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Alumni Interview: Spencer Butts

Former student Spencer Butts, who did five Adventure Treks trips and is now a freshman at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, shares how his AT experiences have helped shape his life so far. (Spencer will be joining Camp Pinnacle for his first year as a counselor this summer!)

What was your “aha” moment when you realized the impact Adventure Treks has had on your life?

Honestly, my “aha” moment was right after my first trip. The shy, anxious, and angry kid that I was disappeared on that trip. I finally broke out of my shell. I was a whole new person on that trip. When I got back home, I started to go back to my old ways… until it hit me. Why could I not be the same person that I was back on those trails at home? So I stopped caring about what other students thought of me in school and started focusing on the person I wanted to be.

How did AT give you the confidence to step outside your comfort zone?

No matter how confident you are with the outdoors, AT will most definitely push you out of your comfort zone. Whether it’s through all of the amazing activities or being thrown into an entirely new community, something will push you out of your comfort zone. The repeated experiences of meeting entirely new groups of people have certainly helped me with making friends in college. But I think the new experiences of trying all of the crazy cool activities have really made me love not being in my “comfort zone.” In these activities, you have a team supporting you, but you are mostly relying on yourself. This self-reliance has given me the confidence I need to be thrown into new situations. In a way, I am now comfortable with being uncomfortable.

How do you think your AT experience has helped you socially in college?

Adventure Treks has wiped away most of the social anxiety I previously felt with meeting new people. This made it really easy to, you guessed it, meet new people. But in all seriousness, I think Adventure Treks has allowed me to be confident with myself and as long as you have that confidence, you can get to know anybody.

Let’s talk about practical life skills for a minute. In what ways has AT helped you develop independence as a college student?

At Adventure Treks, we were given a lot of time to ourselves to think. Through this free time and support from instructors, I feel that I could look inward and see what I needed to do to improve not only as a community member at AT, but as a person, too. I have held on to this valuable life skill since then and have been applying it to my daily life twenty-four-seven. I have stopped worrying about what others think of me, but rather think of how I view myself. Adventure Treks showed me the importance of being “the best that I can be.” With this thinking, I would like to say I have become a generous and amicable person.

How did AT help you figure out who you are as you entered college?

Adventure Treks helped me figure out who I wanted to be after the first summer session I did. Now at college, I am finally who I want to be. I’m definitely not a rocket scientist, but Adventure Treks has given me the confidence and the drive to work to my own aspirations. For being a freshman in college, I am A-OK with that.

How do you describe your AT experience to your friends in college?

Whenever I talk to my friends about Adventure Treks, I usually start by saying what physical activity I did and where. The response is what you would think: “Why would you ever put yourself through that?… I mean wow, that’s so awesome!” But I always seem to fail to explain what AT really meant to me. Maybe it’s the detail that goes into explaining all of what goes on at Adventure Treks. Or maybe “you had to be there.” All I know is that it usually comes down to something like this: The summers I spent at Adventure Treks were the best summers of my life.

How has AT influenced your chosen major or career path?

Adventure Treks gave me the confidence and independence that I needed to finally take the leap to follow my dreams of being a music major. It took a while until I could say that confidently.

How often do you stay in touch with your Adventure Treks friends?

A lot of my friends actually had a reunion last summer, which sadly I could not attend. But I ended up seeing some friends back in my area, which was really nice. I am also looking forward to working with a bunch of Adventure Treks alumni this upcoming summer at Camp Pinnacle in North Carolina. The friends you make at AT can be for life. Just stay in contact and you never know how or where you might run into them.

What would be your advice to students who are new to AT and nervous about embarking on their first trip?

Try not to have any preconceived notions of what you think it will be like and let yourself be fully immersed in all that is AT. Try to make everyone on the trip feel at home, and you will too!

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Alumni Interview: Amara Cohen

Former student Amara Cohen, now a student at the University of Chicago, shares how her Adventure Treks experiences have helped her thrive in her first year of college.

Amara Cohen Alaska Backpacking Adventure TreksSo, Amara, what was your “aha” moment when you realized the impact Adventure Treks has had on your life?

During the orientation week, I was at a barbecue with a group of kids from my hall that I had never spoken to before. We were sitting on the ground, eating our hamburgers together, engaging in a lively conversation about the various ways to eat corn, and it hit me that I would not have known how to connect with so many new people in a group setting if not for AT.

It’s no secret that AT offers challenges to its students—some challenges mandatory, others optional. The optional challenges were the main contributor to my newfound confidence. I was surrounded by amazing and supportive people, so I was willing to step up and face the challenges. No matter what happened, I knew my friends were there for me, so I knew I had nothing to fear.

How do you think your AT experience has helped you socially in college?

Amara Cohen Alaska Adventure Treks 2Through AT, I got to meet people with diverse backgrounds. I learned how to respect and engage with them, even if I disagreed with their views.

Let’s talk about practical life skills for a minute. In what ways has AT helped you develop independence as a college student?

I suppose the most obvious answer is that it forced me to see what life is like without my parents there to answer everything for me. I had to make my own choices, and I also had to suffer the consequences of those choices (always pack an extra pair of wool socks!).

How did AT help you figure out who you are as you entered college?

AT gave me the opportunity to think about who I was as a person and who I wanted to be. When you’re stuck in the wilderness with a group of 20 teenagers for a month, you see the best and the worst in people, as well as in yourself. I found the parts of me that I liked, and I focused on embodying those ideals as I went into college.

How do you describe your AT experience to your friends in college?

Amara Cohen Alaska Ice Climbing Adventure TreksI tell them that I went to an adventure camp. I usually use the words “amazing” and “intense.” And then I often tell them the story of climbing Mt. Adams, because it makes me sound awesome.

How has AT influenced your chosen major or career path?

I’m still undecided about my major and career, but I learned about a wide variety of career paths during my trips. Sometimes my instructors would tell us amazing stories from various jobs they’ve had, and other times we would meet someone while hiking and get to hear about their life. These stories served as a reminder that there are so many careers that I had never heard of, so I don’t need to worry if I haven’t found the perfect job yet.

How often do you stay in touch with your Adventure Treks friends?

In general, I’m not very good at staying in contact with people. It’s therefore rather impressive that I’ve managed to stay in touch with my Adventure Treks friends. We actually meet about twice a year to catch up. It’s so nice having someone to reminisce with about all the adventures we went on.

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Alumni Trip Report: A Reunion in Yosemite!

By Harper Swing, currently a freshman at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Leadership Summit 2016, Alaska 1a 2015, California Challenge 3 2014, British Columbia 2 2013, California Adventure 2012

I always had a hard time leaving an Adventure Treks trip. Every summer, when I would step off the plane, back in my home state, I felt a little sad that I couldn’t just turn around, hop back on, and head back to the west coast and do it all over again. The last few days of Leadership Summit was especially sad because I’ve never had that much fun in my entire life. The thought of ending my AT career was scary, mainly because I didn’t quite know how a summer was supposed to be spent if it wasn’t in a tent. Luckily for me, my Leadership friends felt the same way, and we’d talked about having a reunion before our final few days.

At first, it was hypothetical. It was not something we actually planned to follow through with, but once summer ended and college applications rolled around, we began to realize that maybe we could actually pull it off. Three group video chats, two text group messages, and one massive Google doc later, we finally had a plan. The basics were simple: We’d wanted to go to Yosemite National Park since the beginning, and we wanted as many people as possible to join. Once that was settled, we moved on to the more complicated planning, and it was a group effort in all aspects! Little by little, we hammered out more details: official dates, who could make it, meal plans, permits, and gear. In the end, we settled on a five-day backpack in Yosemite, followed by a Half Dome summit and a four-day trip to Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. It didn’t seem real until it actually happened, but eventually summer came, and exactly half of our 2016 Leadership Summit crew was standing in the San Francisco airport, ready to go.

While it was strange to have an airport day that didn’t include pizza in the park, we were all up for the adventure, and we began our trip prep right away. After doing a Costco shop, gear run, and the ultimate game of “Show me what you got,” we were off. At first it was weird to grasp that it was just us, and that we were in charge of everything. This definitely led to some indecisiveness (and 20-minute conversations about what we wanted for dinner that night), but we got over it quickly enough and had a smooth rest of the trip.

Ever since my California Challenge trip, I’ve loved the California backcountry, and Yosemite was no disappointment. Because we were such a large group, the trail we were given was pretty secluded, and it took us up and out of the valley and into the greater Yosemite wilderness area. I don’t think I’d ever had that much fun in my life: the views were amazing, we came upon incredible camping spots, and we had a perfect view of the stars every night. However, the backpack was not without its challenges, one of the biggest being illness. But we were able to work through them rationally with little to no road bumps or arguments, something that probably wouldn’t have been possible without our previous experience with Adventure Treks. While it was not the smoothest backpack I’ve ever been on, it was one of the best, and I think we all became much more confidant in our backcountry abilities. After we came out of the backpack, we went straight into our next adventure: a summit attempt of Half Dome requiring an alpine start of 2:30 a.m., and a seven-hour trek to the top. It was a challenging hike, but finally reaching the top was surreal: the views were even better than what we’d seen even in the past several days, and the sense of accomplishment in knowing that we were able to pull it off completely on our own was even more so fulfilling. And to top it off, I got to share the experience with some of my best friends.

After the Yosemite leg of our trip (and a post-summit In-n-Out stop) we were able to spend a few days relaxing and exploring Sequoia National Park. We hadn’t given ourselves a structured schedule, so it was hard for nine people to reach consensus when there was just so much to do, but we were able to spend our time finding the best views and swimming holes could. Eventually, we had to go back to our “base” in Menlo Park, and we spent the last few days touring San Francisco with a final cookout on the beach.

In the end, I was just as sad to leave this adventure as I had been to leave my previous AT trips, and once again I found myself in the Charlotte airport wishing I could go back. But I was so, so, grateful for the experience. The trip put five years of Adventure Treks knowledge to use by allowing me the opportunity to plan my own experience while make the most of it, all while testing my limits and leadership skills in the backcountry. And looking back, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect experience to kick of my college years, and I really couldn’t have asked for better people to do it with.

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Adventure Treks Students Reflect on Their Experience from College

On the Summit!

“I learned resilience, both of body and mind. If my feet were wet for days, I would live. If I was thigh-deep in mud, I would manage. If I had to hike 17 miles in one day with a 40-pound backpack, I could do it. My experiences endowed me with a sense of self-reliance, and realizing I could survive in harsh conditions gave me confidence in my coping abilities. Each summer, as I stood atop a new peak, I felt increasingly prepared for the difficulties of life – or at least adolescence.”

The quote above is extracted from Simone D’Luna’s College Essay to Dartmouth. Simone is not alone; virtually every A.T. student uses their Adventure Treks experience as the basis for their college essay. It seems to work! It’s another banner year of college acceptances: two Morehead – Cain Scholarships (out of a total of 61), three students off to Dartmouth, and then there is Princeton, Yale, Stanford and the list goes on. Far more important than the “Star Power” of the school, however, is finding the right match. Many of our students look for a college that will enable them to spend time outdoors. We are big fans of that!

Though it’s not our intent, we could make the case that Adventure Treks has a stronger college placement record than virtually any prep school. And we will argue that while academics are extremely important for success in college and beyond, colleges are more impressed with character. In her essay, Simone goes on to share some personal challenges and concludes “when things were at their worst at home, I remembered I was the girl who had climbed Mt. Shasta and found new strength to continue… Over time, the problems in my life resolved themselves, but not before I had the satisfaction of knowing my own mental strength had triumphed over the strain they caused me. Maybe someday I’ll need to climb Mt. Everest. If I do, I’ll be prepared.”

Far more important than getting into college is the ability to thrive in college. Currently, only 46% of US College students actually get a degree. The rest drop out. This puts the US in 18th place below Slovakia.

While we are not advocating that one should choose Adventure Treks as a resume builder for college, we know colleges are alarmed at the dropout rate and are looking to accept students with the character to graduate. We don’t think there is a more fun way to build resilience, develop character or improve your communication skills than an Adventure Treks summer.

Recently, I talked with several of our former A.T. students (currently freshman or sophomores at college) about their college experiences to learn how their time at A.T. prepared them for success during college. Below are some responses:

“A.T. was a huge help in college – many of my college friends had never really been far away from home before. With A.T., I had already traveled on my own. I learned to open up to others, and to trust them, this made it easy to make friends at college.” —Kate, Vassar College

“A.T. did a phenomenal job preparing me for the transition to college. I had the ability to adapt to new and changing situations. I knew how to meet people and how to work with different kinds of people. I have seen many of my friends struggle with the transition, but it’s been easy for me.” —Christopher, University of Richmond

“A.T. made me more comfortable in my skin so when I got to college I didn’t have to try and be anybody but myself – It was refreshing and empowering.” —Max, Stanford University

“At Adventure Treks you learn how to help out and look out for others, how to thrive when things aren’t easy and to see a bigger picture beyond yourself. AT gave me the confidence to lead a school organization my freshman year and it means I am always the one doing more than my share in our apartment and in project groups.” —Jake, Ohio State University

“College was easy because I already had great experience joining groups of people. I knew how to work and live in a community so dorm life was simple. I watch many of my non A.T. friends struggle with this and find myself wishing that others had the consideration and thoughtfulness that AT kids have.” —Rachelle, University of Florida

“Actually A.T. seems a lot more helpful than college. I better learned how to interact with different people at A.T. than college. At Adventure Treks there are real day to day consequences from your actions – the consequences are small but they are real – like not eating dinner or sleeping wet if your tent isn’t put up correctly. It helps you make sure you get things right.”
—Sierra, University of Puget Sound

“A.T. built my confidence and got me out of my shell. I learned that people liked me for who I was so when I went to college, I didn’t try to be anybody other than myself. I learned how to be a strong member of a community and was able to apply that to my college communities. I learned to thrive without electronics and don’t get sucked into the video games and partying that many of my peers play.” —Sam, Iowa State University

It was refreshing to check up on our recent students and affirm that the skills learned through their Adventure Treks experiences help set them up for future success. There is a reason the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Organization emphasizes the skills students learn at Adventure Treks over subjects taught in traditional schools. Our goal is to enhance character and have a lifelong impact. And by the way, Adventure Treks happens to be an incredible amount of fun!

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