Student Profile
Kismet Rock Foundation functions on the premise that all children are imbued with potential that they crave to discover and utilize. Potential is sometimes unrecognized or otherwise limited by circumstance and environment and therefore can be undeveloped.
With the help of teachers, principals, guidance counselors, and other professionals, Kismet seeks students who are essentially well-functioning, who are limited by financial and cultural circumstance. and who have little or no access to an education in technical climbing.
Because it is not always obvious who these children are (invisibility often accompanies unused potential), considerable care is taken by the Kismet staff and by local mentors to offer scholarships to candidates who will most benefit from, and be successful in, our courses. Scholarships are offered through an interview process in serving schools.
Kismet offers a thorough education in technical rock climbing and mountaineering. Its program is neither intentionally therapeutic nor is it merely experiential. Kismet does not accept children who are in serious need of rehabilitation. Thus, our students can be seen as well functioning students who need opportunity that is missing in their lives.
We begin accepting students in the sixth grade. Those who are not disruptive and who we think are benefiting and succeeding in our program are invited back yearly.
Appropriate candidates for Kismet's courses:
1. Do not have access to an education in technical climbing due to economic and cultural factors.
2. Are essentially socially and emotionally well-adjusted. This does not necessarily exclude children who are to some degree sad or fearful. However, they must be functioning well enough not to be disruptive in an educational environment and stable enough to benefit from such an environment.
3. Have demonstrated a potential for initiative, creativity, and self-motivation.
4. Are in good health, not substantially overweight, and without disabilities that would prevent them from participating in, enjoying, and benefiting from the program.
Kismet seeks to admit an equal number of boys and girls. It is a very high priority to admit students from a broad range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Thus, Kismet students have an extraordinary opportunity to develop friendships with, and learn from, children whose experience is very different from their own.
