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| Chart of Willapa Bay where we paddled |
College Outdoors is, in my opinion, one of the coolest organizations/extracurriculars on campus and I highly suggest getting involved with CO. This weekend I went on a college outdoors student coordinator training trip to kayak in Willapa Bay. I had a great time and learned a lot, and I'm planning on becoming a student coordinator.
If you don't know that much about college outdoors, it is an organization on campus that organizes outdoor trips (day trips and overnights) throughout the school year. They also organize the New Student Trips (NSTs) at the beginning of each year. CO trains and employs students as trip leaders. They also organize Wilderness First Responder trainings, have weekly skill workshops, and rent out gear to students.
The kayaking trip that I went on this weekend is part of being trained to be a trip leader in the future. CO has a leadership ladder where you work your way up from participants to student coordinator to assistant leader to trip leader. To work your way up this chain you have to complete a number of requirements such as getting certified to drive CO vehicles, and trained to drive with trailers. It's also recommended that you go to the weekly college outdoors "Open Houses" where you learn various camping and outdoors skills and you also learn about all the processes and procedures that CO uses. To be an assistant leader or trip leader you have to be WFR certified, and CO offers courses for that every winter break and right after school lets out in the summer.
Right now I'm attending open houses and I'm planning on getting driver certified so that I can help student coordinate next spring. The kayaking trip that I went on this weekend was a training trip for people who signed up to help lead kayaking or water-related trips. I had an amazing time this weekend. It was a small group of people and we were all super interested in learning as much as we could about how to be student coordinators and all of the kayaking skills we could. We got to stay in cabins with running water and hot showers which was a nice treat after a chilly day. We did a lot of goal setting on the trip and helped eachother work towards those goals. I wanted to improve my turning when paddling and I learned a lot of new ways to do that so I'm excited to keep practicing the new skills I have. The other great part about CO trips is I also met a lot of new people and got to spend a lot of time getting to know them so I'm also excited about seeing them around campus and saying hi, or meeting up with them for dinner or lunch.
If you love the outdoors I highly suggest checking out college outdoors and thinking about how it could fit into your college experience. I personally know that CO is a really great part of my experience in college.
If you don't know that much about college outdoors, it is an organization on campus that organizes outdoor trips (day trips and overnights) throughout the school year. They also organize the New Student Trips (NSTs) at the beginning of each year. CO trains and employs students as trip leaders. They also organize Wilderness First Responder trainings, have weekly skill workshops, and rent out gear to students.
The kayaking trip that I went on this weekend is part of being trained to be a trip leader in the future. CO has a leadership ladder where you work your way up from participants to student coordinator to assistant leader to trip leader. To work your way up this chain you have to complete a number of requirements such as getting certified to drive CO vehicles, and trained to drive with trailers. It's also recommended that you go to the weekly college outdoors "Open Houses" where you learn various camping and outdoors skills and you also learn about all the processes and procedures that CO uses. To be an assistant leader or trip leader you have to be WFR certified, and CO offers courses for that every winter break and right after school lets out in the summer.
Right now I'm attending open houses and I'm planning on getting driver certified so that I can help student coordinate next spring. The kayaking trip that I went on this weekend was a training trip for people who signed up to help lead kayaking or water-related trips. I had an amazing time this weekend. It was a small group of people and we were all super interested in learning as much as we could about how to be student coordinators and all of the kayaking skills we could. We got to stay in cabins with running water and hot showers which was a nice treat after a chilly day. We did a lot of goal setting on the trip and helped eachother work towards those goals. I wanted to improve my turning when paddling and I learned a lot of new ways to do that so I'm excited to keep practicing the new skills I have. The other great part about CO trips is I also met a lot of new people and got to spend a lot of time getting to know them so I'm also excited about seeing them around campus and saying hi, or meeting up with them for dinner or lunch.
If you love the outdoors I highly suggest checking out college outdoors and thinking about how it could fit into your college experience. I personally know that CO is a really great part of my experience in college.