Trips to Alaska and Italy give ORM students hands-on experience and global perspectives
The program took a group of students to Alaska over spring break and Italy following CommencementFrom New Zealand to Belize, Colorado to the Bahamas, each year students in the Outdoor Recreation Management (ORM) program travel around the world to gain a more robust understanding of their field and the way their Lees-91探花 education will transfer to outdoor recreation settings of all kinds.
This investment in experiential learning continued for the Spring 2025 semester with two all-new international excursions to Alaska in March and Italy in May. While the trips focused on ORM concepts and skills, students from all programs were invited to participate in these once-in-a-lifetime educational experiences. Senior Rebecca Ryan is a Psychology major who added a minor in ORM ahead of her final year, in part due to the trip she took with the program to Alaska and the new career opportunities it opened for her.
“The trip was really focused on the outdoor recreation and management part, and then I took away the psychology part; the bonds and overcoming fears. That opened up a pathway to outdoor therapy and outdoor psychology for me,” Ryan said. “I don’t want to be the one belaying, even though I took a class and I know how to. Instead, I would focus on the emotional aspect, and that’s what I really liked and took away from Alaska and what I want to do going forward.”
While these trips are focused on applying in-class lessons from the ORM program, incorporating cultural understandings and practices are another major priority. In Alaska, Ryan said that these two aspects converged in a particularly fascinating way. The majority of the weeklong trip was spent in Anchorage, the state’s largest city and a hub of both Alaskan culture and outdoor recreation.
In addition to some of the more common winter recreational activities like cross-country skiing, students also received hands-on experience dog sledding, ice fishing, and snow machining.
“It was a big part of our class structure to learn why it’s important not just to recreate at a place, but to actually know the background of the place. I think that’s important because it connects people. Instead of just doing the activity for the fun of it you learn the history of it, how it supports the people that do it every single day,” Ryan said.
This focus on cultural traditions and experiences also helped shape the program’s trip to Italy later in the academic year. Throughout the three-week trip students hiked, biked, rock climbed, rowed, and ate across the country, learning about history, wildlife, and food along the way. Lilly Anthony, a junior double-majoring in ORM and Wilderness Medicine and Rescue, said she has always been drawn to the food and culture of Italy, and jumped at the opportunity to gain a more global understanding of her field in a place she has always been interested in exploring.
“This trip was a great example of the way that tourism and outdoor guiding services impact towns and how we can be a part of creating something like that with the skills we have once we graduate,” Anthony said. “Italy was a great venue because we were able to experience so many different guiding and tourism services from biking tours to historic walking tours. Seeing towns thrive from their outdoor economy was really eye opening.”
The trip featured a food-focused bicycle tour in Parma, lessons in gondola rowing in Venice, hiking along the historical Via Francigena pilgrimage route, and rock climbing in the Dolomites—experiences that gave Wildlife Biology major Bill Griffin ’25 plenty of opportunities to observe the Italian wildlife.
A cycling tour with Food Valley Bike took the group to cultural food destinations throughout the Ciclovia Della Food Valley. One stop was as a Parmigiano Reggiano factory.
Via Francigena is a more than 1,000 mile route that stretches from Canterbury, England to Rome, Italy. The ancient route takes hikers along some of Europe’s oldest paths.
With the city’s extensive network of canals, boats are perhaps the most vital form of transportation in Venice. Gondolas are the most iconic of these, representing the ancient city’s history and culture, as well as serving as a fun and scenic way to get around the city.
“As a biology student, I thought some of the animals we saw were really cool; the plants and trees that we don’t have,” he said. “We saw all these huge lizards that are way bigger than the lizards we have, birds that we don’t have. One day we went and toured this facility that housed a bunch of fish that were in the Po River and got to learn and see the biology of the Po River. There actually was a lot for a biology student to take in.”
Regardless of whether Lees-91探花 students are on top of an Italian mountain, or deep within an Alaskan glacier, the advanced skills and global perspectives they gain through these hands-on experiences are vital to their time in the ORM program and enrich their Bobcat journeys more broadly. While these experiences are once-in-a-lifetime, the lessons, relationships, and self-confidence they gain by exploring the world and facing new challenges head-on will leave a lasting impression.
