Yosemite Student Trips & Training
Student Programs
About Student Programs
With a guiding staff equally experienced in working with both adults and student groups in technical skills, natural history, ecology, land sciences, interpersonal communication, and group dynamics, Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides offers unparalleled programming options for schools, travel camps, families, and outdoor programs both in Yosemite National Park and in the Sierra National Forest.
Highly respected schools like Head Royce of Oakland, California; The Branson School of Ross, California; Marin Academy; Ojai Valley School; Squaw Valley Academy and the Overlake School of Redmond, Washington have chosen SYMG for good reason. Peggy Proctor of The Branson School sums it up, "Many thanks...for everything you have given all of us. You have opened your heart, your home, and your extensive skills to us and we have all benefited greatly. Thanks for your 100% dedication to the growth & happiness of our students."
We also work with the some of the finest student adventure programs in the country; Adventures Cross Country, Interlochen, the Boy Scouts of America, YMCA groups, Wilderness Ventures and America's Adventure.
Guide Training Course
About the Guide Training Course
This course is about becoming a well rounded guide and learning a profession in addition to the individual mountain skills. It is our goal, when you complete this course, to be able to secure a job as a guide anywhere in the world with the skills you've learned.
This course is unique in that it offers more than just a specific skill set for one activity. It is not just survival skills, rock climbing skills, or business skills, but also includes training regarding the industry and guiding's part of it, and how to make the transition to becoming a professional guide. Working as a guide requires more than just hard (technical) skills, it requires even better soft skills (communication) and an understanding of the industry, the client, the role of a guide as leader. In addition to creating an opportunity to be hired with SYMG, this course also presents an opportunity to be recommended for other jobs/careers in the industry. With successful completion of this course, graduates should be equipped with the knowledge, confidence, and skills necessary (along with a recommendation from an industry leader) to be hired in the guiding industry for seasonal or full time work.
SYMG's retail services are used by over an estimated 1000 travelers each year. Our wholesale services are used by such industry leaders as REI Adventures, Mountain Travel/Sobek, Adventures Cross-country, America's Adventure, The World Outdoors, and Casterbridge Tours. Our adventure corporate business trips have included company trips for Deloitte Consulting, The McKinsey Company, diCarta software, Sears, and Outside Magazine to name a few. SYMG has also worked with divisions from Oracle, Microsoft, Lockheed, Motorola, Phillip-Morris, Hewlett Packard, Merck, and Chiat Day Advertising.