This year, 282 students from a pool of over 600 applicants will lead Dartmouth Outing Club first-year trips, and 64 students from about 200 applicants were selected to be on Croos, program director Gerben Scherpbier ’14 said.
Last year, 284 trip leaders and 54 Croo members were selected from the pools of 707 and 249 applicants, respectively, former Trips director Chris O’Connell ’13 said in an email. Applicants can apply to both positions.
This year’s directorate introduced an additional hiking trip and several cultural changes to the program.
Croo members, who previously were required to attend trip leader trainings, can instead complete the Diversity Peer Leadership Program, a daylong workshop through the Office of Pluralism and Leadership that focuses on personal biases and privileges, Scherphier said.
“This program focuses on how we can be conscious about the way we interact,” he said.
Training for trip leaders, which consists of three three-hour sessions focusing on risk management, wilderness skills and community building, is still mandatory, trip leader trainer Sam Parker ’15 said.
This year’s trip leader and Croo selection process placed greater emphasis on outreach and diversity, seeking to better represent students from all parts of campus, Scherpbier said.
The applications included a short-answer question asking how the applicant would contribute to the diversity of the program.
Another change this year is a shift in title — Croo leaders will be called “captains” instead of “chiefs” — after trip leaders, participants and Croo members expressed discomfort with the word’s cultural connotations, Scherpbier said in an email.
Trip leader applications, which included 11 questions covering topics like outdoor and leadership experience and personal challenges, are read without looking at applicants’ names to keep the process as objective as possible, Parker said.
The director and three trip leader trainers select trip leaders, and Croo members are chosen by the Croo captains, who were selected over winter break. This year, students could apply to lead Croos even if they had not participated in that Croo in the past, Scherpbier said in an email.
The applications were read four times for Croo members and twice for trip leaders, Scherpbier said.
Due to a computer error Wednesday morning, some applicants learned early of their selection.
Jane Lindahl ’17 learned she would lead a trip after checking the application page during her chemistry 6 class. She said her positive experiences as a summer camp counselor and her own participation in Trips as an incoming student convinced her to apply.
Being a trip leader is an opportunity to act as a role model, leader Jimmy Boldt ’15 said. Boldt said that some of his strongest and most rewarding relationships at Dartmouth were formed during Trips his freshman year, causing him to apply to be a leader.
The article has been revised to reflect the following corrections:
Corrections appended: April 24, 2014
The initial version of this article misstated the number of trip leaders selected last year. It was 284, not 259. An earlier version of this article also mistakenly implied that the change in Croo leader title from "chief" to "captain" applied exclusively toCroos working in the Second College Grant. In fact, the change applies to all Croos.
