Meg Armon
Years after graduating from Ara with a Bachelor of Sustainability and Outdoor Education, Meg Armon still refers back to her Ara resources for insights and inspiration in her work.
“I use it to support or oppose an idea I’m having,” she says. “Safety management is a great example of this. All the content is very transferable to the industry.”
For the past three years Meg has worked as a senior instructor at Outward Bound. “As an instructor I work long days on our 8 and 21 day personal development programmes which aim to help people reach their full potential. We use sailing, kayaking, bush, high ropes, surf kayaking, coasteering, climbing and waka ama as the technical tools to achieve the outcomes. It involves a huge range of facilitation and teaching skills.”
Meg says Outward Bound encourages its instructors to be creative in delivering its programmes. “In so many ways it aligns so well with the degree. I’ve continued to grow and develop here and I’d encourage anyone who enjoys the Ara programme to consider Outward Bound because in so many ways the philosophies align.”
The opportunities keep coming for Meg. After a few months leave to instruct kayaking in North Carolina over the northern summer, she’ll return to Outward Bound to take up a course design management role with the organisation.
“I really believe that the degree sets you up incredibly well for working in this industry. It’s strong on technical skills, but it also focuses on why we do what we do. The ‘why’ is so important in the outdoors as it guides our programmes and gives them purpose. It also keeps people safe.”
Meg credits the diversity of her degree and the passion of her tutors with giving her this strong foundation of skills and knowledge.
“A lot of the content was not black and white. My favourite classes were set up in a debate style where we were asked to read content prior to the class and then discuss ideas in small groups or as a class. The tutor would then throw out a devil’s advocate-style comment and we were off. It prompted us to figure out what we thought and why we thought that way. For me personally, my time spent thinking about risk management, safety management, the education system and the state of the environment has really helped me to step up to leadership and management roles.”