We are excited to release our second blog in our mentorship series. These blogs highlight (in their own words), some of the young professionals who we have been working with over the last several months. For Mentorship Series (part 2) we reached out to Emalyn Brown for a write up highlighting her history with some of our mentors and other industry professionals. Read her story here:
“My Aerial Adventure!
Beginnings!
Triangle Y ranch camp in Oracle, AZ! 5 year old me Climbing the tower at my summer camp.
After growing up at the Triangle Y ranch camp I became a counselor there! I got ropes trained on the same tower I climbed when I was 5!!! In 2019 my site-specific level 1 training was provided by Synergo! This is where I met Kevin Trump, my trainer! I grew up knowing I wanted to work in the camp world in some way but once I got a nibble of this training, I knew this was it! So, I interrogated Kevin about how he got to where he was and how I could become a trainer! From that moment on it has been my life goal! I really wasn’t planning on going to college until this point either.
The Progression plan for becoming a trainer went like this……1. Get some years in the industry!
After three years of being a Camp Counselor at Tri Y it was time or something new!
2. Get some more sites under your belt! Challenge Course Coordinator at YMCA Camp Collins in Gresham Oregon 2022 Here’s where I got my Level 2 and got to update that portfolio!!
After my first summer at Collins I went to Study at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff AZ for a Parks and Recreational Management degree with an emphasis in Outdoor Education and Leadership. I got the opportunity to become their challenge course manager Fall 2022- spring 2023 (Talk about not being qualified!!!)
3. Attend Conferences!!!! NWCCN 2022 at YMCA Camp Reed in Spokane, Washington where I met my mentor and friend Niels Damman! I learned there were more PVMs than Synergo! I also attended some amazing workshops like Trauma and Facilitation by Joe Linden, periodic inspections with Niels and Johnathan Lumb, and Value Based learning with Kevin Trump. I came away from this conference with friends, games, and resources that I can use for the rest of my life!
4. Attend the ACCT Conference! I attended my first ACCT Conference 2023 Portland on scholarship thanks to the Association of Challenge Course Technology. I was able to meet amazing folks willing to invest their time in my questions and help me find all the answers after becoming a student challenge course manager. Here’s where I met Micah and JT! Shout out to High 5 Adventure and Learning Center for creating a wonderful podcast (Vertical PlayPen) that helped me grow as a facilitator and people leader! I also use it to share exactly what we do in the industry because Phil Brown here has a wonderful description of a Podcast (What is a Challenge Course?) enough about the conference for now it could be its own newsletter some other time!
Micah built NAUs course in 2012 and just so happened to live in my town! I would’ve never imagined one person could help me so much! Advocate for my needs, provide me with a safe place to ask questions! Anyways here’s the full story! I met Micah and JT at the conference after mentioning to Alicia Burke that I was now the student CCM at NAU and looking for some guidance! Alicia brought us together. Micah gave me her card to reach out after the conference! So I did JT came and checked out my course and set up where he also invited me to the Guide Exchange! I had never been on a canopy tour before. Zip lines aren’t a background I had until Zip lost pines in Texas and met like 15 people that came together to lift up this zip line in Texas and get them through the crazy rush of spring break! This was our own little mini summer camp session for adults only! We had professionals in the industry running the show! Micah, JT, Michelle, Bee, and Leigh! While us youngsters guided wonderful excited groups! So we got to learn from amazing leaders in our industry and work together for the week to make this zip line the best it could be! While showing the managers it could really work if you put you heart into it! I learned a lot about zip lining while I was there. It’s a completely different monster from the camp challenge course world! Coming from more of a facilitator role, while there was down time I had the games in my back pocket to share with the guides who come from a zip background! It’s possible to bring more meaning into the pay to play world was a pretty big takeaway for me! Every night of the Guide exchange we would get together for family dinner and tell stories and chat about life! I came away from the guide exchange with even more community that in case I ever had a question or needed help, a place to stay, was looking for a job I knew every single one of them could help me in one way or another!
Once I got back from the Guide Exchange I got to spend a lot more time with Micah and JT as a student CCM who jumped in right after covid it felt like i was starting from the beginning. I’m so glad they helped me through my time at NAU along with many other friends and mentors, Kevin and Niels
My Second summer at Camp Collins Challenge course Coordinator Gresham Oregon 2023
5. See other trainings! Remember our Buddies from ACCT 2023 well High 5 Adventure and Learning Center Invited me to an open enrollment Level 1 in September 2023 with Phil brown and Rich Keegan!
My dreams come true! Apprentice trainer for Synergo November 2023
Thank you to everyone of you who have played a part in my journey! For now I’m going to enjoy a little time in this chapter but bigger things to come! What will my next goal be!!!!!
NWCCN 2023 Camp Collins Gresham Oregon
After My first Conference in 2023 I decided to give back and volunteer for the association and got drafted by the Conference work group committee in charge of planning the whole shebang of the conference! This year I was a mentee for this group in order to learn what roles will need to be filled as people roll off and because it was only my second conference I would fill in wherever I was needed! So I became a yellow hat! Talk about networking! When you are a Yellow hat volunteer for the conference, you’re given a yellow hat that notifies people that you’re here to help them which puts you in a place to meet all sorts of people who come to you for help! I had so much fun helping people with their workshops and attending them! My Friends from the guide exchange decided to create a business together! AdventureCareers.Fun and also create an app! At the Guide exchange they realized a need to help people beginning their journey in the industry! I am so glad I got to be one of their guinea pigs because they are a wonderful group of people in every way just looking out for me! “
