Students which are not allowed to participate in traditional physical education classes because of prior behavior problems are often provided with alternative physical education experiences. The needs of these students can be very different than traditional students, hence the need to examine different approaches and their effects. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adventure education programming on the locus of control of at-risk students enrolled in an alternate education program. A repeated measures design was used to administer the Nowicki-Strickland locus of control survey to a sample of twenty-one middle school and high school students, ages twelve to seventeen enrolled in an Alternative Education Center. The group received ten days of instruction in adventure education and team-building. The students in the study were required to write an open ended journal entry after every physical education class. The results indicated that during the course of the adventure unit, the locus of control both internally and externally increased significantly (p=.001). The results seem to support the use of adventure education with at-risk youth if improved locus of control is the objective of the program. High school students had improved results as the adventure unit continued, and adventure education had no influence on the middle school students. Overall, there was a significant difference in the high school students between pretest and posttest (p = .001). The journal entries were qualitatively analyzed and an analysis was conducted on the positive and negative statements in the journal entries. There was also a significant difference in the total number of positive and negative words in the pretest (Days 1-5), and the posttest (Days 6-10) (p = .01). There was no significant difference between positive and negative words for the middle school students from the pretest (Days 1-5) and the posttest (Days 6-10) (p = .736).When youth, such as the subjects in this study, encounter powerlessness, the individuals can feel in a movement situation they have no control because others will not take the time to listen and understand where they are coming from. If programming addresses this phenomenon, the individuals may be more likely to have more self-esteem, self-control, and have a sense of belonging, as a result of being treated as an equal to all others around. Keyword(s): alternative programming, outdoor ed/recreation, youth-at-risk