Princeton-Blairstown Center

The Princeton-Blairstown Center is a 115-year-old award-winning outdoor education center that provides equitable access to exceptional outdoor experiences for young people, primarily from historically marginalized communities. Highly trained facilitators teach 21st Century skills while students experience the transformative power of nature. Blairstown Campus Programs During a typical year, groups of students and their chaperones come from across the Mid-Atlantic region to stay at PBCs 268-acre Blairstown Campus in the northwest corner of New Jersey near the Delaware Water Gap for one to five days. These students come from public schools, independent schools, universities, and community-based organizations. Most of these organizations provide services to students from historically marginalized communities which face numerous challenges such as poverty, low-performing schools, high-crime neighborhoods, food insecurity, single adult households, court-involved youth, or youth in foster care. The Blairstown Campus serves as an extension of their school or community organization a place where they can practice critical 21st Century skills that can be taken back to their schools, families, and communities. These trips are organized by the administration or faculty of the visiting school or organization expressly for the purpose of obtaining instruction in non-cognitive skills using PBCs social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum. The SEL skills that PBC teaches can include verbal and non-verbal communication, leadership,cooperation, team building, problem solving, healthy risk-taking, empathy, and interpersonal skills; each group coordinator determines which skills should be the focus of their PBC program. During their time at PBC, students spend most of the day engaged in hands-on instructional activities, with time for meals, sleep, and personal reflection/journal writing. During a typical year, the Center serves between 7,500 and 8,000 students and leaders/chaperones. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Center is still working its way back to those engagement levels. In 2023, the Center served 5,324 students, chaperones, and families for day, extended day, and overnight programming. Summer Bridge Program PBCs Summer Bridge Program is a one-week academic enrichment and leadership program, provided free of charge to students from low-income communities in Newark and Trenton, New Jersey. The program helps students lessen summer learning loss, build social-emotional skills, and form positive, supportive relationships with peers and adults. The program takes place at PBCs Blairstown Campus and is an opportunity for students to make the developmental break from elementary or middle school. Small groups of students spend approximately three hours a day engaged in hands-on literacy, STEM, and STEAM activities; an hour a day engaged in waterfront activities (swimming/canoeing/ kayaking); and two hours a day engaged in developing leadership, teambuilding, and problem-solving skills. Each day students take part in a student choice activity that includes recreational and STEAM activities as well as daily restoration duties (stewardship of their cabins, the dining room, and the wash houses). During the summer of 2023, 298 students and 49 leaders/chaperones were served by the Summer Bridge Program. In addition, PBC re-started its Leader-in-Training Program that served eight students for a total of six weeks. Venture Out Program Venture Out is PBCs new environmental education initiative. This high-quality outdoor education program, offered free to middle school students in the Trenton Public School District, is a 30-hour residential program that provides students with inquiry-based, hands-on environmental education and social-emotional learning sessions that aim to help students engage more deeply with science and the scientific method, understand that science is fun, an increased appreciation and respect for the natural world, and a desire to protect the environment. The Centers curriculum is aligned to the State of New Jerseys middle school science curriculum standards. This program is led by experienced Sr. Facilitators who have been carefully trained on the Centers environmental, SEL, and adventure-based curriculum. During 2023, PBC served a total of 224 Trenton middle school students and 35 leaders/chaperones. Princeton University Groups Program As an affiliate of Princeton University, PBC supports Princeton undergraduate civic engagement and student retreats in a natural setting. For the past several years, Princeton Universitys Community Action Program has sent a cohort of first year students to the Center as part of their orientation process. Additionally, other university groups use the Center to provide programming. During 2023, PBC served a total of 117 Princeton University students, staff, and leaders/chaperones.