author has continued to…