Decked out in flair and dancing the Salty Dog Rag, the 2013 Dartmouth Outing Club First-Year Trips directorate will concentrate on building a community of conscientious and empowered students while welcoming the Class of 2017.
The directorate, announced on Friday, will be led by director Chris O'Connell '13 and assistant director Anneliesse Duncan '13.
O'Connell plans to harness the momentum of past trips directorates to create a more thoughtful and inclusive environment for the incoming class.
"Trips is 77 years old, and every year there are a lot of things that remain the same and much that changes and evolves," he said. "I'm excited to take the next few steps."
O'Connell aims to make Trips a way for incoming freshman to develop a "whole network of students" that they can turn to during their time at the College.
"Ideally, they will walk away from this experience knowing that there's no singular path at Dartmouth and there are an infinite number of ways to be a Dartmouth student," O'Connell said.
Duncan hopes that students will learn to embrace Dartmouth as their home and accept accountability as members of a community through Trips.
Every member of the directorate, from the Grant Croo chief to the sustainability coordinator, has a role in immersing new students in the campus culture, Duncan said.
Alan Keegan '14, one of two H-Croo chiefs, hopes to increase interaction between new students and upperclassmen as integrate trips with freshman orientation. While students may have previously viewed Trips as a single experience and orientation as an entirely new one, Keegan aims to make them contiguous.
The Vox Croo which typically focuses on responding to calls and providing medical attention to injured or sick trips participants plans on executing "raids" and surprising trip groups with snacks, games or simply a friendly hello, according to Vox Croo co-chief Mackenzie Bronson '14.
"I would like to focus on creating more interactions between Vox Croo members and trippees," Bronson said. "Rather than putting on a show and then leaving, I would like to focus on interacting with and getting to know new students during our raids."
This year, the Mountain Biking Croo chief position has been added to ensure the safety of biking trip participants, according to David Clemens-Sewall '14, who will fill the position.
"The new Croo will be providing as safe an environment as we can for incoming students to experience mountain biking in," Clemens-Sewall said. "We also want to welcome new students and make them comfortable with a new activity and community."
Outreach coordinator Bobby Esnard '14 is excited to start outlining a plan to ensure that Trips will focus on welcoming all new students and will encourage students to be active participants rather than just attendees.
"I want to make sure that Trips is thoughtful about diversity and inclusion," Esnard said in an email. "It is not enough to make sure that everyone is invited to the party, we must make sure that everyone is asked to dance."
Robin Costello '13, Alex Wolf '14 and Annie Laurie Mauhs-Pugh '14 will serve as trip leader trainers. Sam Parker '15 will take on the role of sustainability coordinator and Brett Teplitz '15 will be the safety master. Zack Cutler '14 will lead Grant Croo and Jay Dumanian '14 will lead Climbing Croo.
The Connection Croo chiefs are Brian McGahie '15 and Adria Brown '15. H-Croo will be led by Keegan and Gerben Scherpbier '14, and Vox Croo will be headed by Bronson and Ross Brown '14. Eric Waskowicz '14 and Kara Hedges '14 will lead Lodj Croo.
