For 52 years, Colorado Outward Bound School (COBS) has led students on outdoor excursions with the belief that the lessons learned from pushing mental and physical limits in nature—perseverance, integrity, responsibility—also translate to life once you’re out of the woods. But the experience doesn’t come cheap: An eight-day trip runs about $1,200. Fortunately, a new partnership with STRIVE Preparatory Schools and Denver School of Science and Technology—called ASCEND (Accelerating Scholars and Citizens for Empowerment, Nurturing, and Development)—helps provide high schoolers who couldn’t otherwise afford the trips with partial COBS scholarships. And you can help, too, by attending COBS’ Black Tie & Tennis Shoes Gala (October 16, History Colorado Center, $200), which raises money for the scholarship fund. You’ll meet ASCEND students and hear from James Edward Mills, author of The Adventure Gap and a member of the first all-African-American team to summit Denali. Who better to teach kids there’s no mountain so high they can’t climb it? www.cobs.org