Two-hundred and thirty-six incoming students — half the class of 2001 at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College — will first face physical rigors, while hiking, rock climbing, canoing, backpacking or mountain biking in the Annual Entering Student Outdoor Program (AESOP) orientation. Dan Voisin, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ senior from Lanesboro, Mass., is overseeing the pre-orientation program, including transportation, food and gear procurement as well as training the 52 student-trip leaders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Incoming students may choose from one of 25 three- and four-day AESOP trips, which include canoeing the West Branch of the Penobscot River in northern Maine, day hiking in Acadia National Park, mountainbiking on the cross-country ski trails near Sugarloaf\/USA and backpacking through some of New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest, start Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 26 and 27.<\/p>\n
Though the trips differ in degree of difficulty — from short day hikes to backpacking 15 miles per day over the toughest stretch of the Appalachian Trail — all provide students the opportunity to make friends before the academic challenges set in.<\/p>\n
“It’s a chance for new students to break the ice and to get candid answers to their questions about ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ from the trip leaders,” Voisin said. “Some of the participants have never been camping, and a big part of going to college in Maine is enjoying the outdoors.”<\/p>\n
Each trip consists of 10 new students and two upperclass-student leaders, who have received mandatory CPR, wilderness first aid and group- dynamics training from the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Outing Club and Tri-County Emergency Medical Services in Lewiston. Though participating students are encouraged to bring their own gear, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Outing Club — among the oldest collegiate outing clubs in the country and the first at a private college to include both men and women from the beginning – supplies tents, stoves, backpacks, sleeping bags and other necessary equipment for any of the AESOP trips. Food is supplied by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Dining Services and prepared on site by the students. Twenty-seven vans, one trailer and one U-Haul truck will transport students and their gear on the various trips.<\/p>\n
AESOP trips preceed the regular new student orientation, which begins Saturday, Aug. 30, and the start of classes on Wednesday, Sept. 3.<\/p>\n
A geology major, Voisin is a member of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ varsity cross-country ski team. A graduate of Mt. Greylock Regional High School, he is the son of Thomas and Lucille Voisin of Lanesboro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two-hundred and thirty-six incoming students — half the class of 2001 at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College — will first face physical rigors, while hiking, rock climbing, canoing, backpacking or mountain biking in the Annual Entering Student Outdoor Program (AESOP) orientation. Dan Voisin, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ senior from Lanesboro, Mass., is overseeing the preorientation program, including transportation, food and gear procurement as well as training the 52 student-trip leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"bates_author_byline_override":"","_estimated-read-time":"","_post-template":"","_header-color":"","_photo-credit":"","_header-effect":"","override_related_with_tag":"","_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[130,32,11012],"tags":[615,6422],"class_list":["post-32193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collaboration","category-maine-and-new-england","category-student-life","tag-aesop","tag-new-student-orientation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92066,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32193\/revisions\/92066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}