Off-Trail Learning

Dev Carey is the founder and co-director of the High Desert Center in Paonia, Colorado (highdesertcenter.org), where he’s been offering an adventurous, affordable, and highly alternative gap year program for more than six years. We discuss his approach to working with 16- to 23-year-olds, the most common issues they face, and the lessons they learn through his 9-month program that combines communal living with high adventure. We conclude with the question of what parents can do to offer young adults a similar sense of adventure and connection in their lives at home.