For the first time, Unity College is extending its signature Nova travel experiences to the public.

As an orientation to America’s environmental college, Nova adventure trips have provided powerful social and environmental outdoor experiences for generations of incoming Unity College students. Now, the trips are being offered more broadly.

“We’re using our long experience guiding these trips, using the expertise of our adventure-based and outdoor adventure programs, to bring the sense of excitement and camaraderie of a Maine summer to the general public,” said John Zavodny, coordinator of Unity College’s summer programs.

The five-day small-group adventure-based experiences mirror the Nova trips designed for new students, including those in the incoming class of 2019. Groups are limited to 12 people, and participants are actively involved with all aspects of the trip, including planning, cooking, decision making, risk management, and other camp-related activities.

“We’ve found that the Nova experience has helped scores of Unity College students grow relationships and engage Maine’s natural environment,” Zavodny said. “We want to extend that to as many people as possible.”

There are two Nova adventure programs available.

In the Down East Adventures experience, participants will explore Maine from land to sea with family and friends. From our base at the historic Station House at West Quoddy Station in Lubec, participants hike and paddle beautiful parks, explore lighthouses and Maine heritage museums, discover rugged shoreline and remote lakes and perhaps gaze upon bald eagles, loon, moose with unparalleled wildlife viewing in one of the wildest parts of the coastal U.S. The trip culminates in an exquisitely rustic lobster dinner.

“We’ll even pack along the fishing poles,” Zavodny said. “Any family or group that wants to have a relaxing and fun Maine adventure by the ocean.  Individuals are welcome as well, but the experience is most powerful for groups.”

Participants in the Down East Adventure travel experience will stay at The Station House at West Quoddy Station in Lubec. The charmingly renovated and historic former Coast Guard Station has a full kitchen, living space, bathrooms, and sleeping quarters.

There will be plenty of time for meditation, hiking, community-building games and initiatives, and each Nova participant will have an opportunity to complete a Leave No Trace Wilderness Ethics awareness program.

The trip, July 19-23, is $800 per person, including all meals, lodging and transportation, with space limited to 12 people to ensure a unique experience in Maine’s outdoors. To enroll, call (207) 509-7121 or click http://summer.unity.edu/downeast-adventures/.

In the St. Croix Canoe Trip, participants will paddle the St. Croix River — a scenic waterway that runs along the international border between Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.

Participants start in the small border town of Vanceboro, Maine and take out at Grand Falls, paddling approximately 34 miles through Class I through Class III rapids, spending time at Little Falls practicing swift-water rescue techniques and learning other skills, such as paddling strokes, maneuvers, rescues, orienteering, weather forecasting, Leave No Trace principles, and boat maintenance.

The trip, July 26-31, is $800 per person, including all meals, lodging and transportation, with space limited to 12 people to ensure a unique experience in Maine’s outdoors. To enroll, call (207) 509-7121 or click http://summer.unity.edu/.

About Unity College Summer Programs

With programs such as Environmental Field Photography, Family Nova: Down East Adventures, Field Research Techniques, Geology of the Maine Landscape, Maine Lumberjack Camp, and Unity Warden Camp, you’ll be amazed at what a summer week in Maine can do with Unity College Summer Programs. You might be paddling the St. Croix River with lifelong friends or whale-watching five miles off the coast.  You could be getting your first taste of college life or learning search and rescue from a North Woods warden.  Any way you jump in, a week in Maine can be an education in amazing.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015