Making ends meet as an outdoor educator

When I decided that I wanted to pursue outdoor education, I was in college and I had absolutely no idea what the income would look like for that type of career. As an intern, I was just thrilled that my internship was paid. I didn't really think too much about what I was actually making. The same goes with when I got my job as an instructor the following summer. I was just so excited to be working for Outward Bound. After my first summer, then I started thinking a little bit more about the income and what that looks like. Typically, an outdoor educator who's actually working in the field with students, is gonna be making 10 to $15,000 a year. So, it's not a lot of money. The advantages to living that lifestyle are truly endless. I was living in my vehicle. So, I was living a very minimalist lifestyle. I really loved that. I got to travel to new places almost every month. I would go back and forth from Colorado to California or up and down the state of California just finding new places for me to work and to grow and explore. In my spare time between contracts of employment, I was able to find some really amazing places of the country to explore my passions like skiing and rock climbing. I don't know of any other job that gives you that much mobility to be able to explore those types of things. If you can figure out seasonal employment to where you're on a regular schedule, it becomes a lot easier to live on that type of income. For example, I work for Outward Bound in the summers. In the fall I would work for an Outward Bound type organization in California. Then, in the winter, I taught skiing. I had the spring to either pick up some random work with that company in California or maybe just go rock climbing for a couple months and do what I wanted to do while I geared up for my summer with Outward Bound. I figured that cycle out pretty quickly within my first two years of working as an outdoor educator. It worked really well for me. A lot of other people like to do something completely different every year. I know a lot of people that'll work all summer for Outward Bound and then they'll go to South America for the entire normal school year and come back and work for Outward Bound again. So, people spend that 10 to 15 grand in very, very different ways. If you're constantly working like I was and you're living that minimalist lifestyle, it actually is possible to save a little bit to save up for those big trips. In my mind a big trip was more of camping in Joshua Tree for a month and just climbing every day. For other people a big trip might be going to Thailand and climbing there. So, it really is what you make of it. Most outdoor ed companies are going to supplement your food and housing costs to some degree while you're working for them. For example, Outward Bound provides you food and housing while you're on contract with them. So, between your courses with Outward Bound over the summer, you have somewhere to go and you know that you've got three hot meals a day waiting for you. That also really cuts down on your cost of living and makes it easier to budget. For most people, coming right out of college into an outdoor education type of career, their main expenses would be their cell phone bill, food, and gas to get to different places, a car payment if they have one, and student loans if you need to start paying those right away instead of deferring them.