The Interpreted Rock

By Stephen C. Schultz I was sitting in my office the other day when I received a call from a therapist at RedCliff Ascent. He mentioned that he had recently met with an international educational consultant at one of RedCliff Ascent’s wilderness treatment program graduations. This consultant had traveled from Russia to act as a translator for the family of a graduating student. He was assisting the family in placing the student in a traditional boarding school following his graduation from RedCliff. The consultant also mentioned that he might have another student to enroll in RedCliff soon. After doing a bit of research, I discovered that RedCliff has had three students from Russia in the past few months. RedCliff Ascent regularly welcomes international students. I have personally visited the backcountry at different times and spoken with students from the United Kingdom, France, Bermuda, Israel, Australia, Singapore, Italy, Russia, the Netherlands, and Brazil, to name a few. Then, j...

By Stephen C. Schultz Editors Note: This is another excerpt from some of the material that teens and young adults learn while at RedCliff Ascent . Students gain physical competency, develop emotional insight and demonstrate improved maturity. This particular segment provides a thoughtful perspective for teens and young adults who have been raised in relative comfort.     Earth Many “primitive” peoples considered the earth to be their true mother and the sky their father, and that there was a grandfather, (Creator) somewhere beyond it all.   In this you can see a basic difference between the worldview of the old ones and of our own.   They thought they belonged to the earth; we believe that the earth belongs to us.   You wouldn’t cut off your mother’s hair, or drain out her life’s blood.   You wouldn’t blow smoke in your fathers face, or poison his breath.   Yet we have no hesitation in destroying anything that is merely a possession. ...

By Stephen C. Schultz   Editors Note: This is an excerpt from some of the material that teens and young adults learn while at RedCliff Ascent . Much of the work that is done by students is to gain physical competency, develop emotional insight and demonstrate improved maturity.   Fire “ In the time before this one, there was a great excitement in the sky country. It was the day of giving. All of the spirit people were going to receive a gift from the Creator, whatever they wanted.   There was a lot of pushing and shoving (even some fighting), in the long line that led up to the lodge of the sky father. As each spirit approached the Maker, they knelt and asked for a gift, one that they thought might help them in the world below.   Some wanted cunning, some strength, or keen eyes or ears. Some asked for the ability to run fast, to fly high, or to dig low. There were also those who wanted to live on the land, and those who wanted to live under the water...

  By Stephen C. Schultz Did You Know? RedCliff Ascent tracks the physical effects of each student upon entering our program. We maintain a database of each student’s body mass index (BMI) and can empirically demonstrate that males lose about 5 lbs of fat and gain approximately 7 lbs of muscle mass throughout their stay. Females lose about 10 lbs of fat and gain around 5 lbs of muscle mass. Students are required to maintain a 3,500-calorie-per-day diet. Each week, their BMI is updated, and dietary adjustments are made as needed. Oh… and we have been doing this for well over a decade! This means that educational consultants, allied health professionals, and families can be assured that no other program is more sophisticated in maintaining students’ nutritional health and well-being than RedCliff Ascent. Did You Know? RedCliff Ascent leads the industry in research-informed practices and outcomes. Of the eight original OBHIC programs featured in Dr. Keith Russell’s research over a...