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Wilderness-minded seniors graduate out-of-doors with Outdoor Pursuits [PHOTOS]
Now this is a wilderness-style graduation!
That's not to say the walk down the stage in Whalen Gymnasium isn't lovely and powerful. But some graduates like to go out the same way they spent a good chunk of their time while at FLC: Rafting down a river, camping in the wilderness, and hanging with good friends who like the to do same.
In one of Fort Lewis College's longest-running traditions, at the end of every spring semester, the FLC Outdoor Pursuits program holds its own (very) informal graduation ceremony for students who have been active members of the program for all or most of their time at the college. But rather than indoors, this ceremony is held on one of the Four Corners-area rivers, where many the self-dubbed "OPers" have made so many treasured memories together.
"We run through the whole thing," says Outdoor Pursuits Assistant Coordinator Tom Whalen. "We do a full-on ceremony where we put up tiki torches, we do speeches, and we do a benediction."
This year, 21 OP members and staffers continued the tradition on the Green River through Utah's Desolation and Gray canyons. On an evening during the middle of the trip, the students and staff donned formal wear, ate a gourmet backcountry meal, and honored seven seniors under the lights of tiki torches and starry skies with the current of the Green River flowing past. See photos of the event below.
The unique send-off for senior OPers has been a ritual at since the Outdoor Pursuits program's inception in the mid-1970s. "Walt Walker, Outdoor Pursuits' second director, started the tradition of doing this graduation river trip," Whalen says. "What he would do is take Seniors who had used the program a lot down the river, on the San Juan River typically. They would leave finals week, and they would miss the formal graduation. They would graduate on the river with Walt."
Today, diplomas are no longer collected by the OP staff, and the trip departure isn’t until the Sunday after graduation, so seniors still go through the College's Commencement. "But to students who have been really involved in OP, it's still a big deal for them," Whalen says.
"But it's kind of a big deal for the OP staff, too," he adds. "It's a tradition that says, hey, thanks for supporting us. And for the seniors who are leaving, it's a way for us to send those guys off OP style!"