Member Spotlight: Dimitry

I lead Hero’s Compass, an adventure-based program supporting Ukrainian veterans, service members, and their families. My day-to-day work includes developing the program, leading the team, building partnerships, working with facilitators and veteran mentors, measuring our results, and adapting the program to the real needs of participants. I also represent Hero’s Compass in Ukraine and internationally.

I did not come to experiential education through a traditional academic path. I came to it through my work with Ukrainian veterans. I saw that people often do not need another lecture or someone telling them how to feel. They need a safe space, a meaningful challenge, a trusted team, and time to reflect on what happened. I realized this was the work I wanted to do when I saw veterans who were silent and disconnected at the beginning of a program start trusting others, taking on challenges, and thinking about their next steps in life.

My go-to facilitation tool is a good icebreaking question. I use people’s answers to continue the conversation, ask follow-up questions, find common ground, and begin building trust within the group.

I have also developed a deck of facilitation cards for the Hero’s Compass program, which our team is now actively testing. For me, an icebreaker is not just a warm-up. It is the first step toward real connection.

I became involved with AEE in 2025. My first AEE Conference was in Pittsburgh in November 2025, where I presented Hero’s Compass and shared how we use adventure-based program to support veterans during the war in Ukraine. That conference showed me that there was an international professional community behind many of the principles we were already using in our work. In 2026, I was invited to return as an ActivatEE speaker at the AEE Conference in Colorado, and to present a workshop.

AEE gave me a professional community and a clearer language for the work we were already building in Ukraine. It is one of the few places where I do not need to explain why trust, challenge, choice, and reflection matter. Being part of AEE also means that we are not developing Hero’s Compass alone. We can learn from decades of international experience while also bringing Ukrainian experience and knowledge into the global community.

Do not confuse a strong activity with a strong program.

Start with trust. Give people a real choice. Observe carefully and leave enough time for reflection. A challenge without trust can become only stress, and an activity without reflection can remain only an activity.

I am excited that experiential education is becoming more connected with mental health, leadership, recovery, and community building. I am especially interested in how it can be adapted responsibly for veterans, people affected by war, and communities living under constant pressure. I also want Ukraine to contribute its experience and evidence to the international field, not only receive knowledge from others.

Recently, the BRAVE approach and its T4 Empowerment framework, introduced to our team by Joe Brazzle have shaped my work the most. This framework helped us see every activity as part of an intentional journey rather than a collection of good experiences. It keeps bringing us back to the same question: what should this experience help the participant do next?

I also serve as an officer in the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, working in moral and psychological support.

Hero’s Compass has already supported more than 500 Ukrainian veterans. We are building it not as a one-time retreat, but as a longer journey that combines an eight-day experiential program with ten weeks of follow-up support. 

Working during a full-scale war keeps our approach very practical: everything we develop must be safe, useful, and possible in real Ukrainian conditions.

Find Dimitry here: +38 050-444-7152 (Signal);  email: d.terpylo@dtcare.org;  Instagram ; LinkedIn ; Facebook