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Kayaks to Computers
by Sabrina Singh
Helsinki, Finland
The Friday after my first full week in the working world, my roommates and I took a bottle of wine up to the roof and commiserated over “the beginning of the end.” Now, three years on, the commute, the outlook calendar, the expense reports -- all have become rote elements of the post-College routine, and not entirely unpleasant. But what about our friends from the steps of Robo? I asked several of the most illustrious members of the Dartmouth Outing Club how they were adjusting to the transition from cabin to cubicle.
 For Doug Hannah ’05, Vox chief and a member of Lodj Croo, the biggest challenge was sitting still for nine or ten hours a day during his stint at an environmental consulting firm. As he worked many weekends, he said, the adventures he had once embarked upon in Hanover seemed far from his daily life; he found himself going for months without sunlight. But he did find the time to canoe the length of the Connecticut with his dad. Now Doug is studying energy policy at Stanford University and preparing his next escape to the outdoors.
 A Lodj Croo chief, Betsy Hart ’05 taught 4th and 5th grade at a charter school in D.C. immediately following graduation. But she decided to switch gears and currently serves as a press secretary to South Dakota Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin. Betsy says the biggest adjustment is the Beltway chaos. To survive, and to revisit her DOC golden years, she spends weekends hiking in Shenandoah National Park and travels to West Virginia “mostly for the unique cultural experiences available only in West Virginia, but also for activities on the New and Gauley rivers.
 Steve Joseph ’05 -- Dartmouth Mountain Club, Strip and trip leader -- spent the first two years after graduation planning hiking trips for kids with Overland. Now he’s working in Queenstown, New Zealand, selling everything from sleeping bags to merino wool long underwear. This doesn’t really count as an office job per se, but there were still adjustments, he says. Steve misses the flexibility of a student schedule (i.e., climbing all day, working all night) and says that at Overland he spent most of his time planning adventures for others while lacking the time to set out on his own.
 Then there’s Laura Nelson ’05 of the Ledyard Canoe Club. She’s about to take up a new post as an assistant scientist at the Sea Education Association, which runs semester programs for college students. In her opinion, she says, the biggest adjustment has been spending an incredible amount of time in front of computers, as well as a lack of interaction with her co-workers. On the other hand, since she started with the sailing program, she’s spent a lot of time outdoors.
So has all-around sweet dude Rory Gawler ‘05, who was -- deep breath -- DOC president, chair of Cabin and Trail, chair of winter sports, tour director, five-time frosh trips leader, director of the Moose Mountain Shelter Projects and other various pursuits. Rory hasn’t changed his ways: He went on the inaugural Big Green Bus trip around the country, then went to work with David O. Hook ‘84, the DOC’s resident historian, building timber frames in Vermont. He continues to be involved with DOC activities, including a 14-day trip down the Sturgeon River in Northern Ontario with Mike Beilstein and Cliff Orvedal, both ‘05s. In the midst of all that, Rory recently completed an education degree and is headed back to Hanover to seek gainful employment at a boarding school or, perhaps, a small College. There are, after all, those who love it.
One of my trippies, Caroline “Squeeze” Kerr ‘05, who worked at the DOC in various trip capacities, will also be returning to Hanover, after a year in Ann Arbor. Caroline’ll be working in the admissions department. In Michigan, she says the largest adjustment was being confined in a single space for most of the day. But Squeeze says she’s still able to break out quite a bit.
To Caroline, trips have always embodied Dartmouth at its best, as well as its potential: A way for students to actively appreciate the place and the people, as well as the growth that the first-years bring with them. She misses the wealth of resources and folks to play with. “You can decide to plan a trip one morning and be out in the woods by afternoon,” she recalls.
My reporting suggests that many members of the DOC have found ways to include the outdoor escapades of their collegiate past to their current lifestyles. By abandoning the conventional cubicle-style work environment or by saving up vacation days for a canoeing binge, it looks as though the New Hampshire granite remains deep within all of us -- or at least some of us -- whether it’s under suits or biking spandex.
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