Summits & Horizons 2025: Teens Shaping Their Future Outdoors

Featuring Dr. Carolyn Finney and Adventure Crew youth leaders

This October 30th, our community will gather for our annual signature event, Summits & Horizons—an evening that celebrates Adventure Crew’s growth and the powerful ways our teens are shaping their futures in the outdoors. This year feels especially significant. Our Crew Pathways programs continue to expand, with more opportunities for exploration, immersive learning in conservation and leadership. Our teens are not only gaining skills; they are finding their voices, sharing their stories and defining what belonging in nature means to them.

For this year’s event, we are honored to welcome Dr. Carolyn Finney as our keynote speaker. Dr. Finney is a cultural geographer, storyteller and scholar whose groundbreaking book Black Faces, White Spaces confronts the long history of exclusion in outdoor spaces. Her work raises a crucial question: Whose stories do we tell about the outdoors, and whose voices have been missing? She challenges us to see the outdoors not as neutral ground, but as a place where representation, equity and belonging must be claimed and nurtured.

Her challenge is one we embrace at Adventure Crew. We advance that vision by ensuring Crew teens see themselves as leaders and a vital part of the outdoor story. In Adventure Crew, young people are not only climbing mountains or paddling rivers—they are learning to navigate challenges, build confidence and speak up about their experiences. Through our new Youth Leadership Team, teens are taking the mic, shaping programs, conducting research among their peers, and imagining a future where the outdoors reflects their stories, cultures and dreams. Their voices remind us that nature is not only a place of adventure, but a space to write new narratives of justice, well-being and possibility.

At Summits & Horizons, once again held at the historic Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine, you’ll hear directly from these youth leaders alongside Dr. Finney. And thanks to our partners at Downbound Books, Black Faces, White Spaces will be available for purchase. Those who choose the Speaker Social ticket will receive early entry, a book and the chance to connect with Dr. Finney during a special pre-event gathering.

Many thanks to our Speaker Sponsor, Duke Energy, and Outdoor Equity Sponsor, James Crosset, for their support. Additional sponsorships are also available at a variety of levels, and can even be purchased directly through our ticketing page. For more details, feel free to contact me at libby@adventurecrew.org. 

However you join us, this gathering is about amplifying stories of hope, belonging and change. I invite you to be inspired by Dr. Finney, moved by our youth leaders and reminded of what is possible when we commit to true equity in the outdoors. Get your tickets today!

– Libby Hunter, Executive Director