Employee Backpacking Trip: Zoom Info Session, Today at 4:30

Do you love the outdoors? Do you like to hike and camp? Do you already know how to backpack, or are you interested in learning? We want your help!

Backpacking combines hiking and camping, with backpackers carrying all necessary gear on their backs, including food, water filters, tents, sleeping bags, clothes, first aid kits and more. The Outdoors Project, created by Professor Indigo Eriksen (WO) last year, aims to enhance students’ sense of belonging and increase access to nature for community college students and individuals identifying as women, transgender or nonbinary. 

The Outdoors Project will lead a group of up to eight NOVA employees on an overnight backpacking trip in Dolly Sods, a wilderness area that is part of West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest. Most gear will be provided. Like our students, many faculty and staff members encounter financial challenges but are eager to contribute. If you are a NOVA employee who wishes to join but has financial constraints, please let Professor Eriksen know. An anonymous donor has offered to help cover costs for employees who need it. All participants will need to supply their own hiking boots, food and — potentially — backpacking pack. (We have several packs for women and men that are available to borrow.) 

Professors Eriksen and Murph will lead the one-night backpacking trip on June 1–2 for NOVA employees interested in learning to backpack and/or potentially co-leading one of our student trips. Eriksen will discuss the trip and answer questions in a Zoom session today, April 15, at 4:30 p.m. Interested employees can email Eriksen at IEriksen@nvcc.edu for the Zoom link.

Backpacking teaches us how to rely on ourselves, increases self-confidence, strengthens critical thinking skills, and supports collaboration and communication. Come walk in the woods with us!

Submitted by:
Indigo Eriksen, WO-English, IEriksen@nvcc.edu