Ms. Megan Griffith, NDA’s beloved past theology teacher, is enjoying her new adventures as a Wilderness Field Instructor.

Griffith is working eight-day shifts with New Vision Wilderness Therapy in Bend, Oregon.

She primarily works with individuals, both adults and adolescents, who are experiencing some form of trauma which is “very important” to process correctly, but also “very difficult,” according to Griffith.

Some of her students that she works with have “unprocessed trauma,” which frequently causes “reactive attachment disorder, depression, anxiety, addictions, communication issues, and difficulty in building trusting relationships.”

Griffith comes in by keeping the students safe and creating trusting and positive relationships with them.

Her job still is in the teaching realm, but it focuses more on the “relational” side of teaching versus her job at NDA.

All of this work is done out in the woods camping in tents.

“It’s very similar to teaching and entirely different at the same time,” said Griffith.

Overall, Griffith is happy in Bend which is very different from Green Bay atmosphere wise.

“It’s much more progressive and very outdoors focused,” said Griffith when comparing Bend to Green Bay.

Many mountains continue to “stun” her with amazement everyday.

Although she loves Bend, she really misses her relationships in Green Bay and her favorite hangouts: Luna and Hinterland.

“I miss teaching more than I thought I would, and I am definitely not closing the door on going back to it,” said Griffith.

“Visiting NDA last month really warmed my heart,” said Griffith. “It was wonderful to see so many of my former students and to reconnect with my favorite colleagues.”

One new aspiration she has been pondering is returning to school in the pursuit of a PhD in inter-religious dialogue “to one day be a professor and/or political activist of some kind.”

After she is done with New Vision Wilderness, she is not sure what her next step will be, but she can see herself coming back to Wisconsin but not for some time.