Into the wild classroom

Just hours before leading a group deep into the wilderness, Mattea Pulido ’21 faced a frightening scenario—one of her students was injured.

Alone in the dark with no cell service, Pulido relied on one thing to take control: her Wilderness First Responder Training (WFRT).

“Because of the training, I had the knowledge to respond to the situation and get her out,” she recalled.

Now the Director of Outdoor Programs, Pulido reflected on that life-altering night as she prepares to lead a new generation of student guides through the very same course that once prepared her.

“Wilderness First Responder Training is about being prepared to make life-saving decisions when help isn’t immediately available,” she said. “The goal is to equip students with the skills they need, but hope they never have to use.”

Led by expert instructors contracted by the University, the hands-on training covers wilderness medicine essentials: treating major wounds, assessing internal injuries, and managing high-risk scenarios.

“In addition to other skills, trip leaders are trained to address student injuries and asses if their peer is still breathing, if they’re losing blood, and if they’ve suffered a brain injury,” Pulido said.

Combining classroom instruction with outdoor, real-world simulations, participants respond to emergency scenarios like sustaining injuries from a fall or sudden illness, while others push their problem-solving abilities with more dramatic cases, such as a staged car crash. These high-intensity scenarios test students’ ability to stay calm, make rational decisions under pressure, and teach them among other things, how to address loss of consciousness, dress a wound, or treat someone who loses a limb.

“We split up into patients and rescuers for the scenarios and the patients were instructed to act out what they were experiencing,” first-year trip leader Addie Guidos ’28 said. “There was lots of screaming, crying, make up and fake blood—it was intense seeing your friends who you’ve spent so much time with go through this.”

Though challenging, Pulido said this way of training “sharpens leadership and decision-making skills,” giving students real responsibility to manage risk, take the lead in making critical choices, and take care of others in unpredictable environments.

“There was one situation where I had to be the main rescuer, and another rescuer came in and took over for me,” Guidos recalled. “The instructor reminded me to be assertive. Even though that moment was stressful, it helped me find confidence for the following scenarios and take charge of those situations, treat patients, and delegating tasks so others could help.”

With another season of Wilderness First Responder Training complete, Outdoor Programs continues to empower students by taking education beyond the classroom—into the wild, where learning happens.

Learn how Redlands is building community and leadership—discover Outdoor Programs.