The data proves Rustic Pathways has student impact. It’s not hard to find anecdotal reports about the benefits of student travel. Knowing that students return from our programs having experienced some type of growth wasn’t enough for us.
So Rustic Pathways created a framework to intentionally design our programs and assess what and how students learned from them.
According to the results from our first Student Impact Evaluation—part of our 2018 Impact Report—our students experienced growth in all 10 of our Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), the skills that Rustic Pathways believe will ensure students succeed academically, professionally, and personally.
Among those SLOs, Rustic Pathways found that students experienced the most significant growth in their desire to positively impact the lives of others—using one’s talents as a force for good and creating change.
After returning from a Rustic Pathways program this past summer, nearly 73% of students reported high or very high desire to positively impact the lives of others. It was the highest percentage of any SLO and one of several metrics Rustic Pathways used to evaluate student growth.
Takeaway: Rustic Pathways’ independently verified Student Impact Evaluation confirms measurable student growth across all 10 Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), demonstrating that participation in Rustic Pathways programs leads to lasting academic, personal, and social development.
For more information about how Rustic Pathways created our SLOs, and our quantitative and qualitative research methods, read the rest of the Student Impact Evaluation.