Why Expeditionary Learning Works: The Power of doing

We’ve all heard the phrase “learning by doing”—but what happens when teens learn by navigating, leading, cooking, problem-solving, collaborating… and blue-water sailing?
That’s expeditionary learning. And at QBE, it’s not just a teaching method—it’s a life-elevating experience and probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

What Is Expeditionary Learning, Exactly?

Expeditionary learning puts students in real-world situations where they don’t just absorb information—they apply it, live it, and grow from it.
It’s active, immersive, and occasionally uncomfortable—but in an impactful way.

Instead of passively absorbing information, QBE crew members:

• Learn how to plot actual courses on nautical charts
• Cook for each other to build camaraderie and trust
• Take turns at the helm of a 46ft gaff-rig yacht
• Make daily decisions as part of a working crew
• Collaborate with peers from different countries and cultures
• Explore new environments, languages, and histories firsthand

This isn’t “class trip learning.” This is learning that asks something of you—and never fails to give something back.

Why It Works (and Why It Sticks)

✅ Because it’s predicated on challenges
When teens stretch beyond their comfort zones—physically, emotionally, socially—they build confidence, grit, and self-esteem. Expeditionary learning challenges them in a way that spurs impressive emotional growth.

✅ Because it’s intensively collaborative
There’s no “individual project” in the middle of, say, the English Channel. Every crew member is essential. Whether it’s hoisting sails, cooking for the team, or making sure everything is tidy and in order, students experience shared leadership and real teamwork—not simulated group work.

✅ Because it’s extremely memorable
Teens don’t forget the time they were in charge of bringing their boat alongside a quai, or a night they read the stars to help chart their position. These are the sort of moments that become emblazoned in the memory.

✅ Because it respects their potential
Expeditionary learning helps teens discover they’re capable of meaningful contributions. Afterwards, they consistently rise to meet high expectations. They're not passengers on their learning journey. They're the crew.

What Teens Really Take Away

After a QBE expedition, teens don’t just come home with sea legs. They come home with:

• Increased confidence and independence
• Better decision-making and communication skills
• More resilience and adaptability
• A broader global perspective and higher cultural IQ
• A deeper connection to the natural world
• Real-world leadership experience

These aren’t just nice extras. They’re requisite life skills that prepare them for university, careers, and relationships—far more than any test prep ever could.

Expeditionary Learning Is More Than a Method—It’s Now a Movement

Top schools and universities around the world now integrate expeditionary learning into their curriculum, and for good reason:

• It works
• It transforms
• It’s not ever forgotten

And at QBE, we don’t just believe in the transformative power of expeditionary learning—our entire model is predicated on it.

Learning Outside the Classroom: The Transformative Power of Outdoor Experiential Education

Outdoor Experiential Education—The Proven Difference Maker.

IN A WORLD OF SCREENS, standardized tests, and packed schedules, education is often confined to desks, devices, and deadlines. But the fact is, some of the most valuable life lessons happen outside the classroom: in the wind, rain, sunlight, and silence of nature.

Outdoor experiential education isn’t just a break from the routine. It’s a research-backed, life-shaping approach that cultivates resilience, leadership, and a deeper understanding of the natural world and of oneself.

What Is Outdoor Experiential Education?

At its core, experiential education involves learning by doing. Add the great outdoors, and you get immersive program(me)s where students sail, hike, climb, and problem-solve in unfamiliar real-world environments, far removed from their comfort zones.

And it’s not always about “survival skills.” It’s about developing:

• Critical thinking and leadership skills

• Emotional intelligence and teamwork

• Environmental awareness and stewardship

• Breaking down parochialism and broadening horizons

Imagine: a group of teens working together to navigate a sailboat, building trust and communication with every knot they tie and every navigation chart they read.

Why Outdoor Adventure Matters More Than Ever

• It Builds Real-World Resilience

  When you're caught in a squall mid-expedition or try to navigate using the stars and a compass, you jettison your crutches and learn to improvise, persist, and stay steady under pressure—skills essential for successful life outcomes.

• It Fosters Deep Connections

  Outdoor challenges forge a bond with nature that no documentary can replicate. It also fosters deep connections between peers, formed through shared goal attainment.

• It Nurtures a Holistic Person

  In nature, students are more than just their brains—they’re bones and sinew, hearts and hands. Outdoor experiential education supports physical health, mental well-being, and self-confidence in one integrated experience.

• It Sparks Passion and Curiosity

  Whether learning a new skill, discovering a new culture, or meeting group challenges, learners discover the why behind the what. They move from passive observation to active inquiry.

Sailing as a Learning Platform

Imagine a team of high school students aboard a 14m traditional yacht. Each day brings new tasks and hones repetitive ones:

• Learning how to tack, trim sails, and navigate in open water

• Cooking meals and living in tight quarters

• Seeing the world through a new prism and, as a result, discovering new possibilities

Mistakes can be sudden. So are the consequences. Success is shared. Learning is constant. And none of it involves a traditional textbook. Yet the leadership, accountability, and communication lessons are not only profound, but lifelong.

From the Wilderness Back to the Familiar World

Outdoor experiential education isn’t an escape from “the real world” — it’s training for success in it. Students return from outdoor adventures more confident, collaborative, and curious. They learn to manage uncertainty, take initiative, and respect all the interconnected systems, sometimes complex—both ecological and human—around them.

A Tried-and-True Educational Strategy for the 21st Century

As society rethinks what true preparation for adulthood should look like, outdoor experiential education is gaining worldwide traction. From gap-year program(me)s and wilderness schools to school-sponsored outdoor weeks and sailing expeditions like QBE’s, the demand is growing—and for good reason.

When we move the classroom outdoors, we don’t just change the setting. We change the student.

Interested in how outdoor experiential education can elevate your teen’s life trajectory or your school’s extracurricular approach? Let’s talk. The adventure—and the learning—starts here.

August 2022 Expedition Update—Headed Home

This is what it’s all about: three weeks of great adventure, dozens of wonderful memories, great new friends, and not a marauding orca pod in sight (see below). Hey, we’re going to do it again next July and August. Come join us!

The Breton wilderness

When people talk about wilderness courses, they normally mean a trek through some sparsely populated area—often a remote forest or mountain ridge. Or maybe a rafting expedition down a wild river. Many people are surprised to learn that our European neighborhood boasts some impressive under-the-radar wildernesses, many of them along the Breton coastline. Our crew members get the opportunity to see and explore some of them. Take a look at this short drone video of Cap Sizun, produced by Breton photographer and videographer Thibault Poriel (www.thibaultporiel.com):

Cap Sizun is in the département of Finistère, near the western tip of the Breton Peninsula (Finistère means “Land’s End”). Like many national parks around the world, its natural beauty is spectacular. And one of the best ways to see it is… by boat.

©Thibault Poriel. The use of this video on our blog in no way implies an endorsement of QBE Sailing by the copyright owner. It serves only to illustrate the striking beauty of stretches of the Breton coast.

GRACE

In an effort to improve our search rankings, we call ourselves a “a sailing camp,” “an outdoor leadership school,” “a summer enrichment program(me),” “a treasure trove of university admission essay ideas,” and a few dozen other things. And, in one sense or another, all that is true. Teens learn how to sail a traditionally rigged boat; they discover postcard places and unfamiliar cultures; they make great new friends; and they learn something about teamwork, resilience, and leadership. Each expedition provides an expansive array of new experiences and lessons for our crew members to assimilate.

But if we had to net it out, the QBE team (including our volunteers) strive most of all to be a channel of GRACE. Along with teaching young adults how to chart a nautical course, we help them find their own coordinates and think about future directions. As we sail from port to port, we see new confidence and character emerging day by day. Our sailing expeditions prove to crew members that they’re capable of more than they think they are. And that constantly emerging recognition of personal agency helps them see their inestimable worth and impressive potential. We can honestly say that when our courses work the way they’re designed to, which is most of the time, they do in fact confer a transformative grace.

Expeditionary learning. It works. And here’s the evidence:

This is a tale of two schools: an ocean apart geographically and demographically, but with the same noteworthy co-curricular requirement for every student. One school, St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, New Jersey (USA), costs US$13,000 (about 11,500€/£9,700) a year to attend, though most students receive financial aid. The campus is surrounded by urban blight. The other school, Aiglon|Switzerland, costs close to ten times that much. It is situated in the idyllic Alpine ski resort of Chesières-Villars, high above the Rhône Valley and nearby Lake Geneva. Interestingly, as dissimilar as the schools are in many respects, both have a common challenge: helping their students build character, resilience, and self-esteem. In that regard, it turns out that kids who come from extremely “advantaged” backgrounds can struggle as much as kids who come from “disadvantaged” backgrounds. (It can be dispiriting, even emotionally debilitating, to grow up in the long shadow of an extremely successful and/or famous parent, trying to find your own identity and path in life, just as it’s hard to overcome the many day-to-day challenges of growing up poor.) To address the character/resilience/self-esteem issue, both schools rely on a time-tested pedagogical strategy to get impressive results: EXPEDITIONS.

Two entirely different schools. yet their Small-group expedition dynamics and results are almost exactly the same.

Your scribe met QBE director Will Sutherland years ago at Aiglon, when it was much less expensive. Will was a mathematics teacher and sports master. I was a student. Challenging outdoor expeditions were one of the pillars of the school’s co-curriculum—and ethos. (The founding headmaster, John Corlette, spent some time at Gordonstoun, in Scotland, with expeditionary-learning advocate and Outward Bound® founder Kurt Hahn. Consequently, “JC” became a believer in the benefits of outdoor adventure early in his teaching career.) As much as anything else, the expedition component of an Aiglon education defined our unique boarding school experience. And apparently it still does. Here’s a recent Aiglon video of a rock climbing sortie:

FYI: A via ferrata (Italian for “iron route/path”) is a climbing route that employs steel cables, rungs, and or ladders, fixed to the rock to which climbers attach harnesses to secure themselves and mitigate the danger of any potential fall. Vie ferrate eliminate the obvious risks of unprotected scrambling and climbing or the need for sophisticated climbing equipment; in other words, they facilitate mountain climbing for beginners.

*QBE is not affiliated with Aiglon|Switzerland and the presence of this video on our blog is in no way an endorsement of QBE Outdoor Education by Aiglon or vice versa. It is intended only to make a point about the profound impact of outdoor adventure on high school students.

Below is another video, a short documentary, about an annual trekking expedition that is required for graduation from St. Benedict’s Prep. Many Newark schools are what Americans call “challenged”; their achievement test scores are embarrassingly low. But St. Benedict’s, an inner-city Catholic school, is a remarkable outlier—it graduates 98% of its students and 85% go on to earn undergraduate degrees! The school believes that a five-day trek every first-year high-school student is required to join is a large contributor, if not THE key, to its remarkable academic results.

“It is probably THE most important thing we do…above and beyond the academics…. Every school in the country should find some way to get their kids out in nature to realize there’s something bigger than you.”

—Ivan Lamourt, St. Benedict’s Director of Counseling

The school’s regular expedition route is a 55-mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail, the famous woodland path that stretches across 14 states, from Maine to Georgia, through the ridges and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains. The school has been such an amazing success story that it and its Trail expedition were featured on the popular U.S. television news magazine “60 Minutes.” (QBE did its first post about St. Benedict’s a few years ago.)

What is striking are the comments of students from both Aiglon and St. Benedict’s; they are all on the same page. They come away from their outdoor adventures with similar revelations. They learn the same life lessons. And those lessons stick.

*QBE is not affiliated with St. Benedict’s Prep and the presence of this video on our blog is in no way an endorsement of QBE Outdoor Education by St. Benedict’s or vice versa. It is intended only to make a point about the profound impact of outdoor adventure on high school students.

So there you have it: the magic that happens when you undertake a strenuous exploit, outside your comfort zone, to achieve an ambitious goal.

Sailing expeditions are a variation on the trekking/mountaineering theme, just in a different register (You’re on the water, not land; and you use your arms and hands more than your legs). Participants learn teamwork, resilience, and leadership along with sailing skills and something about our area’s local cultures and history. They form strong bonds with new friends—their fellow crew members. And, like other young expeditioners, many of them come away with experiences and new insights they can use to help craft winning university admission essays.

Service projects are laudable and enormously satisfying moral imperatives. Challenging small-group expeditions, organized and supervised in large part by the participants themselves, are a different breed of endeavor—consequential investments in motivation, character, and confidence that also pay surprisingly high academic dividends. Who would have thought? Testing your limits outdoors usually translates into higher academic achievement in the classroom. It seems a stretch. But there’s ample evidence it’s true. Ambitious expeditions can be life-changers in many different ways, and we enthusiastically commend them to parents and teens looking for transformative summer enrichment.