On Feb. 6, First-Year Trips program director Keelia Stevens ’24 and associate director Alec Kong ’23 announced the First-Year Trips 2024 directorate members in an email sent to the Dartmouth community.
“This year’s Directorate is incredibly passionate about putting a lot of thought and work into this program,” Stevens, who previously served as a First-Year Trips outdoor logistics coordinator in 2023, said. “They have so many wonderful ideas and a lot of direct action plans to accomplish them … I’m so excited to see what everyone does.”
Working with Stevens and Kong are Grant Croo captains Charlie Rudge ’25 and Danni Lu ’25, Hanover Croo captains Lindsey Geer ’25 and Namitha Alluri ’25, Lodj Croo captains Isabel Zaltz ’25 and Madeline Wolfe ’25, Sklodj Croo captains Catherine O’Halloran ’25 and Anna Chabica ’25, Oak Hill Croo captain Sasha Usher ’25, Klymbing Croo captain Sophie Lewis ’25, and Vox Croo Captains Daniel Xu ’25 and Allie Nishi ’25. In addition, Ava Razavi ’27 will serve as the inclusivity coordinator, Maisie Pike ’26 will work as the outreach coordinator, Anna St Jean ’25 and Reah Donohue ’26 will be the outdoor logistics coordinators and Francesco Dembinski ’26 will be the risk management coordinator. They will also be supported by sustenance coordinators Armita Mirkarimi ’25 and Chris Middelberg ’27 and Trip Leader trainers Nico Ludkowski ’26, Naya Lunney ’25 and Josh Lee ’26.
According to Stevens, this year’s Directorate will work on expanding Trips options and prioritizing inclusivity.
“We are sticking with the general structure of Trips … but this year, we’re looking at accessibility, expanding Trips options and making our leader body representative of our student body,” Stevens said.
This year’s Trips will also focus on providing more mental health training for volunteers and directorate members.
“Incoming students have a lot of worries on their mind, and there’s a lot that can go wrong on Trips, so we’re focusing on providing physical, emotional and mental health resources for them,” Stevens said.
Hanover Croo captain Geer, who has previously served as the outreach coordinator, said it’s “awesome to set the ground for trippees’ experiences.” According to Geer, the 2024 Directorate has already gotten to work.
“We’re all broken up into groups and working on different task forces to work on different projects for trips and winter term, which isn’t something we’ve done before, so there are definitely changes being made for the better,” Geer said.
Outdoor logistics coordinator Donohue said her experience as a Sklodg Crooling last year motivated her to join the First-Year Trips 2024 Directorate.
“Last year … I was able to see areas that needed improvement … so I was excited to get involved and see my own vision play out,” Donohue said.
Donohue said she is “focused on making this year’s Trips more accessible” and creating Trips that are “campus-based and explore the Upper Valley in a way that’s less academic.” This year, Donohue helped to create several new Trips, such as geocaching, jewelry and poetry and another based on the reality competition show “Survivor.” According to Donohue, these new Trips options are a “fun and exciting way” to engage trippees who are less interested in the outdoors and want to stay on campus.
Trip Leader coordinator Ludkowski said they hope “to improve and streamline trip leader training this year.” Ludkowski is currently working on creating an overnight training trip for Trips leaders to “improve volunteer and participant quality of experience.”
Ludkowski, who previously served as the inclusivity coordinator, said that they felt inspired to join the Directorate by their experience as a Trips leader.
“On my trip, I had some incidents go down, specifically regarding medical training and dealing with tough conversations that I personally felt very prepared for but was concerned that other Trip Leaders may not feel as prepared for,” Ludkowski said.
According to Stevens, First-Year Trips are a “unique chance to bring people together” from all across campus.
“I am always excited to see the little moments where Croolings or Trip Leaders are having a conversation with an incoming student,” Stevens said. “If an incoming student leaves Trips with one person that they can ask questions to or lean on the shoulder of, that is an incredible impact in and of itself.”
