ISEEN History
ISEEN was initially founded in 2005 under the name “ISAN,” standing for the Independent Schools Adventure Network. It was created by a group of independent school adventure program directors who shared a common opinion that they could not find enough time to "talk shop" with professional peers at various industry conferences. The group realized that there could be great benefit from increased networking and idea sharing with other adventure educators working within the unique environment of independent schools. Out of this need ISAN was born.
After three successful ISAN Institutes, drawing adventure program directors from across North America, it became obvious that the conversations being had were larger than that of simply “adventure education.” While many of the attendants worked in a full time capacity as Adventure Education or Outdoor Education Directors, most were also being tapped by their schools for their knowledge and expertise relating to sustainability initiatives, global education, service learning, and leadership development. The common theme of all of these initiatives was clearly experiential education, the theory of learning by doing with reflection. In order to best represent the scope and focus of the work and conversations occurring, in 2009 The Independent School Adventure Network (ISAN), was formally changed to the Independent Schools Experiential Education Network (ISEEN).