Outdoors Club Helps Students Go "Wild"

By Kathryn Karasek

With school starting up again after a long winter break, the confines of dorms and academic buildings can seem especially daunting.

Students may want to put aside schoolwork and escape from the Santa Clara campus in order to relieve stress, clear their heads and reconnect with nature — even just for a short amount of time.

This is where Into the Wild, Santa Clara's outdoors and wilderness club, comes in. "(Into the Wild) promotes healthy, sober fun through outdoor adventure for students at (Santa Clara)," said freshman Charlotte Hohorst, the club's marketing director.

The club organizes both weekend excursions and day trips to surrounding natural sites. For students studying in the midst of Silicon Valley, the organization can serve as a valuable key to the California wildlife that is only a short drive away from campus.

"The aim of Into the Wild is to get students away from the textbooks, Macbooks and nightly party scene and out into the beautiful and peaceful settings that natural environments have to offer," said senior Sachit Egan, who founded the club in 2009.

In the past, the club's members have traveled to the Santa Cruz beaches and surrounding mountains to hike, backpack, rock climb and camp, in an attempt to showcase the diverse environments of California.

"My favorite thing about Into the Wild is being able to get off campus and explore," said executive board member, sophomore Carson Lindsay.

Last weekend, a group of about 20 Into the Wild members trekked up to Pinnacles National Monument in Paicines, Calif. The park is known for its Talus caves and its wildlife, especially the endangered California condor.

The club also offers smaller opportunities during the week to get off-campus ­— opportunities that are ideal for busier students who still crave an outdoor adventure to relieve stress. For example, on Jan. 11, Into the Wild facilitated a two-hour trip to Planet Granite, a Sunnyvale-based indoor rock climbing gym designed and managed by professor Tonya Nilsson, one of Santa Clara's civil engineering professors.

According to Lindsay, while Into the Wild provides the opportunity to explore off-campus locations, the bonds established between the club's members are what make the organization particularly ideal.

"The best part about going on these adventures is getting the chance to do so with people from (Santa Clara)," said Lindsay.

Into the Wild's membership grew rapidly throughout its first two years and continues to grow as more and more students realize that it can offer an indispensable means of relief from academic pressures.

A club with a conscience, Into the Wild is not only about fun and adventure, but also aims to tie in sustainability and raise environmental awareness.

According to club president, sophomore Andrew Noonan, Into the Wild's past sustainability efforts included bringing a guest speaker from statewide river conservation organization, Friends of the River, to talk about the environmental impact of dams, pollution and unsustainable farm and commercial salmon fishing.

The club also invited a park ranger to talk to participants on a recent day hike about the closure of over 70 state parks and the closures' impact on surrounding wild areas.

Currently, Into the Wild is one of the clubs that participates in the Office of Sustainability's effort, Students Collaborating and Organizing Opportunities and Projects for Sustainability (SCOOPS). According to the Office of Sustainability website, SCOOPS gathers representatives from various student organizations, such as Into the Wild, to plan and promote events that will contribute to the university's sustainability efforts.

"Part of being outdoors, whether hiking or camping or rafting, has a lot to do with appreciating nature and wildlife and working to preserve that," explained Hohorst.

Contact Kathryn Karasek at mkarasek@scu.edu.