Stories of Consequence

“If I could tell future students one thing, it’s this: Apply. Take the risk. You don’t get that many chances to just do something amazing with a group of people and call it school.”

~ Liv Ullman ’25

Skydiving, whitewater rafting and paddleboarding at sunset aren’t necessarily on most students’ syllabi during W&L’s Spring Term. This May, however, a pilot program took shape at Washington and Lee University that included all this and more, pushing participants out of their comfort zones and into the outdoors.

The Outing Club (OC) Spring Term Option program, which launched this year, offered a select group of students two weeks of immersive outdoor adventures framed by a deeper mission: building community, cultivating resilience and reflecting on how risk, support and shared experience can shape their lives after graduation. James Dick, director of outdoor education, says applications were advertised primarily to seniors as an opportunity for them to bond in the outdoors while completing an “OC bucket list” during their last few days on campus.

From skydiving to paddling the James River, the itinerary read like a crash course in all the Outing Club has to offer, but Dick says his intention was for the program’s impact to run deeper.

“This isn’t just about jumping out of planes,” Dick said. “It’s about what happens after. The stories you’ll tell at your ten-year reunion. The willingness to try new things and get outside your comfort zone that you take with you into a new city and a new job.”

For senior Liv Ullmann ’25, who will be heading to a fellowship position at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia this fall, the program was a personal gift.

“I realized I was about to leave all this natural beauty in Virginia behind,” she said. “I wanted to challenge myself, to meet new people and to really appreciate what’s here before I move away.”

Ullmann described a moment of triumph while rock climbing for the first time outdoors in West Virginia’s New River Gorge.

“Even though I wasn’t the best, I learned to belay others, saw how climbers set up ropes and how to build a fire,” she said. “It was so empowering.”

Ben Bankston ’25 helped with some of the logistical planning and coordination before and during the program. A veteran of other Outing Club offerings on campus, Bankston says this experience was a singular addition to his W&L experience.

“Throughout college, there have been moments where I’ve been challenged by my academics, relationships and extracurriculars, but few of those experiences have I ever really been scared. Rafting, climbing and surfing led me to feel a different kind of satisfaction when I paddled through, made it to the top or conquered the wave,” said Bankston, who will be moving to Atlanta in the fall to start a position as an associate consultant at Bain & Company. “I’m thankful for the OC Option because I was challenged and grew differently than any experience so far at W&L.”

Sam Moore ’25, an Outing Club trip leader and work-study staffer, initially planned to take a class this term until friends talked him into applying for the program.

“It felt like a victory lap, but with structure,” he said. “I’d never considered skydiving or really done any water sports. But I’ve learned to kayak, to stand-up paddleboard, to raft and gotten to know new people.”

Moore will be working at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as a research assistant after graduation and says the lessons he will take with him from his time with the Outing Club weren’t just outdoor skills.

“The Outing Club has been the single-most valuable thing I’ve done here outside of my coursework,” he said. “It changed my experience.”

The program was subsidized through a mix of generous alumni donations and an anonymous gift that also helped fund a new Outing Club Fellow position this academic year, a position Dick says he plans to continue staffing to support this and other Outing Club programs in future years. Dick says financial support from alumni allowed students to participate for a reasonable cost and for the group to be able to experiment with a formula he hopes to replicate in future Spring Terms.

“During the application process, we asked students to tell us how they plan to help shape the Outing Club for future generations,” Dick said. “That’s the hook. It’s about doing something you’ll remember and taking that spirit with you.”

Ullmann says the pilot program’s success lies not just in the thrill but in the potential for transformation it offers.

“If I could tell future students one thing,” said Ullmann, “it’s this: Apply. Take the risk. You don’t get that many chances to just do something amazing with a group of people and call it school.”