The Wilderness Technology Alliance (WTA) began in the late 1980's as "The Mount Rainier Technology Camp," a company-funded project of Trinity Technology, Inc. Trinity was a leading West Coast provider of personal computers and networks. From 1983 to 2000, Trinity Technology served corporations, government agencies, and the general public out of offices in Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. It was also a major computer supplier to public education.

Lou August, Trinity Technology's founder and CEO, watched the digital divide take shape firsthand. While wealthy individuals and schools acquired vast numbers of computers, less fortunate individuals and schools got nothing. He felt his company could do something about it. When delivering new computers to corporate customers, staff members got permission to take the old computers to needy school districts instead. Year after year the numbers grew, and relocating surplus technology while training schools to refurbish it became Trinity's primary philanthropic function. In 1989, Trinity Technology became part of the Issaquah School District's TIP project, creating a program where fast-learning, tech-savvy youth fulfilled the technology support function of their school district — a new paradigm was emerging.

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With full awareness of the digital divide and youth's remarkable aptitude for technology work, Lou constructed a wilderness technology camp for at-risk youth on the flanks of Mount Rainier in Washington State between 1989 and 1992. Trinity Technology staff also researched program methods from Outward Bound, the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), Princeton University, and others. The resulting training model improves the lives of disadvantaged youth by using the wilderness to teach diligence, teamwork, and self-confidence. Removed from existing habits and social groups, students face new demands that promote better problem-solving and learning.

These newfound skills are then consciously carried into technology training and applied to completing a real technology project for a real customer. The program targets underfunded schools with high enrollment in free and reduced lunch programs — schools that typically serve high Native American, Mexican American, and African American populations, often in rural or inner-city areas.

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Once the facility was built and the program model created, the Trinity team spent two years finding a school willing to let a corporation take at-risk students on leadership expeditions on Mount Rainier and apply those skills to project-based technology learning. Scott Fischer, owner of Mountain Madness and a former at-risk urban youth himself, recognized the program's value and joined the effort. Bill Briggle, former Deputy Director of the National Park Service and Superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park, soon became a major champion. The Mount Rainier Technology Camp was ultimately built through alliances with the Metropolitan Parks District of Tacoma, Mountain Madness, the National Park Service, the U.S. Department of Energy, Macromedia, Microsoft, and Washington State Schools.

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In 1995, the program's first year, students took part in backpacking expeditions in Mount Rainier National Park, then produced sections of the official Mount Rainier National Park CD-ROM — still sold at National Park gift stores today. News of the program's success quickly reached Olympic National Park, where in 1996, students completed a similar expedition and produced sections of the Olympic National Park's official CD-ROM. Students in both years received free computers and software upon completing the program.

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After a large pilot project in 1998, including a wilderness program led by Keith and Christine Boskoff of Mountain Madness, Mount Rainier National Park selected the program as a major part of its Centennial Celebration. In 1999, 100 at-risk students from 33 schools took part. Honorary leaders opened each of 11 expeditions and spent a day on the mountain with students, including Dr. Terry Bergeson (State Superintendent of Public Instruction), Mark Wolfram (General Manager, Microsoft), Paul Brainerd (Founder, Aldus), Doug Walker (CEO, Walker, Richer and Quinn), and U.S. Senator Slade Gorton. In all, nearly $1 million in technology hardware and software was provided to Washington schools. On April 3, 2000, the program was inducted into the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, as an event of historic significance in technology education.

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Chapter 2: The Birth of the Wilderness Technology Alliance

Out of the success of the Centennial Project, the Wilderness Technology Alliance was born. A statewide student-based computer hardware program and a statewide project-based multimedia program were established, both designed to harness young people's remarkable aptitude for technology to provide work-based learning experiences while serving their communities and schools.

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Yet the WTA also recognized a critical weakness in its wilderness multimedia model. Once students returned home from their wilderness and project-based learning experiences, they went back to the same neighborhoods and often the same friends. In too many cases, old behaviors returned, and much of the value of the experience was lost.

The WTA needed a way to carry wilderness-earned discipline and technology skills directly into the classroom and into gainful employment, before that momentum faded. That need became the blueprint for the model WildTech runs today.

Today's version is simple: sustained, in-community programs. DC senior centers. Refurbishing workshops. Classrooms across Africa. Training, support, and real technology work continue long after the initial spark, instead of ending when the expedition does.

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