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Aspen Achievement Academy was a wilderness therapy program for adolescents, based in Loa, Utah. It was operated as a part of Aspen Education Group. The program has been moved, in name only, and merged with another wilderness therapy program in Utah - Outback Therapeutic Expeditions - in March 2011. [1]
Aspen Achievement Academy was an Aspen Education Group behavior-modification program founded in 1989 as “Wilderness Academy”. In June of 1990, the program changed its name to Aspen Achievement Academy.
Aspen Achievement Academy merged into Outback Therapeutic Expeditions March 2011. Announced closure by letter on May 1, 2023, will close on June 15, 2023. Passages to Recovery
Rebranding is a common practice for wilderness therapy camps, and Aspen Achievement Academy (AAA) is just one example. Opened in 1989 by the Aspen Education Group, AAA operated in Loa, Utah, right in the heart of Capitol Reef National Park. It didn’t take long for the program to be mired in scandal.
Aspen Achievement Academy In June of 1990, the program changed its name to Aspen Achievement Academy. It was marketed as a wilderness therapy program for teenagers ages 13-17.
In January, six youths enrolled in Utah’s nationally praised Aspen Achievement Academy bolted from their camp in Garfield County after some teens allegedly beat a counselor.
According to the book “Adventure Therapy: Theory, Practice, and Research” (Gass, Gillis, and Russell, 2012), the first Wilderness Therapy (WT) program (Aspen Achievement Academy) was founded in 1988 in Loa, Utah.
The Aspen Achievement Program is broken up into four components. The first is a high impact wilderness survival course that has as its purpose to teach youngsters basic survival skills, help participants to work through denial issues, and to lessen feelings of resentment and anger.
In January 1996, six teenagers ran away from an Aspen group. They were found by law enforcement officials and returned to the program, but the incident raised concerns that future escapees might assault tourists, hikers or recreationists on the public lands that Aspen used.
I was in Aspen Achievement Academy, Utah in 1992. I was 14-yrs-old at the time and turned 15 out there. I had no idea these places still existed. I am sorry to hear of the pain it has caused so many people. It took me my whole life to process the burden of being sent to these types of institutions.