learning to lead
How do you teach compassionate leadership? Ogichi’s pioneering Leadership Development & Advanced Camping (LDAC) program gives young women the tools to manage the needs of a group and its individual members. LDACs learn the technical skills and interpersonal skills necessary for effective leadership in the wilderness and the wider world.
Open to campers who have completed grades 9-11, the LDAC program helps women build their ever-expanding leadership toolbox. LDACs go on our longest canoeing and backpacking trips, equipped with skills learned through either whitewater canoe training with the University of Minnesota-Duluth or our advanced trail skills program. While in camp, LDACs will participate in LDAC-only morning classes to uncover their own personal leadership style and learn to lead with love.
the cit experience
The culmination of the Ogichi experience is the transition from camper to competent and confident staff member. In the final step in the LDAC progression, Counselors In Training (CITs) are immersed in a hybrid camper-staff role as they learn the ins and outs of what it means to be a strong-spirited staff woman at Ogichi.
Spending time in camp learning how to teach others, garnering advanced trip skills through technical training, and developing a sense of purpose that translates far beyond their role at camp, CITs are the pinnacle of peer leadership in the Ogichi community. Campers are eligible for the CIT program upon completion of their senior year of high school. After one session as a CIT, women are eligible to join Ogichi’s cabin and trip staff for the second session.