| |
|
|
|
| |
|||
|
These are among the activities that make up the core of Binghamton Outdoor Pursuits (BOP) courses, open to Binghamton University students, faculty, staff and community members. But unless you graduated after 1992, you may not know that these and courses like them are a regular -- and popular -- part of Binghamton's curriculum. BOP marks 10 years of steady growth Binghamton Outdoor Pursuits has its roots in the Newing Outing Club, dating back to the days when recently retired biology professor Augie Mueller was faculty master for Newing College. Bill Horvath '89, PhD '95, a chemist at Procter & Gamble, traces his involvement in the program back to those days, too: he and Mueller were both mainstays of the club. Donna Lahti, then a faculty member in Physical Education, took the idea of that club and ran with it. With the support of her friends, Mueller and Horvath, she developed the BOP program in 1992. Lahti hired Teresa "Birdie" High as the program's assistant director in 1996 and passed the baton to her when Lahti became director of Health and Physical Education in 1999.
When High came on board, her first chore was to gather all the equipment Mueller had accumulated over the years. With that collection of tents and sleeping bags, and a small budget to buy backpacks, she started the program's equipment rental service. The BOP Rental Center [http://outdoorpursuits.binghamton.edu/rental.html] has grown since then and now offers tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, skis, snowshoes and more. Students, faculty and staff are all eligible to rent this equipment. High also developed the program's credit-bearing classes, something Binghamton is unique in offering. Students are required to complete one wellness credit and one activity credit. Some BOP classes count as either, while some count just as activity credits. One class, Backcountry Medicine, counts for both. Enrollment in BOP courses is generally limited to between 9 and 14 participants, and courses usually fill up quickly, said Zuber. "In fact, we often have to turn people away -- even for winter camping, in February, and for the long trips, such as the Canada canoe trip in August and the Okefenokee canoe trip in March during spring break," he said.
Participants enjoy lasting interests and bonds Many students who take BOP courses are more familiar with dense, urban environments than the great outdoors, noted Zuber -- and a BOP class is their first experience of backpacking, kayaking, mountain biking or fly fishing. "But they're game for the experience," he said. Participants sign up for different reasons. "Seniors sometimes need a credit to graduate," said High. "Freshmen sign up to meet others. But it all ends up being a good mix. Older participants give good peer advice to younger students, really take them under their wings." "Some students sign up in groups and tell us, 'I've wanted to do this for three years,'" said Zuber. High recalled a three-day cross-country skiing trip on the Tug Hill Plateau for which several small groups of friends signed up. At first, she worried that they would remain in cliques and not interact as a group. But she needn't have been concerned. "They all made connections by finding out many of them were friends of friends," she said. The close bonds BOP students form by supporting one another through their shared experience of physically challenging and often exhilarating classes are also lasting bonds. Past participants stay in touch with the instructors and with one another via e-mail, and also through their involvement in the University's Outdoors Club and Friends of the Nature Preserve. Many students develop a lasting interest in the wilderness and wilderness preservation, and go on to join other wilderness groups after graduation.
"We try to give students skills training so they can lead," she added. "These students become more self-directed, and many of them have become leaders for hiking trips for Outdoors Club trips and various other groups." |
|
For more information on BOP staff, go to http://outdoorpursuits.binghamton.edu/staff.htm . |
Backpacking,
fly fishing, kayaking, snowshoeing -- nope, we're not talking Grizzly
Adams' adventure packages here. 
Now,
High coordinates BOP's programming together with Michael Zuber, BOP's
program specialist, instructor for the program's bicycling, canoeing,
winter camping and backpacking courses and rental center manager, and
Michael Cecere, part-time backpacking and hiking instructor.
BOP
particularly attracts students who are environmental studies and biology
majors, a lot of whom have gone on to do internships or volunteer service
in outdoor or environmental programs. For example, Katie Lotterhos
'02, who was the 2002 student commencement speaker for Harpur as well
as a participant in BOP's bicycling and kayaking classes, went to Puerto
Rico with the Outdoors Club over winter break 2001. There, she enjoyed
hiking in the rain forest, snorkeling and volunteering on a project for
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Lotterhos spent this past summer banding
Dungeness crabs in Alaska as an intern with the Student Conservation Association.
Sarah Zablocki '00 of Afton works during the school year at an
environmental education center in California and has spent the last two
summers leading trail crews in Alaska, Oregon and Hawaii. "We get great
postcards in this office!" said High.
BOP's
staff includes several alumni