May 17 2013
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active, fun, healthy, inspired, sustainable

All That Stress

By Emily Skeen

Feeling crazed?

I have spent a lot of time in these blog posts referring to myself and most of you as “stress-crazed-college-students”. It’s not that I am excited about this or particularly surprised, just realistic. College is a lot of things, and one of those things is stressful. So what? That’s just the way life is. True, but does it have to be? Yes and no. Stress is an inevitable part of life, and it’s only getting worse. According to a recent study published by the American Psychiatric Association, 50% of Millennials (people ages 20-32) reported that their stress has increased significantly in the past 5 years, and another 36% said that it hasn’t decreased at all. That’s 86% of our generation who report the presence of a constant or increasing stress in their lives. Now I don’t know who those 14% are, or what they do, but for the rest of us, stress is a huge problem.  Ok, cool. We’re all stressed. Why doesn’t everyone just take a chill pill? Well obviously it’s not that simple. However what’s surprising is that the top two reasons Millennials list for not lowering their stress are lack of motivation and lack of time. Both of these reasons, as you may know, are symptoms of busy and stressful lives. So we are literally too stressed to get less stressed. What?!!

Feeling tired?

Feeling tired?

According to the American Institute of Stress (which I imagine is a very serene place to work) 75-90% of all visits to general practitioners in this country are due to stress-related issues, which include but are not limited to: headaches, digestive disturbances, cold and flu brought on by a weakened immune system, acid reflux, chest pain, panic attacks, anxiety and depression. So while we’re going about our lives too stressed to find time to relieve our stress, we’re also raising our insurance premiums astronomically by letting our stress take over and wreak havoc on our bodies. Of course it is important to note that being too stressed to make time to see our doctors is just as detrimental as letting stress send us there too often.

Campus Rec to the rescue!

Ok maybe not totally. Everyone de-stresses differently, but before you disregard this by saying, “the last thing I want to do is work out”, read a little further. Campus Rec is not just about working out. We do our absolute best to provide as many opportunities as possible for students to get some kind of physical activity. But that doesn’t always mean running laps and pumping iron, though both of those are great ways to get exercise and relieve stress. Those are only the tiny tip of the iceberg of things that we offer here.

  • Give your mind a break, do some yoga: Stress triggers our fight or flight instincts; adrenaline pumps through our bodies at lightning speeds, our hearts race and our breathing quickens. While these things might be useful when we’re fighting a bear, chances are that we don’t run into bears that often. The practice of yoga incorporates not only some good physical movement, but also focuses on quieting the mind, and regulating breathing, quite literally the antithesis of fight or flight. And with the wide variety and high number of classes we offer ranging from beginning gentle yoga, to 90-minute power vinyasa classes, anyone can experiment with the effects of yoga at Campus Rec.
  • Try something new: Is your play personality an explorer? (Refer to our post entitled PLAY). Instead of planning to run for an hour, or do 50 pull-ups, make a plan to try two new things at Campus Rec this week. Go on an outdoor trip, climb the rock wall, attend a Water X class, dance in our Zumba class, try out a Kayak Roll Session. Do something you’ve never done; it’s hard to stress out when you’re having fun discovering new things.

    Some well deserved peace

    Some well deserved peace

  • PLAY!! Are you a kinesthete or a competitor? If you find that your favorite forms of stress relief involve lots of movement, or competition then you have tons of options. There are ample pick-up gamesof basketball, volleyball, and soccer every day. Want more structure than that? Join an Intramural team or a Rec Club.
  • Good old exercise: As I mentioned earlier, if you are the person that gets the most stress relief from good old-fashioned exercise, there are infinite options and opportunities for you at Campus Rec. Every student who is enrolled in 1 credit, undergraduate or graduate already has a membership at Campus Rec each term, and has the option to get a membership during their term off as well.

Didn’t see your favorite Campus Rec related stress-relief option here? Tell us about it!

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May 07 2013
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healthy, inspired, supported

Dr. Lasse and the Red Leaf Clinic

By Emily Skeen

It’s time for us all to take a moment out of our busy day; get off of Facebook, pause Game of Thrones, and really take a second to think about our health. Are you stressed? Do you have a cold? Are you overly tired? If you’re at all like me, your answers to those questions are probably yes, I think so, and yes. I’m not sure when in our physical development we decided that everything else was more important than making sure we were healthy enough to carry on with our crazy lives, but somehow many of us have ended up here, stressed and tired. I had the great pleasure of sitting down with Doctor Raina Lasse, a downtown Portland-based Naturopath and founder of the Red Leaf Natural Health Clinic (I’d link to their site too in all references which I am sure you’re prolly going to do already), who is no stranger to sleep-deprived, stress-crazed students. She even says that we are one of her favorite type of patient.

Dr. Lasse

Dr. Lasse

Now, you may have just read, “Natural Health Clinic”, and thought to yourself, “is this going to be another article about how herbs are all we need?” Absolutely not. “There’s a common misconception that [in Naturopathy] you’re just substituting something pharmaceutical for something natural”, says Dr. Lasse, but as I learned, that’s not the case at all. In the state of Oregon, all Naturopaths are licensed primary care physicians. This means that they are just as qualified to diagnose and treat you as any general practitioner. This even includes the ability to prescribe main-stream pharmaceuticals if necessary. The main differences you might find in a visit with Dr. Lasse is her approach to treatment. If you tell her you have a headache, she’s not just going to give you some Ibuprofen and send you on your way. Instead, she’s going to work with you to find out why you have that headache and to find a way to stop it from happening in the first place. “It’s the idea that the symptoms are not the issue, it’s the underlying issue that’s causing these symptoms”, she says. “We want to create a more lasting experience, and allow that homeostasis to restore itself”. She went on to further explain that just prescribing all of these pharmaceuticals could not only be perpetuating the problems that patients are experiencing, but can also create new ones.

Along with a dedication to finding a solution for the actual problems at hand, it became clear from the moment I walked in the door that at Red Leaf the patients come first. There is neither an agenda nor ulterior motive. They don’t want to solve your problems in the short term, they want to create lasting solutions for your long-term health. “Collectively what we’re trying to provide is a small clinic withnaturopath-199x300 big ideas”, says Dr. Lasse. A large part of that for Dr. Lasse and all the staff at Red Leaf (which includes Naturopaths, an Acupuncturist, and a Chinese Medicine Practitioner) is knowing their patients on a more personal level so they know exactly how to treat them. “The better I know them, the better I can treat them”, she says. And it is obvious to this busy student that that is absolutely true.

If you’re at all curious about the work they do at Red Leaf and think it might be for you check out their website at www.redleafclinic.com. Or come find Dr. Lasse at Campus Rec’s Nourish Wellness Fair this Wednesday, May 8, from 12-2 inside the Rec Center and ask her your questions in person.

In conclusion, I can definitely say that my biggest take-away from meeting Dr. Lasse was this; “Every day we are either eroding or building up our health”, and as one of those stress-crazed students who stays up too late watching Game of Thrones sometimes, I can definitely relate to that in my life. And though no one expects us to suddenly turn it all around, we can take a moment to look at our lifestyle, and ask ourselves the question “how do I feel? Do I need help getting back on track with my health? And when the answer is yes, remember that we have millions of resources, like Dr. Lasse and Red Leaf clinic only a few blocks away, ready and waiting to help us get where we need to be.

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Apr 12 2013
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inspired, supported, sustainable

Leadership, Volunteerism, and Alternative Spring Break

By Grant Neely

Since last fall the student group Student Leaders for Service began planning another round of Alternative Spring Break (A.S.B.), the 4th annual service-learning trip where students participate in a week of volunteer work throughout the Pacific Northwest. Past trips have included building homes with Habitat for Humanity in Bellingham, WA, serving the homeless populations in San Francisco, and exploring sustainable food systems and organic farms throughout Northern California. Having experienced the farming trip to Northern California two years ago as a participant I knew what A.S.B. had to offer and jumped at the opportunity to help create a new trip that led us to Eastern Oregon. The topic? Food and health equity in rural communities…

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After some gentle coercing to join the trip, which was partnering with Campus Rec, Emily Martin and Andi Potter of Fitness and Solay Freeman of Member Services signed up. The trip to Eastern Oregon was aimed at understanding how rural communities were addressing food disparities, local health and issues of access to healthy, local food. Our group of nine students came from a variety of disciplines including international studies, sociology, English, theatre arts and community development.

Our first stop was to the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Pendleton, about three hours east of Portland, where we received a unique and immersive presentation of the tribes’ First Foods program. The lecture outlined the cultural significance of the tribes’ traditional diet which was water, salmon, roots, berries and game such as deer and elk. Not only were these foods sacred to the Walla Walla, Cayuse and Umatillla Indians, but they have since directed the culture for hundreds of years to always preserve those five precious resources. We were taken to different hills and ridges where the tribe dig for the roots and looked out upon vast ridges where old battles had taken place among warring tribes and frontiersmen.

Play5

From the reservation we continued east and landed in the small town of Union. We partnered with Oregon Rural Action, a nonprofit working to promote social justice, agricultural and economic sustainability through stewardship of the land. Our group assisted in breaking ground on the town’s first community and learning garden located on the campus of the elementary and high school. As we worked throughout the day many local residents were curious about the operation and even stopped to talk with us about the project. Though rough around the edges, the garden will be a place for students and community members alike to gather and share a deeper connection with the food they’ll soon be growing.

EmilyandAndiwinners

Our last stop was in Central Oregon at an organic farm called Rainshadow Organics, located just north of Bend. Our time there was short but was perhaps the most fulfilling. Rainshadow is the only organic C.S.A. (Community Supported Agriculture) program in Central Oregon and is operated by one hell of a gal, Sarahlee Lawrence (she’s even written a book about her life!). She showed us all the moving parts of a healthy farm including her winter green houses that produce for the C.S.A., the parading chickens and turkeys, wallowing pigs of all sizes, the summer garden, steaming piles of compost and manure, irrigation systems and grazing pastures which all work to benefit each other. Our work consisted of raising long garden beds that would soon be planted with summer crops, and laying down cardboard and straw pathways between the beds to allow worms and other insects to move freely amongst the soil.

Before we knew it, our trip was complete and we had arrived safely back to the Rose City. Our week was unique in that we started out by understanding the tribal perspective on food, moved to a small scale community garden operation and finished on a working farm. We saw many direct and indirect issues facing small communities within the scope of our topic, many of which were discussed over campfires, living rooms and dinner tables. One thing is for certain, we all came away with a better understanding of ourselves and our beautiful state in ways that have already taken root.

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For me, organizing this trip during my last term before graduation was a big challenge, but being with eight other like-minded students, including three awesome CRECers, gave me the motivation to see it through. Having been with Rec Clubs since 2008, I’ve come to understand that leadership is an integral part of what Campus Rec has to offer. It’s not about being the loudest in what you do, but instead, being the most deliberate in what you chose to do. That’s how you make a difference.

Grant (pictured above) was the co-founder of the Men’s Lacrosse Club and has been an employee of Campus Rec since 2011. He has written numerous articles for the Institue for Sustainable Solutions blog from topics such as environmental and social justice to rural agriculture. He is an English major and a graduate with the class of 2013.

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Apr 07 2013
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fun, healthy, inspired

Spring Break PLAY Photos Competition

By Emily Skeen

A few weeks ago we asked all of you to take pictures of yourselves engaging in some kind of play during spring break and send them to us at Campus Rec. I’m happy to report that we got a lot of great submissions, and are pleased to announce the winners.

Congratulations to Emily Martin and Andi Potter, featured in the first picture, finding ways to play while doing some community service. Also congratulations to Donna Truong who found some time to play during spring break at Huntington Beach in California. Great job ladies! Come to the admin suite at Campus Rec to claim your prizes.

EmilyandAndiwinners DonnaTplayphoto

Here are some of the other awesome photos that we received:

Lost Coast Playing!

Play5

PLAY2

PLAY3

Play4

Great job incorporating PLAY into your spring breaks everyone! For more ideas on ways to PLAY visit the Campus Rec website at pdx.edu/recreation, or come visit us on facebook.

How do you PLAY?

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Feb 11 2013
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fun, Uncategorized

The Secret Life of Campus Rec Member Services

by Emily Skeen

This is what we see…

solaycheckin

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ric and swag

But what about when we aren’t looking?

solay

louisandric

ms3

Hmmm…

Jan 31 2013
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The Unresolution

By Emily Skeen

Every January hundreds of people who the staff at Campus Rec rarely get to see swarm into Campus Rec with a renewed vigor, much more dedicated to their health than they were the other 11 months of the year. Now don’t get me wrong, we love the crowds! The energy around the building this time of year is amazing. One of the issues, however, is that it doesn’t last as long as many of us would hope. By February the buzz has died down, and that swarm of excited people go back to the old patterns they were hoping to break. So here’s my question, if all of these people hadn’t put so much pressure on themselves in the beginning do you think they would have stopped?

There’s a whole new idea buzzing around the blogosphere called the “Unresolution”. Now this may sound like the opposite of goal setting. To unresolve to do something? Or to resolve not to do something? Yes and no. A resolution sounds like this: This year I resolve to lose 50 pounds by exercising more and cutting down on desserts. An unresolution sounds like this: This year I won’t be so hard on myself about my body. I will eat lots of zucchini because I love zucchini, and I will caitlin6take more hikes because they make me happy, even if hikes don’t burn as many calories as other activities. Now which sounds more do-able?

For Caitlin Sommers, it’s the latter. Caitlin is the Group X Student Coordinator at Campus Rec, a newlywed, and a second year grad student at PSU. Caitlin, as a driven and successful person, is no stranger to making new years resolutions. But this year, Caitlin decided to shake things up. Instead of setting large goals for herself that she may or may not be able to stick to, Caitlin decided to set “small attainable” goals for herself, 365 of them to be exact.caitlin1

Now you may be asking, what about setting 365 goals? Is that in any way attainable? That was my first question. Caitlin explained that her goal is to try something new, something fun, something relaxing, or something that she has been meaning to do every day. “I tried to keep them to things that are easy to keep as a part of my day”, she explained. These things range from making beef wellington, something she has wanted to do for years, to putting the dishes away after she washes them, something that would only take 5 minutes out of her day.

“The only way to fail would be to quit entirely”

The next question that came to my mind was what if she forgets? What if she misses three days, will her goal be entirely ruined? Not according to her. “The intention”, she explained, “is that this is something that even if I stopped for a while, it’s not hard to pick it back up, and it’s open ended enough that anything can be added to the list…the only way to fail would be to quit entirely”.caitlin4

Anyone who has ever done one of those generic goal setting exercises knows that the key to achieving a larger goal is to set smaller more attainable goals. But what is so exciting about Caitlin’s goals and the unresolutions is that not only is the overall goal more attainable, it is all rooted in positivity. Committing to do things that are enjoyable sencaitlin5ds the message that they are important enough to dedicate time to in a busy day and that doing them makes us feel good. This hopefully creates a formula for our own measure of success.

So, this year, let’s unresolve not to put so much pressure on ourselves to change, and make the decision to do the things we enjoy more often.

 

Meet the writer:

Emily Skeen is the current Marketing and Outreach Student Coordinator at Campus Rec, and a junior majoring in vocal performance at PSU. She is thrilled to be able to spend time with all of these EmilyPhoto0713wonderful people and bring you their stories. Emily loves baby giraffes, opera, pomegranates, dance battles, and adventures.

Jan 28 2013
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Campus Rec Outreach; Who are these people?

ImageHave you ever seen any of these people lurking at the top of the stairs in the Rec Center? Ever wondered why they are here? You’re in luck, they’re here for you!

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These are members of the Campus Rec Outreach team, who are specially trained to answer all of your questions about all things Campus Rec. They love to give out Campus Rec paraphernalia and to clear up confusions about the goings on here.

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Featured here are (left to right) Grant Neely, Brittney Finato, and Emily Siegel.

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Dec 18 2012
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fun, healthy, inspired

~PLAY~

By Todd Bauch

Do you want to be more creative in your problem solving? How about developing a stronger relationship with someone? Or maybe you hope to become an expert in something; is that what you want to do?

If that is what you want to do, please stop reading this right now. Get out of here and go ~PLAY~. Seriously… bookmark this page and then stop reading. Get!

Welcome back – it was fun, wasn’t it. What did you do? You know, people ~PLAY~ in different ways. Stuart Brown, in his book Play – How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, has created eight Play Personalities. I suspect that your favorite past time is found within one of the categories below.

  • The Joker – Historically, the most extreme and basic player. Nonsensical. Social strategies of making people laugh.
  • The Kinesthete – people who like to move. Naturally want to push their bodies to feel the result. May play games but competition is not the main focus.
  • The Explorer – Physically, literally going somewhere. Emotionally, searching for a new feeling or deepening of the familiar. Mentally, research and discovery. Armchair adventurer.
  • The Competitor – Enjoys a competitive game with specific rules. Plays to win. Solitary or social. Active or observant.
  • The Director – Enjoys planning and executing scenes and events. Born organizers that love the power of being in charge of the players and the stage.
  • The Collector – Hold the most, the best, the most interesting collection of objects or experiences. Likes solitary experiences or Social interaction with other collectors.
  • The Artist/Creator – Joy is found in making things – something beautiful, functional or goofy. Or just something that works.
  • The Story Teller – Imagination. Everything is a story. They may enjoy creating and telling the story. They may enjoy experiencing thoughts and emotions through stories by others.

I have to ask, did you really bookmark this page and take a little time to ~PLAY~? If you didn’t, I’m not surprised. ~PLAY~ is apparently not as easy as it should be. In fact, it is hard. A recent survey of Campus Rec Student Employees, indicated that people believed ~PLAY~ contributed to their success and lifelong wellness (mean score of 9 on a 1-10 scale). But they also indicated that life’s responsibilities pulled them away from their opportunities to ~PLAY~ (58 out of 85 people responded that they agreed with this with a 7 or higher on a 1-10 scale).

Stuart Brown told us that when ~PLAY~ is denied for long periods of time, humans lose their sense of optimism and become incapable of feeling sustained periods of pleasure. Additionally, he says the benefits of the play must far out weight the costs associated with it – time taken away from survival tasks (food, shelter, money, etc.). If it didn’t have a greater benefit, as an organism, we would have evolved out of it as we do with any truly useless pursuit.

 

So, we have no choice but to beat this apparent paradox – life’s responsibilities versus ~PLAY~. We must make ~PLAY~ a part of everyday life. Yes, every day, we must find a way to do something that creates a sense of curiosity, nervousness or anticipation. Then ride this to the inevitable surprise. It is this discovery that produces a pleasure and a new understanding of the world around us.  By testing your new understandings, a sense of mastery can rise and in turn manifests itself in a grace, composure and a sense of balance in life.  This poise can do nothing but spread through all aspects of your life (Scott Eberle’s Framework for ~PLAY~).

This cascade happens every time we allow ourselves to do something that on the surface seems like a waste of time. Don’t believe me, bookmark this page and go prove me wrong…

 

Meet Todd Bauch, Associate Director of Operations at PSU Campus Rec:Todd Bauch_profile photo_0

When Todd moved to Portland, he spent the first four years as a professional kayaker and outdoor retail store manager. In 2002, he was hired as PSU’s first Outdoor Program Coordinator and was able to capitalize on fifteen years of working in the outdoor industry, as well as recreation experience from four other university outdoor programs. Todd coordinated the award-winning Outdoor Program for five years before being promoted to Associate Director of Operations and Student Development. In this position, he sees his role as creating a facility that is inviting, accessible, safe, and functional. He has found this to be a rewarding challenge.

 Todd has a bachelor’s degree in Commercial Recreation from Illinois State University, where he also worked as a Student Manager in the Outdoor Program. His Master of Education degree in Recreation Resource Administration is from Southern Illinois University. He lives in Northeast Portland with his wife Laura and their dog Tilly. Although he has essentially swapped his kayak for a bike, raft, and telemark skis, he enjoys any outdoor activity that takes him (and the family) on a new and exciting adventure.

Nov 20 2012
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healthy

Meet Annika

By Emily Skeen

Annika Backstrom is a registered dietician, graduate of the University of Idaho, former employee of Providence Medical Group, and currently on staff at PSU’s Center for Student Health and Counseling (SHAC). Now, depending on your previous ideas of what dieticians and nutritionists do, her approaches to working with people may surprise you. “I don’t take a very regimented approach when it comes to health and healthy eating”, she states, “I realize that there are a lot of other factors that come into play with health and healthy eating, so I try to focus on those”. And though it may seem like there is some mystery to that, at least for college students, these “other factors” are no mystery at all. When asked, she lists them off quite casually: a busy schedule, a smaller budget, small cooking spaces, first time having to decide what to eat all the time. There’s nothing surprising here. But, when I asked her to pick just one thing that could be perceived as the biggest issue she encounters with students, I was surprised.

After a few seconds of thought she confidently said that it’s “a lack of trust in themselves to make appropriate nutrition choices” and a “negative relationship with food”. For me this came as a bit of a surprise, but after years of being told that the we make “bad” health choices, and that the freshman 15 happens because we are ”forced” to make our own choices when it comes to nutrition, I suppose it’s really no wonder at all. This, however, is not something that we should get too down about because, as Annika says, we still have plenty of time to correct these negative ideas. “It’s a really great time for [all of you] to establish good habits for the rest of [your] lives”, she says. According to her, college doesn’t have to be the time when we gain weight and cement our warped ideas about nutrition and what it means to be healthy, but rather the opposite. It’s the perfect time to make positive changes.

“The average student is probably hyper-aware of what they should or shouldn’t eat”

Annika defines a dietician as “someone who is trained to work with people to help them optimize their nutrition”. It quickly became obvious that she does mean “optimize”, not “change”, not “completely destroy you for liking cake and not liking brussel sprouts”. “We are bombarded with nutrition information from all angles”, she says, “and the average student is probably hyper-aware of what they should or shouldn’t eat”. Instead of giving out lists of good and bad foods, and regimented exercise routines, Annika prefers to examine our individual relationships with food, in a very similar manner to the Intuitive Eating method. “I like to ask them what they like, and what makes them feel good”, she states, “and I tell them not to worry too much about food rules. It’s more about getting to balance. I believe that unless you have a healthy relationship with food all the nutrition information in the world really won’t help you”. This is one of the most exciting things for me personally. As a person who has experienced other, less healthy approaches to nutrition, it is not only refreshing but comforting to hear that a real life nutritionist supports eating what you crave. That isn’t to say that she condones just eating chocolate cake, but rather she advocates eating less processed foods, more fruits and vegetables, and more whole grains, but still allows for the fact that we should find a balance, instead of depriving or denying ourselves.

“I like to ask them what they like, and what makes them feel good”

With Annika comes the opportunity to take advantage of this resource in a few different ways. Campus Rec’s new nutrition drop-in hours are a great time to come meet her, and ask more basic questions about nutrition like how to get more protein into your diet, or whether your breakfasts are balanced. But what if you want to examine your habits more thoroughly? And what’s more, how do you know if you need to examine them more? Though Annika is a person that could help you with weight loss, weight gain, muscle gain, etc.

She says that our largest concerns should surround what it feels like to be out of balance nutritionally. The main things she states as possible indicators that something may be wrong with an individual’s nutrition are (among others) low energy or lack of energy, feelings of fatigue, or feeling like you can’t concentrate. According to Annika, in any one of these

situations something could be out of balance nutritionally, and you should seek the opinion of a physician, and then make an appointment with Annika or another PSU dietician.

So, that’s all great but what if you waived out of the student insurance plan? Where do you go then? Lucky for us (depending on who you ask) we are charged two separate fees; the student insurance fee, which allows us to see doctors outside of SHAC, and the student health fee, which allows us to use all the services SHAC has to offer.  In short, as long as you are taking 5 credits you can make an appointment to see Annika for free, even if you waived out of the Aetna insurance plan.

“The most important thing to remember is that healthy eating is a spectrum, there is no one right answer”

 

 

Meet the writer:

Emily Skeen is the current marketing and outreach student coordinator at Campus Rec, and a junior studying vocal performance at PSU. Her favorite part of her job is getting to share valuable and exiting information with her fellow students. Emily’s long term goals include being a super successful opera singer, and doing non-profit work with pediatric cancer patients.

Nov 02 2012
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inspired

CREC Profile: Climbing your way to the top with Lanie White

By Emily Skeen

As many of you already know all too well, there are few jobs that allow students to: a.) be students with a full class load, involvement in various extra curricular’s, and some semblance of a social life, and b.) Have experiences that prepare them for future careers in the real world, while c.) Paying them a reasonable wage that they can actually pay their rent with. Sure they can achieve a and b with an unpaid internship, but rarely can students find all three. Isn’t that why we’re going to school in the first place? While the answer to that question may be complex, Climbing Center Student Coordinator, and PSU senior Lanie White seems to have found a job that gives her all three right here at Campus Rec. I sat down with Lanie and was able to hear first hand what her experience here has been like, where it has lead her, and what she has discovered along the way.
Lanie hails from the great wide-open state of Montana and first came to PSU in the fall of 2009. “My first couple of years here were an adjustment period to say the least”, says Lanie, “and by adjustment period I do in fact mean I almost packed my bags and went home on a couple of different occasions.” This may not come as a surprise to anyone who has ever gone out of state for college. No matter how prepared we think we are, the shock of being more than a short drive from everything you’ve ever known can be emotionally draining to say the least, but for Lanie it goes even deeper. Having gotten very deeply involved in outdoor activities before leaving Montana and coming to what she described as a “concrete jungle” did not make her adjustment period any easier. However emotional hardship aside, Lanie did decide to stay, and now states that this was the “best decision” she could have made.
She credits this change of heart largely to her discovery of the volunteer program within Campus Rec’s Outdoor Program, which offers people interested in outdoor education training in trip leading and independent projects. “When I came across the program I immediately grabbed on to the idea of hanging around others who loved climbing and hiking and breathing in the fresh air…[and] getting to expose others to Mother Nature in all her glory”, says Lanie. Though as is evident, Lanie’s involvement within Campus Rec was never going to be just “hanging around”. Less than one year after becoming an “official” employee of Campus Rec, Lanie moved up to one of the most esteemed student positions on campus, Climbing Center Student Coordinator. “This was an intimidating position to say the least”, states Lanie, “The previous [student] coordinator had been in the position for 2 ½ years, and I’d only been working in the Climbing Center for 9 months.” In her previous positions (of which, not counting her days as a volunteer, she held three) she was expected to maintain equipment, educate others about outdoor activities, lead trips, teach climbing technique, and much much more, but as a student coordinator she was expected to do all of that while also hiring, training, and managing a very diverse and talented staff.

“I grabbed onto the idea of hanging around others who loved climbing and hiking and breathing in the fresh air”

When asked what helped her to make the decision to take this position she recounted the following anecdote: Around the same time that she applied for this position, Lanie attended a PCIA Professional Climbing Instructors Association climbing certification Training at OSU. She found herself falling naturally into a leadership role, assisting and mentoring her peers as they all worked towards getting their certifications. “It reminded me how much I love climbing”, she states confidently, “Why would I not take a job where I could help other people love [climbing] as much as I do?” Almost 6 months into the position Lanie is now full of exciting stories about what it’s like to teach others to climb, and to spread the love she has for the outdoors. The following is a short excerpt from our interview:

Emily: What are your favorite climbing trips to lead?

Lanie: I love leading staff training trips…and I love leading trips to Smith Rock for people who have never really climbed or camped before. I love seeing them being able to reach the top of a climb, and how exciting that was for them their first time out in the field, that’s pretty awesome.

Emily: Has anything scary ever happened on a trip?

Lanie: Not on climbing trips. We air on the side of scary safe, so nothing bad ever really happens.

Emily: What would you say to a person who has never climbed before?

Lanie: I would recommend going up to the climbing center during staffed hours and checking it out. A lof of the trip leaders, who lead climbing trips, work in the Climbing Center. Talk to them. We take beginners out in the field all the time. It’s what we do. I would [also] recommend taking the plunge. The scary and intimidating things are usually the things that we learn the most from, and that we are the most surprised by.

Emily: So would you say that your future career lies somewhere within outdoor education?

Lanie: You know I thought it was, but I don’t think [this] actually is my future career anymore, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t preparing me for everything else that life could throw at me.

“The scary and intimidating things are usually the things that we learn the most from”

Though many of the student employees at Campus Rec do intend to pursue careers in health and fitness many of us do not, and it can sometimes be difficult to explain what it is about our positions that is preparing us for the real world. However Lanie explains and exemplifies these benefits so well. We can never be fully sure what direction our lives are heading in. We can hope and plan and study, but nothing is stopping us from waking up tomorrow in completely different circumstances and/orwith a completely different mindset. That being said, there are some things that are universally applicable. Lanie states that “effective and efficient decision making”, and “the ability to be confident in what I’m doing, to know that I have my skills down that I can lead”, are some of the most valuable things that she has gained from working at Campus Rec. Things that will surely help her in whatever career she chooses to pursue.

Lanie started volunteering for the Outdoor Program in 2010 and has since worked her way toward her position of Climbing Center Student Coordinator.  She was first introduced to climbing at the crags around her hometown of Helena, Montana, and has since fallen in love with the sport and the community.  After moving to Portland in 2008 and realizing that mass amounts of rain are not always conducive to outdoor climbing, she began exploring the realm of climbing gyms.  Although not the same as real rock, Lanie still loves spending rainy days in the climbing gym and is extremely excited about the opportunity to help manage one.  She is currently pursuing a degree in Spanish and hopes to one day find a career that combines Spanish and Experiential/Outdoor Education.  When not working at the ODP or attending classes, Lanie can be found seeking the next outdoor adventure, wandering around the wonderful city of Portland or playing music with her local band.

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