Outward Bound

Baltimore Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound is offering $28,000 in scholarships for Baltimore-area students ages 14 to 18 interested in an Outward Bound course.The scholarships will help fund two, 14-day courses that will take students to Western Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay for sailing, hiking and rock climbing expeditions. The nonprofit organization aims to develop self-esteem and self-reliance and care for the environment through safe, adventure-oriented trips.For information and applications, call (410)

The first-ever National Urban Symposium begins at noon today and continues through Thursday at the Crimea Mansion in Leakin Park, headquarters of the Baltimore-Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound Program, which is sponsoring the event.The symposium will focus on challenges and opportunities facing urban Outward Bound programs in Baltimore, New York, Atlanta, Boston and San Antonio.Programs of the nonprofit Outward Bound are aimed at urban youths and seek to develop self-reliance, self-esteem and concern for others and the environment.

NINE STUDENTS from Wilde Lake High School, led by English teacher Cindy Drummond, spent five days in late October hiking and climbing rocks on the Appalachian Trail near Gettysburg, Pa."I don't think I'll ever forget it," Drummond said. "Sometimes it takes a change of location to find aspects of yourself that were always there, but hadn't surfaced yet."Student participants were Anthony Davis, James Guillory, Latoyia Newman, Ian Ross, Ron Stringer, Mike Walker, Jerome Parkinson, Asmar Hagler and Raney Holmes.

TEN YEARS AGO this summer, Stephanie Rawlings reported for a three-and-a-half week Outward Bound course prepared for anything -- anything, that is, but really roughing it.Hair dryer, make-up, clothes. You name it, she had packed it. As the instructors surveyed her luggage, weeding out all the items she would learn to live without, she began to learn the difference between frills and necessities.She did manage to sneak a hair brush past their eagle eyes by hiding it in her clothes.And for the next few weeks she provided a stream of cynical commentary worthy of a self-described 16-year-old "priss."

The five days Jim McVay spent in the woods with nine of his friends were, by his description, the "toughest" days of his life."There were a lot of challenges I had to face," said the 17-year-old senior at Broadneck High School. "But I would do it again in a heartbeat."Jim and his friends, together with a faculty adviser, spent those chilly October days in Greenridge State Forest in Cumberland County as part of an Outward Bound program that teaches leadership and builds trust. Broadneck is one of two Anne Arundel County schools participating in the program, said Rene Domengauer, program coordinator at Broadneck.

Shopping at sale time is irresistible. This year, though, with significant fashion changes in the air, it's necessary to fine tune your antenna for signals about what fashions will last.Look for long skirts. They are here for at least the foreseeable future. So are designer clothes with long, fluid lines; almost anything from Donna Karan to Karl Lagerfeld fits in this category, as do cutting-edge creations from designers like Commes des Garcons or Yohji Yamamoto.The plus ultra nightgown of satin and lace you covet, but wonder when you will ever wear, may become your '93 going out costume.

I remember one steamy, hot evening, sitting on the stoop of my inner-city tenement, along with my teen-age friends. We were heavy into conversation with a youth outreach worker when he uttered words that ring clear in my head to this day. "When you feel like garbage," he said about a friend who had just been picked up by the police, "you act like garbage."In my case and that of many of my friends, family, sports and community organizations such as Boys Clubs bolstered our self-esteem and enabled us to set our goals high.

We had just paddled six, muscle-aching hours down th Potomac in a driving rainstorm. Despite our rain gear, we were soaked from our hair to our sneakers. Then, three miles from our next campsite, the sun momentarily broke through the clouds.As one member of the canoe expedition after another looked backward, we were transfixed by the sight of a huge double rainbow covering the sky, lifting our spirits. Some smiled, some lifted paddles overhead with a whoop of joy. Others just drifted and stared.

COLLEGE PARK -- On a hot, sunny Wednesday morning, a group of some 170 first-year MBA students are bent over in a field of grass, holding their ankles, shuffling backward and quacking like ducks.The exercise is meant to dissolve the inhibitions that make them afraid to look silly in front of others. Right now, trust me, they look silly. I say this reluctantly, however, because I'm among them.These University of Maryland graduate business students are here to build teamwork and communication skills, to learn how to lead and to follow, and to step outside of what their Outward Bound guides call their personal "comfort zone."