With hopeful prospective ’23s having just submitted their applications to the College, planning for the Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips program for 2019 is well underway. Trips director Maddy Waters ’19 and assistant director Dorothy Qu ’19 have been joined by a directorate of 10 Croo Captains and 10 Coordinators.
The group includes Camille Landon ’21 and Elliot Ng ’21, who will both serve as outdoor logistics coordinators. Cris Cano ’20 and Natalie Vaughan ’20 will be this year’s outreach coordinators, while Amanda Bak ’20 will serve as risk management coordinator, and Bella Jacoby ’20 and Hanover Vale ’20 will be the sustainability coordinators. Three students — Shoshana Geller ’20, Jake Klein ’20 and Tyler Work ’20 — will be tasked with training this year’s trip leaders. Heading Grant Croo will be Katie Bogart ’20 and William Kirby ’20, while Alana Bernys ’20 and Julia Huebner ’20 will lead Hanover Croo. Alaa Nafea ’20 will direct the Klymbing Croo and Ben Saccone ’20 will serve as Oak Hill Croo captain. Tasked with ensuring safety and general logistics, Kellen Appleton ’20 and Daniela Armas ’20 will be Vox Croo captains. The students in charge of first-year students’ final days of Trips at Moosilauke Lodge will be Lodj Croo captains Katie Carithers ’20 and Sophie Smith ’20.
In choosing a directorate, Waters said she was looking for general characteristics — such as goals and ideas to improve trips — as well as position-specific characteristics.
“We were looking at a lot of different things,” she said. “From their personal goals and ideas for their specific position, to how they would work within the directorate [as] a whole, to specific experiences they had on Trips or in life.”
For position-specific criteria, Waters said she wanted to make sure that candidates were qualified to handle any situation that might arise in their role.
“For example, we wanted to know [that] our Vox [Croo] captains would be equipped and prepared to manage an emergency situation,” Waters said. “There was a lot of different things we took into consideration and it varied some by position, but I’m very proud of the team we’ve put together.”
Work, who volunteered as a trip leader after her freshman and sophomore years, said she applied to be on the Trips directorate because she fell in love with the program as an incoming student.
“I [remember] arriving at the lodge ... and then the lights came on and all of Lodj Croo started dancing and singing,” Work said. “Just seeing how many upperclassmen were there welcoming the freshmen in and how much energy and time they put into [Trips] really made me feel like I made the right choice coming to Dartmouth.”
Work said she is most excited about welcoming the incoming ’23s and working with the other members of the directorate.
“[My goals are] improving inclusivity, making sure trippees have a safe time, that they feel challenged but at the same time they feel within their comfort levels, and trying to set the tone for what Dartmouth is,” Work said.
Geller said she is also excited about improving inclusivity on Trips.
Waters, Geller and Work emphasized that mental health-specific training will be a focus for Trips 2019.
“I think something that we’ve been talking about is finding more ways to incorporate mental health trainings and making trips more sensitive and accessible. ... We’ve been talking about ways to incorporate that with our trainings already, so that it’s not just that one hour, but it’s something that we’re thinking about more and more often in all of our decisions,” Geller said.
Waters added that the directorate is looking to increase awareness of mental health on trips in general, not just in trip leader training.
Currently, the directorate is working on finalizing dates, after which they will schedule specific trips. In the coming weeks, volunteer applications for trip-leaders and croolings will be sent to campus. The directorate will shift into volunteer selection and training after spring break, according to Waters.
“I’ve spent personally two months being excited about Trips and dreaming up big ideas and so on,” Water said. “Now we have a directorate and they all have their own ideas ... and I can’t wait to see what comes out of it. It’s a really awesome, hardworking team of people.”
One of the directorate’s focuses for Trips 2019 is sustainability — a topic Waters said is a part of the program’s broader goal to give incoming students skills to be successful at Dartmouth.
“Last year we had sustainability trainings that were really popular and we’ve heard really great feedback on those,” Waters said.
She added that another broad goal for the directorate is to ensure that incoming students have a good experience during Trips.
“I think at the end of the day, we want to give as positive an experience as possible to as many trippees as possible,” Waters said. “That is everything from being transparent and honest and genuine about what it is they’re entering into, like Dartmouth as a space, and volunteers being honest and open about their own experiences here.”
Waters noted that she wants to include more campus groups in the Trips program.
“I’m excited personally to reach out to more parts of campus in these planning stages, and [have] Trips be less of its [own] sort of ... island,” Waters said. “We’ve enjoyed really great collaborative relationships with the DOC for our entire existence, and it would be great to get similar kinds of involvement across campus — whether that’s with the orientation team or the Office of Pluralism and Leadership fellows or the student mental health union. We’re really excited about incorporating ideas and perspectives from all over campus.”
Jacoby is a member of The Dartmouth Senior Staff. Armas and Cano are members of The Dartmouth staff. Huebner and Qu are former members of The Dartmouth staff.
