Resume Boost: 5 Ways to Market Your Outward Bound Experience

So you've taken a Costa Rica Outward Bound course or something similar. Now what? A lot of students wonder how they can market themselves for future jobs and/or colleges after going through an experience that distinguishes them, both personally and professionally. The difficult part is communicating the impact of a course experience and effectively transferring it to a resume or personal statement. When looking for a standout factor, employers and acceptance committees alike want to see how applicants can add value to their organizations -- so let's look at five ways you can boost your resume and market your unique Outward Bound experience.

 1. Teamwork - In terms of overused buzzwords, "teamwork" sits pretty high on the list; however, an Outward Bound course takes the otherwise subjective concept and makes it significantly less biased. Sure, working with a team to complete a project or meet a deadline is valuable, but being able to say that you literally spent 24-hours a day with a group of unknown peers to belay each other down a cascading waterfall or stay motivated to hike across an entire country awards you a lot more points in the teamwork category. Considering that many companies are shifting towards more collaborative work environments, they'll love the assurance that you can truly perform as a team player and furthermore, that you can prove it.



2. International Experience - Costa Rica Outward Bound students are immersed in a foreign culture and spend time learning a foreign language every single day. As organizations stretch their operations across borders more than ever, being able to cite specific examples of cultivating genuine cultural awareness can increase your chances of getting hired or accepted into a higher education program. All of our alumni can highlight personal interactions with Costa Rican families, what it's like to cross international borders, and how they learned enough Spanish to successfully navigate a local market -- they might not be fluent, but they can problem solve and figure out how to communicate, a beneficial skill not every candidate can claim.



3. Certifications - Many of our courses offer multiple certifications that are internationally recognized. Depending on what type of work you're looking for, being able to list these can potentially be the difference between "We'd like to offer you the job!" and "Unfortunately we're looking for someone with more experience." The Leadership Semester program is designed specifically to avoid the latter response (especially for jobs in the outdoor industry), allowing students to earn up to 7 certifications. The main point is that you should take advantage of the opportunity to beef up the "Additional Experience" section of your resume with items like CPR/AED for the Professional Rescuer or First Aid (America Red Cross). It shows that you're competent in other fields and have unique interests. *By the way, any time an acronym is used, be sure to spell out what it means in order to avoid any confusion.

4. Community Service - A lot of universities are taking a more holistic approach to their admissions criteria these days. While grades and standardized test scores still reign supreme as determining factors, well-rounded students with diverse experiences but less-than-perfect GPAs are beginning to find themselves on university campuses more consistently. All of our courses have a strong service project component that takes students into remote villages to paint local schools, build medical clinics, and install safe drinking water tanks. Be sure to mention what the specific project was, but more importantly, what you gained from it and how it applies to other areas.



5.  Leadership - Alright, this one can be tricky. How can you make it clear that your "strong leadership skills" don't get the same amount of attention as everyone else who has written a resume in the last 300 years, which is to say, very little. Being able to say that you've developed and refined your own personal leadership style during an Outward Bound course carries a lot more weight. Are you a participating leader? Maybe your approach is more democratic or perhaps you prefer to delegate? If you're a Costa Rica Outward Bound alum, think about the leadership wheel -- which direction did you identify with?

While these suggestions will hopefully build a solid foundation for starting your resume or personal statement, the most powerful way to separate yourself from other applicants is to be honest about what your Outward Bound experience meant to you. If you have a course memory that changed who you are or the way you think, don't hesitate to focus on it (requesting a letter of recommendation from instructors can also have a positive impact on your chances of landing a job). So good luck out there, students! Boost those resumes!

Now the CRROBS Instructors are the students!

So while all the summer course students return home, with awesome tans, to share photos and stories of their adventures in Costa Rica, and fall students start enthusiastically packing for their upcoming semester and adult courses, CRROBS instructors are not so lucky. They are spending 9 straight days, from August 18-26, getting their Wilderness First Responder (WFR) and Emergency Response Certifications (ERC), here at Base.

Wilderness First Responder, also known as the WFR, is a certification combining the Emergency Response Certification (ERC) with additional hours of curriculum and practical tests in a wilderness setting. The ERC (a 48-hour DOT course certification) is required for police, athletic trainers and firemen in the USA, and it is administered by the American Red Cross (ARC). Due to the remote nature of our courses, our lead field staff are required to have successfully completed the entire WFR and ERC course, every 3 years, as per ARC standards.

At CRROBS, this course lasts nine days-- filled with in-class instruction; case studies; patient care stations; skills assessment; and most importantly, “practical” scenarios and drills. For a complete break-down of the curriculum, please visit this link.

However, this year, we added a few more classes, to the traditional WFR/ERC certification curriculum, to better address our students’ needs and well-being. For example, one of Costa Rica Outward Bound’s core values is social and environmental responsibility. Therefore, All CRROBS instructors attended a lecture, by environmental educator and activist, Federico Solorzano, of Planet Conservation (more about this coming soon!) about to be more eco-sensitive on course, at home and at work.

We also invited Dr. Steven Kogel Hughes, who has been practicing Psychiatry and addiction medicine since 1982, and is the current resident Psychiatrist at Tropical Oasis, to educate all CRROBS staff on mental health issues, diseases, and both natural and pharmaceutical treatments from everything from Attention Deficiency Disorder to Depression to substance abuse issues. These two new classes seek to better prepare all our staff for the general well-being of staff, students and the environment.

Lifesaving Ain't Easy

Picture yourself: Over 20 hours of running, swimming, treading, saving, strengthening, studying, and more swimming... all in four days.

The upside? It all takes place on beautiful beaches (and our rainforest swimming pool) of Manuel Antonio, and you have the chance to receive an Open Water Lifesaving certification.

Okay, so it's not the idea that most people get in their heads when thinking about a trip to Costa Rica, but it is for Leadership students. While they do come here to introduce themselves to a new culture and language, they also have some serious goals in mind to become Outdoor Leaders. With those goals comes a lot of hard work and responsibility in order to acquire all seven certifications offered on a Leadership Semester course, including the Open Water Lifesaving Certification. This is similar to lifeguarding training, but it includes natural bodies of water (not rivers, however - read about the Whitewater Rescue Technician certification here).

You'll be happy to know, too, that this is the same training our instructors get before becoming an instructor.

Open Water Lifesaving is a tough certification to receive, and not all students pass it. It requires four tough days (split into two separate weekends) of hard physical work in a pool, on a beach, in calm open water, and in rough open water. 90% of their time is spent in the water.

"It's pretty physically exhausting... and it was great realizing we had the strength and stamina to swim out into the ocean that far." -Debbie Mayer, a past Lifesaving trainee (and our Marketing Coordinator)

Students can achieve one of two certifications as recognized by the Asociación Costarricense de Guardias (Costa Rica Lifesaving Association):

• Open Water Lifesaving: student exhibits strong capacity to handle a lifesaving emergency alone, in both the pool and open water; student exhibits strong knowledge of how the lifesaving process works through a written examination
• Junior Open Water Lifesaving: student exhibits capacity to handle a lifesaving emergency accompanied by one other person; student exhibits strong knowledge of how the lifesaving process works through a written examination

Carlos Segura, the Costa Rican instructor who has partnered with Costa Rica Outward Bound for five years to teach this course, monitors the students' abilities every minute of the four days he spends with him. Their practice includes book work and physical work. By day, students train in pool sessions open water (two days of each). By night, they read and answer questions about rip tides, victim health and anatomy, water currents, and more technical lifesaving knowledge. Physical day challenges include:

• treading water "egg beater" style
• saving both an unconcious and a crazed victim
• passing a heavy victim overhead while treading
• swimming far out into the ocean and back
• weaving among other swimmers in currents
• paddling a victim to shore through waves while providing proper protection of the victim
• running and hurdling parallel to shore in the water breaks
• saving someone using a surfboard and a torpedo
• entering and exiting the open water safely

The final day consists of both the written and practical exams. For the practical exam, Carlos uses his analysis of trainees to push them to their own individual limits during the final physical evaluation. This includes a rigorous combination of running, swimming, and treading for long periods of time, during which he orally quizzes them on open water lifesaving knowledge they have been studying.

Carlos is more than experienced training students to become certified lifesavers. He has trained with four major organizations: the American Red Cross, YMCA, United States Lifesaving Association (USLA), and Marine Rescue.

After so many years of experience in training and testing, Carlos is happy to report "there have been no serioius incidents," and "Even if they don't all receive the official certifications, all trainees at least have enough knowledge and practice to save a life in an emergency water victim situation."

What Can I Do With WRT?

"Anyone who wants to do avid rafting should get WRT certified because it's helpful for learning to read and respect the river. By understanding the river, you can avoid putting yourself in danger when kayaking and rafting. You can safely have fun riding and doing tricks in the rapids as your skills improve."
-Heidi, Leadership fall 2009

Leadership students are on certification numero tres (#3) this semester: Whitewater Rescue Technician (WRT). (It can also known as Swiftwater Rescue Technician (SRT) because both courses teach basically the same material, but the emphasis of each course is different for different types of rescue professionals.) With this training, students learn to use or deflect the water’s power to assist in the rescue of an endangered person.

River Instructors Joe Ewing and Diego Lopez have been putting them through drills for the past two days on Río Pejibaye with two more days to go. By now, Joe and Diego expect them to know that an eddy (horizontal reversal of water flow due to an obstacle) is the "safety zone" in the river; that a throw bag (a rope-filled bag used to rescue swimmers with one end of the rope connected to the inside of the bag) is the most essential item to have with you on the river; and that a strainer (buildup of debris such as rocks and logs which restrict downstream flow) is one of the more dangerous places to be on the river.

Their River Instructors will put them through drills, such as the Victim Rescue. Antonio Lopez explains this as a "really fun" and helpful activity when students have to jump into the river (in a safe area, of course), grab the "victim," float downstream with that person, then rescue him/her to the banks of the river.

This WRT certification covers it all, from River Categores (I through VI) and types of rope to the 15 Basic Rules and how to plan for a helicopter rescue. The manual our instructors use (pictured right) is 129 pages alone. They learn how to tie anchors, swim in any part of the river, and most importantly, rescue any person (including themselves) in any whitewater situation.

All students' certifications are recognized by Rescue 3 International through which all Costa Rica Outward Bound river instructors are certified to teach. Its curriculum has been "tested and refined by a global network of instructors who have taught more than 150,000 students in 35 countries." It prides itself on its "dedication to providing students with practical, real world experience."

All Costa Rica Outward Bound semester courses get trained in WRT due to the amount of time they spend on the river rafting and kayaking. And students are happy to get this training because it helps them overcome their fears of it. They also learn skills which make them proud. When Heidi reflected on earning her WRT certification, she told us, "When I started with rope throwing, I could barely get it out of the [throw] bag; but by the end I could do two [accurate throws] in under a minute. It's great knowing you could put it to use to help someone."



Sources: Wikipedia;Rescue 3 International,

Read more blogs about our certifications:
Wilderness First Responder; NAUI Scuba Certification

Going for the Gold

This does not refer to this month's winter Olympians in Vancouver, but rather, it does refer to some other Canadians.

They are the students of Trinity College School of Ontario, and they are about to complete their final stage of the Duke of Edinburgh Program for receiving the Gold Award here in Costa Rica with Outward Bound.

Leaders Jen Powles (Duke of Edinburgh Coordinator), Tom Tansley (Health & Physical Education Teacher), Laura Tansley (his wife), and Alex Oosterhof (Student Teacher) have accompanied 14 Trinity College students to the rainforest, all of whom are striving to achieve the coveted Gold Award this week through backpacking, homestays, rafting, surfing, and more.


This is no standard high school award program. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is internationally-renowned (run in 120 countries), and it can take about two years to accomplish all three levels (Bronze, Silver, and Gold). It requires an expedition, 45 hours of community service, a six-month hobby, and sport participation for 20 weeks (with a minimum of 2 hours a week).

Costa Rica has been no vacation for these high-achievers. Students in this particular "expedition" group must:

• turn in a map of what they walked, complete with lunch and breaks mapped out
• do 8 hours of activity each day
• travel 20km a day
• have a main expedition of 3 nights and 4 days, with 1 “preparation” day beforehand

The purposes of this Gold Award achievement? Well, they're very similar to our own mission at Costa Rica Outward Bound, actually. Students set their own goals and choose their own activities in the four areas of the program: Community Service, Personal Skill Development, Physical Recreation, and Adventurous Journey. The D of E mission states:

To inspire, guide and support young people in their self-development and recognise their achievements.

Participants have until they are 24 years old to complete this. Upon completing the Gold Award they receive a pin and certificate presented by a member of the Royal family at a ceremony.

What is a 'Woofer'?

We professional types pronounce "WFR" as "woofer".

The WFR, or Wilderness First Responder, is a certification combining the Emergency Response Certification with additional hours of curriculum and practice for application in the wilderness setting. The ERC (a 48-hour DOT course certification) is required for police, athletic trainers and firemen in the USA, and it is administered by the American Red Cross (ARC). Due to the remote nature of our courses our lead field staff are required to have successfully completed the WFR course. Certification from ARC and CRROBS is valid for 3 years.

What do they do during a "woofer" course? At CRROBS, it lasts nine days filled with in-class instructions, case studies, patient care stations, skills assessment, and practical scenarios. Read below for a rough outline of their curriculum:

DAY 1:
Introduction (roles and responsibilities)
Anatomy & Phisiologyn
CPR, First Aid (for the professional rescuer)
DAY 2:
CPR, First Aid (for the professional rescuer)
(Click to watch: students practice CPR emergency breathing)
Patient Assessment
Bleeding & Shock
Head, Spine & Trauma
DAY 3:
Chest Trauma
Injuries to Extremities
Burns
Water Sanitation
Long Term Wound Care and Assessment
DAY 4:
Bites & Stings
Allergic Reaction / Anaphylaxis
Epi Administration
Hot & Cold Emergencies
DAY 5:
Abdominal Medical Emergencies
Chest Pain
Diabetes/Asthma
DAY 6:
Lightning/Drowning/Poisoning
First Aid Kits
Improvised Litters and Splints
(Click to watch: students make a litter.)
(Click to watch: students learn to roll an unconscious victim.)
DAY 7:
Evacuation Protocols
Triage
Helicopter Use & Safety
Injury & Illness Prevention
Stress Management
DAY 8:
Practical Exams (performance in a rescuing scenario)
DAY 9:
Written Exams


The most interesting parts for the students as well as the instructors are the practical scenarios in which people pretend to be hurt, bleeding, broken, and distressed. The students in training must assess the situation an react quickly and reasonably.

All Leadership students and CRROBS instructors must take this course, which is quite rigorous. When asked about the training, the students generally say it was "stressful, but interesting and beneficial."

See photos of Leadership Fall 2009 Semester students during WFR Training on our Facebook fan page.

Students in WRT Training

November 2, 2009

This week we sent our Water & Wave and Tri-Country students out to Rio Pejibaye to get a taste for what it takes to be a river guide. They will have two days of training in WRT, Whitewater Rescue Technician, while our Leadership students receive the full certification.

What does it take to be Rescue 3, WRT-certified?

The course concentrates on advanced water rescue skills for river guides and professionals, including managing the rescue scene, litter management and the utilization of teams. Costa Rica Outward Bound students get their training and certification through reputable Rescue 3 International. Four days of training, practice, experience and testing are required to obtain that coveted certification card.

1. Classroom instruction (1 day)
2. Developing and practicing water rescue skills in the river including search and rescue scenarios (3 days)
*Developing self-rescue skills
*Controlling in-water contact rescues
*Handling hazards and obstacles
*Setting up technical rope systems
*Understanding water dynamics
*Using basic rescue equipment
3. Written test

All CRROBS rafting instructors have not only been certified by Rescue 3 International's WRT program, but they renew this certification once a year. They run so many rivers and have so much valued experience, in fact, that the International Rafting Federation (IRF) has asked them to help structure and standardize its training program. An article explaining this series of standardization seminars (taking place on CRROBS base) will be posted in the upcoming week.

NAUI Scuba Certification

This week two of our courses, Leadership and Tri-Country, are in Panama getting SCUBA certified by our very own Executive Director, Jim Rowe, PhD.

So what does it take to get SCUBA certified, you might ask (especially if you're a parent, wondering what your child must go through in order to get such a gold stamp)?

First of all, all of our students' certifications are backed by NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors) Worldwide, the world's most respected, largest non-profit diver training organization in the world. It was established in 1959 as a membership association and organized solely to support and promote Dive Safety Through Education.

The course lasts 3-5 days, and it looks like this:

* Contained Dive: This usually happens in a pool or very shallow water to practice standard rhythmic breathing and buddy breathing.
* Open Dive #1: Students descend in water approximately 10-20 feet for 45+ minutes or more, always with an instructor. They must apply a few practical emergency skills, such as mask clear and retrieval of regulator. Hand signals are also practiced.
* Open Dive #2: Students again descend in water with their instructor about 10-20 feet for 45+ minutes. Practical challenges consist of Dive #1 tests in addition to a few more.
* Open Dive #3: Students descend for another 45+ minutes with their instructor, this time about 20-30 feet. Practical challenges include those of Dive #1 and #2, and the instructor will add a few more, such as equipment removal and reapplication.
* Open Dive #4: This is the final 45-minute dive with their instructor, and students must quickly be able complete all practical challenges as well as troubleshoot fake emergency situations.
* Free Dive: Students are allowed to explore always within sight of instructor.

And lastly, SCUBA - for your trivia lesson of the day - means Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.