Final blog from Ian Helfant ( see also Bev Low's below)

I’ve had a relationship with Outdoor Ed at Colgate ever since I arrived on campus 11 years ago, but this is the first time I’ve ever participated in a Wilderness Adventure trip with incoming first-years and their peer leaders. In this case, their were additional layers of support and mentorship from the superb crew and captain, as well as Matt McDonnell ’06, who was a student in my 19th century Russian literature class a ways back. The experience turned out to be an extraordinary privilege. Dean Bev Low and I were able to witness and participate in the early community building that underlies Colgate’s approach to education. The boat provided an ideal platform (literally and metaphorically) for both the structured instruction and the informal, sometimes random, conversations that helped our group bond closely and meaningfully in an extraordinarily short time. I was able to bring my own passions for teaching (partly through leading a discussion of Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father while we sojourned on Great Misery Island), for sustainability as chair of Colgate’s Environmental Council, and for photography as the trip’s “official” photographer onto the Spirit and found that this environment let me connect with students (and with Bev) in a wonderful variety of ways.

On the boat conversations would begin at 1 in the morning while on night watch, continue and develop the following day, and get shared with other students and crew by the participants amidst the alternating bustle and calm of shipboard life. It was inspiring to see how the boat created layers of mentorship in which the students could see what they might become in 2 or 3 years, as embodied in their WA leaders, paths taken by experiential educators, as embodied in the crew (who were mostly in their mid to late 20s), and could turn to Bev Low and me when they wanted to get yet another perspective on Colgate or the many other topics on their minds. It was a superb experience, and I hope to remain in touch with the participants as they begin their Colgate careers.

IMH