Our History
2000
The Beginnings
In the early 2000s, outdoor education was relatively unknown in Hong Kong, China and the region. At the time, Dragonfly’s founder, Will Huetinck, was an international school teacher, with prior experience leading mountain trekking in Nepal. He began designing and organizing week-long programs for his school and saw first-hand how transformational the experience was for his students.
Discovering a lack of experiential outdoor education on offer regionally, Will developed and led another trip for his school to Yangshuo, China, back when it was still an unexplored village town with very few visitors. The program integrated adventure activities, cultural awareness and meaningful community service, becoming a roadmap for bigger things to come.
2005
Growing Roots
In the early 2000s, outdoor education was relatively unknown in Hong Kong, China and the region. At the time, Dragonfly’s founder, Will Huetinck, was an international school teacher, with prior experience leading mountain trekking in Nepal. He began designing and organizing week-long programs for his school and saw first-hand how transformational the experience was for his students.
Discovering a lack of experiential outdoor education on offer regionally, Will developed and led another trip for his school to Yangshuo, China, back when it was still an unexplored village town with very few visitors. The program integrated adventure activities, cultural awareness and meaningful community service, becoming a roadmap for bigger things to come.
2010
Innovation and Focus
At Dragonfly, we have always believed in striving for continuous improvement and giving our customers more options. Throughout the years, we have maintained a strong educational focus, but we wanted a more targeted approach to personal development. It was at this time that we began aligning the development of specific life skills with each activity and incorporated the key learning process of reflection into every program. These additions to our programs fit well with school’s social and emotional learning objectives.
Dragonfly’s track record of success led to the company creating immersive Mandarin programs in China, and expanding to other countries, beginning in Malaysia and later branching into Nepal and Indonesia.
2015
Pushing Boundaries
Our deep love of nature and thirst for new challenges led Dragonfly to Hokkaido, to lead our first Japanese program. Anyone who loves snow sports knows that Hokkaido has some of the best conditions in the world for skiing and snowboarding, however it offers much more than that. The island boasts incredible scenery – mountains, volcanoes, rivers, lakes, an amazing coastline – and enjoys four distinct seasons, making it the perfect backdrop for outdoor learning. As is the case with other Dragonfly programs, we developed authentic cultural activities at a grassroots level, and engaged students in local service projects. Since 2015, we have expanded to other locations in Japan.
2020
Course Progressions
With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, we re-focused on training and improving our services. We began creating progressive through-school programs for students aged 7 to 18. Taking into consideration each school’s needs, we can tailor a comprehensive outdoor education course with specific activities, locations, challenge levels, and life skills to best fit each age group. Our mission is to allow students to progress with us as they get older, creating opportunities for them to follow their passions and make a positive impact on others.
