Significance: Adventure-based programs help develop communication, interpersonal, and group cooperation skills. More physical educators and school counselors are using such programs in their curricula and interventions. This descriptive study examined the relationship between an adventure-based intervention and self-perceptions of at-risk youth. The youth were at-risk for academic failure and/or chronic behavior management challenges. Design: Purposive sampling was used to select 12 participants from one high school. Participants were 12 – 16 years old and in grades 7 – 10. Students participated in seven 6-hr days of adventure-based activities across 5 months. Activities were led by a certified adventure-based coordinator, an adapted physical educator, and a school counseling educator. After each activity, students participated in process groups with the three leaders. Linkages were made between what students discovered about themselves, group actions/interactions, and students’ school behaviors. At the end of each intervention day, participants wrote answers to a journal question about what connection, if any, each saw between the day’s activities and school success. Between intervention days, the students’ school counselor held individual and group sessions with them at school to discuss the adventure-based activities and individual student’s and group successes and challenges. The students’ school counselor also reinforced the linkages between the activities and school behavior. Researchers independently conducted content analysis of the students’ intervention journals. They identified and interpreted units of meaning, or themes, within all of the journals. The independent analyzes were then cross-compared. In addition, data collection and analyses were made of students’ pre-intervention and post-intervention behavior logs and academic records. Results: A primary and a secondary theme were found by both researchers during independent analyses of the journals. Teamwork was the consistent primary theme across most of the participants and across each intervention day. Examples of teamwork included cooperation, listening to someone else’s opinion, and trust. A secondary theme was improved school behavior. Examples of improved school behavior included increased positive social relationships, increased leadership skills, and improved anger management. According to school records, the number of teacher-initiated discipline referrals to the school office decreased across the students. Additionally, across the 5 months of intervention, each student improved academically. There were no other behavioral or academic interventions in place during the five months of this study. Therefore, the participants’ reported perceptions of their improved school behaviors, the decreases in discipline referrals, and the improvements in academic work could be contributed, in part, to the adventure-based intervention protocol. Keyword(s): outdoor ed/recreation, student issues, youth-at-risk