Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips director Maddy Waters ’19 and assistant director Dorothy Qu ’19 announced the 2019 Trips directorate on Friday morning.
There were a total of 46 applications for directorate positions this year, a small increase compared to the 44 applications last year, according to Qu. The 2019 directorate includes outreach coordinators Cris Cano ’20 and Natalie Vaughan ’20 with outdoor logistics coordinators Elliot Ng ’21 and Camille Landon ’21. Shoshana Geller ’20, Jake Klein ’20 and Tyler Work ’20 will serve as this year’s trip leader trainers. The Grant Croo will be led by Katie Bogart ’20 and William Kirby ’20, while Alana Bernys ’20 and Julia Huebner ’20 will lead Hanover Croo. Klymbing Croo will be led by Alaa Nafea ’20, and Benjamin Saccone ’20 will serve as Oak Hill Croo captain. Amanda Bak ’20 will serve as this year’s risk management coordinator and Hanover Vale ’20 and Bella Jacoby ’20 will be this year’s sustainability coordinators. Kellen Appleton ’20 and Daniela Armas ’20 will be focused on safety as Vox Croo captains. The Lodj Croo captains will be Katie Carithers ’20 and Sophie Smith ’20.
Waters said that she and Qu considered a variety of criteria in selecting the 2019 directorate from the pool of applicants. Certain positions on the directorate required applicants to have relevant qualifications such as safety certifications, according to Waters.
Qu and Waters said they also considered the “big picture ideas” that candidates wrote about in their applications.
“We were looking at people’s understanding of [the] Trips program and ideas for improving it,” Waters said. “Then we also looked at their different involvements on campus and the different perspectives that they could bring to the directorate.”
Qu said that the applicant pool this year was both qualified and diverse.
“We had the most qualified people and it just so happened to be a very diverse group that [represented different areas] of campus,” she said. “Everyone is just so thoughtful about their identities, applied their experiences in different ways and thought about how those experiences could improve Trips.”
Waters added that it was important for identities to be considered for certain directorate positions, in order for the Trips program to “reach out to all of campus effectively.”
“It is important to us that our directorate represents a variety of identities and experiences,” she said. “There are positions such as outreach coordinator [for which it is] especially important to not have two people [in the position who] represent very similar identities or areas of campus.”
Qu added that she and Waters read applications from students with varying levels of experience with the DOC.
“We [considered] a good handful of applicants [who] had very limited experience with the Trips program,” she said. “That was really exciting too — to see people wanting to be involved.”
Waters said that one of her goals for the 2019 Trips program is to improve communication and transparency.
“I have a goal of ... demystifying Trips and connecting more with other student groups,” she said. “Obviously, we partner with the DOC and that’s great. But I’d like to see other involvements as well and other doors open for the trippees as ways they can see themselves fitting in at Dartmouth.”
Jacoby is a member of The Dartmouth Senior Staff. Armas and Cano are members of The Dartmouth staff. Huebner and Qu are former members of The Dartmouth staff.
Rachel is a '21 from Plainsboro, NJ and is currently serving as the editor-in-chief of the 177th directorate. She is pursuing a double major in economics and philosophy.
