High above Orchard Hill, there’s a different way to experience UMass Amherst.

Students can navigate obstacles suspended above the ground, work together to complete a high ropes challenge, race down side-by-side zip lines, or choose their own route through an aerial SkyPark. Closer to the ground, teams take on activities focused on communication, trust, leadership, and problem-solving.

This is the NEST Challenge Course, an outdoor experiential learning facility from UMass Amherst Recreation and Wellbeing (RecWell). NEST stands for Nurture, Empower, Support, Thrive, reflecting its focus on creating a supportive environment where individuals and teams can step outside their comfort zones, take on new challenges, and grow together.

While the ropes, platforms, and zip lines might get your attention first, they aren’t the point.

“It’s really an immersive experiential learning lab,” explains Jason Incorvati, associate director for programs and student development for RecWell. “This is a space where growth and play come together.”

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More than Just a Ropes Course

Every facilitated NEST activity has intentional learning outcomes, from communication and trust to leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving. Participants don’t simply complete an obstacle and move on. They’re encouraged to consider how they work with others, respond to uncertainty, and contribute to a group.

Facilitation and reflection are central to that experience.

“Our staff offer opportunities for reflection throughout the day, and then the group comes together at some point to collectively discuss what we did and what we learned,” says David Quinlan, RecWell's assistant director for experiential outdoor adventure and education.

That process helps students connect an experience on the course with situations they’ll encounter in classrooms, workplaces, student organizations, and everyday life.

Wellbeing through Challenge 

Wellbeing is central to student success at UMass Amherst, encompassing not only physical health but also connection, belonging, confidence, and personal growth. At the NEST, Carey Lang, coordinator for adventure programs, helps participants navigate those dimensions in real time, watching how individuals and teams respond when they’re challenged and helping them learn from the experience.

“Everyone at the NEST gets to choose the level of challenge they engage in at any particular moment,” Lang says. “Just as a participant can choose to engage in a challenge, they can also choose not to.”

Those choices create opportunities to practice setting boundaries, advocating for yourself, and deciding when you’re ready to try something unfamiliar.

“Sometimes saying no is harder than saying yes,” Lang reflects. “We want participants to feel empowered to say yes and no to decisions that will lead them out of their comfort zone and into their stretch zone, where they learn and grow.”

Different Ways to Grow, Learn, and Play

There isn’t just one way to experience the NEST.

Low ropes programs focus on communication, trust, leadership, and problem-solving while participants remain close to the ground. The high ropes courses build on those skills while introducing the additional challenge of height.

“When you introduce height...you introduce a new level of stress,” Lang explains. That stress can take the form of excitement, anxiety, fear of heights, or even “the vulnerability that sometimes comes with needing to ask for help.”

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Working through those moments gives participants a chance to practice responding to stress together and communicating what they need.

SkyPark offers an independent experience. Unlike the facilitated team programs, it is self-paced, allowing participants to choose their own challenges and progress at their own comfort level.

That was an important part of the original vision for the NEST. Experiential, team-based learning was central, but Incorvati says they also wanted to incorporate “the idea of play.” SkyPark created an option for students who might not arrive as part of a group to experience the NEST on their own terms.

Turning Challenge into Connection

The NEST serves student organizations, academic classes, residence halls, athletic teams, campus departments, and community groups, with programs tailored to each group’s goals. For students, these shared challenges offer another way to build relationships and find a sense of belonging at UMass.

Its setting adds to the experience. Tucked into the wooded landscape near Orchard Hill, the NEST offers a change of perspective without leaving campus.

“There’s an absolutely gorgeous view looking east from the top of the middle treehouse,” Lang describes. “You’re looking through a gap in the trees towards the mountains. It’s something you can’t experience from the ground, and it’s breathtaking at sunset.”

Learning Beyond the Classroom

The team’s ambitions for the NEST extend beyond recreation.

Incorvati envisions partnerships with academic departments and even courses that could use the NEST as a classroom for studying leadership. He also sees the course becoming a memorable part of the student experience—a UMass “bucket list item.”

Quinlan hopes it becomes “a cornerstone of community building and experiential learning at UMass Amherst,” where students create meaningful memories, organizations strengthen their teams, and campus partners engage in leadership and development experiences.

For the NEST team, success ultimately goes beyond participation numbers.

“Success will be reflected in the stories people tell about the connections they formed, the confidence they gained, and the challenges they overcame,” Quinlan says. “If the NEST becomes a place where individuals feel supported, empowered, and inspired to thrive, then it will have fulfilled its purpose.”