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North Carolina Horsepacking:
SOAR’s North Carolina Horsepacking course is designed for those students who want the opportunity to experience adventure activities as well as the unique connection between young people and horses. After beginning the program with a day of “thrills & chills” on our High Ropes Course, students depart base for a four-day horsepacking adventure through the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Riders are rewarded for their day’s efforts with quiet treks along forest trails and amazing 360-degree views from atop mountain meadows. Following the horsepacking phase, students are challenged with mild to moderate rock climbing routes in the nearby Pisgah National Forest. The adventures come to an exciting conclusion with a rafting trip down the beautiful Nantahala River (Cherokee for “Land of the Noon Day Sun”). All of these activities provide ample opportunity for personal growth and reinforce SOAR’s principles of teambuilding, problem solving, and self-reliance. North Carolina Horsepacking will guarantee memories for a lifetime!
Quick Facts:
Dates:
Session I: 6/12 - 6/23
Session II: 6/26 - 7/7
Session III: 7/10 - 7/1
Session IV: 7/24 - 8/4
Students:14
Days: 12
Tuition:$2,900
Ages:11 - 18
Gear Guide
Gear List
Itinerary
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Philosophy: SOAR believes all individuals identified with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) possess inherent talents and gifts. These abilities can mean incredible success in adulthood once these students negotiate the challenging obstacles of childhood, adolescence, and a traditional education system, usually unable to respond to individual learning styles.
Therefore, the SOAR model is based on two fundamental principles. First, youth with LD and AD/HD flourish when they are encouraged to focus on their strengths in an experiential setting. The second principle acknowledges that success can be generalized by encouraging our students to develop and utilize strategies, enabling them to compensate for those challenging characteristics of LD and AD/HD. To this end, SOAR staff strive to ensure success for each student across a wide range of experiences. Such success, in turn, builds essential self-esteem and self-confidence.
Based on these two foundations, SOAR participants develop problem solving skills, effective communication strategies, increased self-awareness, and social skills. Program activities include a broad base of wilderness adventure experiences that empower students to make healthy choices, learn more about themselves, overcome challenges, and establish relevance from these experiences to other aspects of their life.
SOAR's Specialty Courses are open to SOAR alumni and students with the maturity and experience level to be successful on the course. Acceptance is conditional on the approval of the course director. Most specialty courses are led by one of SOAR's year-round staff including Jonathan Jones, John Willson and Logan Walters.
SOAR’s programs are designed to allow students the opportunity to increase their independence while away from home. Independence is gained through self-motivation and life skills instruction. With this in mind, we involve our students in many decision making processes, such as setting individual goals, developing group guidelines, as well as trip and meal planning. This also comes into consideration when developing SOAR’s communication policy, detailed in our Parent Handbook.
SOAR is dedicated to serving the needs of individuals with learning disabilities (LD) and attention deficit disorder (AD/HD) and is proud to be the finest: