Each Tuesday during the Fall semester at Winona State University, around 100 community members and students can be found in Education Village exploring the recreation center and getting to know people from their surrounding environment. The event known as the outdoor adventures open house is organized by director of Winona States Outdoor Education and Recreation Center (OERC), Michael Henderson. The event is roughly two years old and allows people to participate in a bike skills course, rock wall climbing, and high ropes course. Henderson also mentioned an event that OERC program added this fall.
“We’re doing education literacy now, so we have elementary education majors doing story time for a part of the program,” Henderson said. “That integrates some more traditional education into the holistic wellness that we do [at these events].”
Not only is this story time beneficial to children being read to, but elementary education majors benefit as well. Kenna Gudmundson is an elementary education major and found that this event helped her get real world experience and better gauge what her future career will look like.
“The story time event is a great learning experience to know how to read aloud to children,” Gudmundson said. “And how to be able to keep their attention when there’s so many other things going on around you.”
Gudmundson is correct in saying that it can be difficult to keep a child’s attention, especially when there is a lot going on around them. Luckily, these Tuesday night open house events allow participation in many different activities and don’t require long attention spans. Looking around Education Village, it’s obvious that young children have many options to keep occupied and engaged.
“I really like climbing and adventuring,” Lillia Rock, elementary-aged student, said. “So this is perfect for me!”
Not only did Lillia Rock enjoy participating in the events the open house had to offer, but her mom, Jeanette Rock, was able to participate alongside her daughter. She agreed that the Outdoor Adventures Open House was a great place to bring Lillia for a multitude of reasons.
“Any activities that boost confidence are great,” Jeanette Rock said. “And us being able to do this together is nice.”
Confidence-boosting activities are great for children and adults alike. Henderson found that being able to link those two demographics helped to create a greater sense of community, which was the overall goal of the event.
“[The event is] awesome because it’s community engagement,” Henderson said. “It allows students to engage with the public community, and then the public also to engage with our students.”
Whether Winona State students were attending for personal and career growth, community members were participating to connect with their fellow community members, or families were attending to constitute growth in their children and their family relationships, the Outdoor Adventures Open House provides for a safe space for people to be active and connect with others. Make sure to stop by Education Village on Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. during the fall semester to experience your own adventure.
