{"id":6004,"date":"2021-08-15T19:00:04","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T23:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/?p=6004"},"modified":"2021-08-15T19:00:04","modified_gmt":"2021-08-15T23:00:04","slug":"so-many-and-so-few-personal-contributions-at-overland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/2021\/08\/15\/so-many-and-so-few-personal-contributions-at-overland\/","title":{"rendered":"So Many and So Few Personal Contributions at Overland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The summer has drawn to a close. I cannot believe how quickly my time with Overland Summers flew by. It both feels like only yesterday and like a lifetime ago that I was packing my bag for training in Massachusetts. In a weird way, I have contributed so much and so little to this organization. I will both be remembered forever and easily forgotten.<\/span><\/p>\n

This summer, I worked as a seasonal trip leader for Overland. I was one of 175 leaders. Each summer, roughly 200 leaders work for Overland and roughly 100 are new. In the grand scheme of things, I\u2019m not a big deal at Overland. I left LOTS of feedback for the year round staff regarding the trip I led and Overland policies at the end of summer, but other than that it is hard to say if I left much of an impact on the organization and the way that it operates in the future. This is kind of sad, but reconciled by the fact that. . .<\/span><\/p>\n

I was able to work closely with 18 teenagers this summer. I had the chance to make an impact on them every! Single! Day!\u00a0 I know (hope!) that they will remember me for a long time. When they think back to their time in Alaska or reflect on pictures, I will forever be a part of those memories. My work with these teenagers was hands-on and very influential. I know that there are many ways in which these kids looked up to me or jokes I made they will begin to make. Things I said to them during hard uphills on hikes that they will continue to say to themselves when they do a hard thing in the future. Moments I was a good or bad leader that they will one day use in an application. I executed a trip itinerary for the summer. I was a huge part of Overland this summer. I don\u2019t mean this in an arrogant way, but the trip I led logistically could not have happened without me and would not have been the same without me. The students got the experience they did because it was my co-leaders and I on that trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a little out-of-the-box, but when thinking about a time that \u201c<\/span>perspectives you have shared that have changed and\/or enhanced projects,\u201d the first thing that comes to mind is Christmas in July. One night while sea kayaking, I was on dinner duty. We were going to have mac \u2018n cheese that night and all the students were SO excited. They had been talking about this meal all day. That night, I went to get the mac \u2018n cheese out of our group gear, and I suddenly realized that we didn\u2019t have the meal. We never actually bought it. I knew the students would be devastated, and so instead of telling them that the leaders had messed up, (I didn\u2019t want them to think I was incompetent! These are 17 year olds I\u2019m trying to gain the respect of!) I told them that we had a surprise. Instead of mac \u2018n cheese, we were going to have Christmas in July dinner (the date was July 25th). Many of the students saw right through this, but I refused to give up. I assessed the food situation and found any food that we could eat that night. That meant broccoli (mini Christmas trees), carrots (reindeer food), reindeer sausage (the reindeers that didn\u2019t make it), and pancakes (Christmas cakes). It wasn\u2019t ideal, but I believe the perspective that I added to the dinner in making it a fun Christmas dinner rather than just an \u201coops, we forgot the mac \u2018n cheese so this is all we have tonight\u201d dinner made the night one to remember and a lot more fun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I hope to lead for Overland again next summer. I came to this realization midway through the summer. This is such an incredible summer job that allows me to combine so many of my interests: outdoors, adventure, new experiences, and working with kids. There are also a few specific trips in Europe and Africa that I would particularly like to lead. Knowing that I want to return and lead a highly sought after trip did impact the way I led. I was very conscious about the fact that the evaluations my students and co-leaders leave about me will impact the next trip I am asked to lead. This encouraged me to step up my game as a leader and be the best version of myself as a leader that I could be. In doing so, this allowed me to have a fantastic summer, regardless of what I lead next year. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The summer has drawn to a close. I cannot believe how quickly my time with Overland Summers flew by. It<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[76614],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-contributions"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6005,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions\/6005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/jepsoninternship2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}