Over spring break, Dartmouth students traveled far and wide on student-led outdoors trips and College-sponsored academic experiences.
Rachel Glantzberg ’28, who went on the Dickey Center for International Understanding’s Global Health Fellows trip to Peru, said her experience was “spectacular” and “otherworldly.”
“Machu Picchu was incredible, just so amazing to see,” Glantzberg said.
This is the first year that the Global Health Fellows has hosted a break trip, according to Dickey Center senior associate director of global health and development Dawn Carey. The Dickey Center aimed to give fellows the opportunity to explore health and development programs in Peru while experiencing the country’s culture, according to the Dickey Center website.
Glantzberg said her experience on the trip “cemented the idea that Dartmouth is global.”
“The different interventions that are being done, the really strong partnerships … I think [were] really, really powerful, and made me interested in engaging in more Dartmouth abroad programming,” Glantzberg said.
Carey, who helped organize the trip and attended it, said she was “struck” by students’ “incredible compassion” in helping the partner organizations they worked with. She described one incident that occurred after the group visited a community food program in Lima which did not have electricity.
“By the time we got back to the hotel, one of the students had already put together a grand proposal for a solar [power] system,” Carey said.
The Dartmouth Outing Club hosted eight student-led outdoors trips around the country.
Cate Pittman ’27 led Ledyard Canoe Club’s annual spring trip to Asheville, N.C., her third spring trip with Ledyard. Thirty-two people — seven leaders and 25 tripees — participated in this year’s trip, Pittman said.
Pittman said trippees typically kayaked for “five plus hours” each day in rivers across the area. Pittman said the trip was “a blast.”
“Some of my favorite parts were honestly hanging out after work off the river with everyone,” Pittman said. “Even the car rides are so fun.”
EllaMae Fitzgerald ’27 led the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club’s break trip to Las Vegas, Nev. Fitzgerald said she enjoyed watching the 30 students on the trip become closer over “early wakeups” for “steep hikes.”
“One of the goals we have is for leaders to provide a strong connection between people on the trip that they can bring back to campus,” Fitzgerald said. “Being out in the wilderness and out in the desert without much but our tent, our food, each other and our climbing gear — it was really, really special.”
Rowan Pedraza ’29 travelled to Utah for the DOC’s trip to the Grand Staircase rock formation. While he did not know other students in attendance prior to the trip, Pedraza said the group connected “very quickly.”
“Probably by the third or fourth night, I felt very at home,” Pedraza said. “You get to know the sides of people that people don’t normally show.”
Pedraza said the trip was a “very genuine experience,” adding that it felt “very organic.”
“It was amazing to be without my phone,” Pedraza said. “It was amazing to be isolated from the busy life and hectic life of Dartmouth. It was incredibly restful.”
