Hello!
My name is Violet and I am an Outdoor Adventure Leadership Alumni with a concentration in Psychology, class of 2018. I am originally from Buffalo, NY. My favorite outdoor activities are flatwater and white-water canoeing, but I also love rock climbing, backpacking, snowshoeing, and flatwater kayaking. My next goal is to master (or at least try to learn) the art of snowboarding.
I fell in love with outdoor adventure when I embarked on my first wilderness canoe trip up in Northern Ontario at the age of 15. I discovered the wonderfully strengthening and therapeutic properties of immersing oneself in and challenging oneself with the many experiences to be had outdoors. I decided I wanted to find a way to share that with other people, moved from my plan to go to culinary school, and began looking for outdoor adventure programs.
I was sold on Ithaca College because their Outdoor Adventure Leadership Program is very unique. This is due to the component of the major that is called the Immersion Semester Program. This consists of an entire semester spent immersed in the outdoors. For my semester, we backpacked and rock climbed in Joshua Tree National Park, and climbed, rafted, and mountaineered in various but equally stunning and awe-inspiring places in the state of Oregon. I was able to go to the west coast for the first time in my life, and see the Pacific Ocean and the beautiful Redwoods.
Thanks to the close knit community of students and professors in the Recreation and Leisure Department, I have felt continually supported throughout my first three years here at IC. Everyone in the department knows one another. Even students from all four years will know of one another, which I find to be really neat. Small but strong communities are something that are very important to me. My closest friends here in Ithaca are the ones I met during my first year as an OAL major.
Ithaca is a great place for outdoor adventure as well, with many beautiful forests and bodies of water located within walking or short driving distance. I have also found it very easy to get work experience in this field through my involvement with Cornell Outdoor Education, an organization that runs student trips for Cornell University. I think that the conditions in and around Ithaca have really set me up for success so far and will continue to do so as I enter my senior year.
If you would like more information about IC, the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, classes, the school, or really anything else at all, please feel free to say hello! My email is vperry@ithaca.edu