The Midwest Outdoor Leadership Conference is returning to Kalamazoo College February 6–8, offering a weekend of student-led workshops, networking and hands-on learning focused on outdoor leadership and sustainability education.
The annual event will connect more than 50 students from small, medium and large institutions across the region. K students will be able to participate at no cost and without the need to travel.
“It really doesn’t matter what students’ majors are. It’s just all about outdoor leadership and sustainability education,” said Josie Belsky ’28, one of the five conference organizers including Madeline Moss ‘26, Zoe Allen ’28, Chloe Brown ’28 and Ava King ’28.
Belsky’s journey to organizing the conference began when she attended last year’s event at Earlham College. Moss had heard about the conference through her first-year seminar, Wheels of Change. After missing last year’s conference while studying abroad, Moss jumped at the opportunity to help organize when Sofia Fleming ’25, a previous conference attendee, reached out.
For Moss, an English major, the conference represents an opportunity to bridge academic interests with outdoor pursuits—a combination not always obvious to those outside the field.
“At K, we don’t have a lot of leadership-specific courses or an outdoor education major, so this is an opportunity for us to be able to touch base with students from other schools who might be interested in that and who have a lot of background in it, while also learning from them,” Moss said. “Being able to intersect my interest of the outdoors and sustainability with English is a nice thing about the conference.”
This interdisciplinary approach defines the conference’s appeal. Workshops range from technical skills such as scuba diving and rock climbing to more philosophical discussions about what wilderness means and how to decolonize one’s understanding of the outdoors.
Planning the conference has been a crash course in event management for the organizing students, who have met weekly since the start of the academic year with support from Outdoor Programs staff. The planners have coordinated with campus organizations like the Office of Student Activities. They’ve also reached out to local organizations such as the Kalamazoo Nature Center and engaged with students about their Senior Integrated Projects (SIPs) and other campus initiatives.
The organizers emphasize that the conference welcomes everyone, regardless of outdoor experience.
“One of the bigger barriers is that it can be a little intimidating to go to a conference—you feel like you have to come in with something, but in reality, it’s for everyone,” Belsky said. “There’s no experience necessary. You don’t even have to be an outdoorsy person. It’s just meant to be fun.”
Hosting the conference offers an opportunity to showcase how K’s sustainability infrastructure has evolved, particularly through the Environmental Stewardship Center.
“K has gone through a lot of changes, and I think this feels somewhat grounding back to our history of sustainability in leadership and student-led learning,” Moss said. “The fact that we hosted this conference back in 2020, before the pandemic, and a lot of things have shifted since then, and the fact we’re adapting it to the way that the school is now, says a lot about our dedication to creating a space of outdoor stewardship.”
Attending this conference at other schools has been eye-opening for K students. Last year at Earlham, for example, Belsky and others learned about Earlham’s Quaker heritage and toured facilities including horse stables, composting operations and a community building where people sell handmade art and pottery.
But beyond workshops and campus tours, the conference creates lasting connections.
“I’m still in contact with the people I met at last year’s conference,” Belsky said. “One of them came to visit me and my roommate last year, too, which was fun.”
She also emphasizes the conference’s professional value.
“It’s a good way to network with people and make connections that will help you so much in your future career,” Belsky said.
The organizers express deep appreciation for Outdoor Programs Director Jory Horner, Outdoor and Environmental Coordinator Greta Farley ’22 and Outdoor Leadership Training Center Coordinator Hannah Wolfe ’21, who provided crucial guidance. Farley’s perspective as a former student organizer has been particularly valuable.
“Sometimes we get fogged up with the student mindset and think we’re so busy that we couldn’t possibly do this,” Moss said. “But it felt grounding to have them tell us that we’re capable of it, and we could do so much more than we expected.”
With the conference happening on campus, the organizers have a simple message for the K community: Join us.
“The fact that it’s here is huge for us because we know, especially for student-athletes and people involved in student organizations, it’s hard to get away on the weekends,” Belsky said. “Your lives get busy, especially at K, because we’re always so involved. But it’s here. It’s so close, so come join us.”
For more information, registration and schedules, see the conference’s website.