1. What is your year and major?
I am a senior, and I am a Education major and a Studio Art minor.
2. What does your job for the ORC entail?
I am a co-chair this year with Bennett Silverman. So, we oversee the Outdoor Recreation Club, meaning we do anything
from approve student-led trips to oversee trips and different trainings, and also try to just get people into the outdoors.
3. What is the coolest thing you have learned through the ORC?
I learned how to whitewater kayak through the ORC, which was awesome.
4. Why should more students get involved with the ORC?
The ORC is one of the biggest clubs on campus. So there are a ton of opportunities to meet all types of people. We also try really hard to make trips accessible by subsidizing costs and also, just, you know, getting outside. It’s good for you and Colorado is the best outdoor playground we could ever ask for, and the ORC is totally making that accessible to people who don’t have cars and want to get outdoors.
5. What has been your most memorable ORC trip?
That is a hard question. I have had a lot of good ORC trips. I would have to say though that it’s probably when I led level 2 training for my sophomore year spring break trip. We went to Escalante, Utah and backpacked in the canyons there for nine days. It was just super beautiful and the group were the best people to hang out with. A lot of good times.
6. What are the most exciting features of the new OEC (Outdoor Education Center) building?
The new OEC building is super cool. Outside the garden is kind of a play space, so they have different climates trying to be reflected in the garden, and then you go inside and there is the gear house downstairs. Upstairs there is the food pantry if you are trying to get bulk items for trips. There is an awesome meeting space and then the deck on the back is probably the best part, it’s great for hanging out with friends and doing your homework. Also there are the avalanche beacon testing course, so you can learn how to use avalanche beacons, and they are buried all around the OEC. I think it is the only one in North America.
7. If you could recommend one outdoor location in Colorado, where would it be?
I think the most beautiful place I have been in Colorado is Southwest Colorado and the San Juan mountain range, close to Telluride and Durango.
8. I hear you love to make smoothies, what is your favorite ingredient to put in one?
Cocoa powder and dirt.
9. What would you wear to a safety-themed party?
Well, my freshman year I sported a traffic vest, a firefighter’s helmet, and some bright red safety leggings. So I would probably have to stick with that classic outfit. Fluorescence. You can never go wrong with fluorescence.
10. I noticed that you got a new haircut, what prompted it?
I figured I had a whole lifetime to have a lot of hair on my head, and I am a big fan of challenging my own limits and testing myself so I kind of wanted to challenge my ideas of femininity and beauty and also challenge other people’s ideas too.
The post Madelyn Santa sits down for 10 Questions with Melissa Seahausen, Outdoor Recreation Committee (ORC) co-chair appeared first on The Catalyst.
