Just in time for some Memorial Day reading — another set of staff profiles! These intrepid leaders will be taking their wealth of experience (between them, they have ten Apogee summers under their belts!) across the country as they and their Apogee students pedal their way from Charleston, South Carolina to San Diego, California. Have we piqued your interest yet? Read on to find out more about these impressive folks whom we’re lucky enough to have at the helm of our America Coast to Coast trips.
TIM HUN
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We are thrilled to welcome back Tim Hunt for his fifth – yes, FIFTH – summer with Apogee to lead our America Coast to Coast trip! Tim’s diverse interests range from hiking to neuroscience to cycling to white-water kayaking to Renaissance a cappella music – and pretty much everything in between. Tim hails from Oakland, California, where he was a member of the world-renowned Pacific Boychoir Academy for eleven years. With PBA, Tim toured through Italy, France, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and China. Tim is a 2014 Bowdoin College graduate, where he double-majored in Neuroscience and French. While at Bowdoin, Tim played trombone in the Jazz Combo, ran for both the Varsity Cross Country and Track teams, and satisfied his passion for the outdoors by spending weekends on skiing and hiking trips with the Outing Club. Tim also spent his Junior semester abroad in Paris, where he sang with the a cappella group he co-founded, and picked up useful French phrases such as “Yes, I am planning to eat both of those baguettes.” With Apogee, Tim has led our California Mountains & Coast, Pacific Coast, Alps Explorer, and Europe Coast to Coast trips; in case you think his adventuring credentials aren’t impressive enough, we’re happy to tell you that Tim has completed the Pacific Crest Trail (hiking 2,600 miles from Canada to Mexico), all 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, and the GR20 – a trail for advanced hikers that crosses the Mediterranean island of Corsica! Tim has spent the last year working at Slingfin, a Berkeley, California based company, where he puts his outdoor expertise to use in the Outdoor Gear Design and Marketing department. An avid cyclist, both road and mountain, Tim is looking forward to sharing his passion for the outdoors with his Apogee students as they cycle across the country together!
EMILY SHERRY
Returning Apogee all-star Emily Sherry is native to Durham, New Hampshire, where she grew up on the shores of beautiful Great Bay. A 2014 graduate of Hamilton College, Emily immersed herself in many different activities on Hamilton’s campus; she worked at Hamilton’s Career Center and also worked as a biology tutor for the Higher Education Opportunity Program, a program that works to make a college education more accessible for Hamilton students who arrive with an alternate academic profile. Emily loves to expand her horizons: she spent a semester of her Sophomore year studying in New York City, and then a semester of her Junior year in Dunedin, New Zealand, where she thoroughly explored the stunning countryside. Back at Hamilton, Emily played rugby for all four years and was involved in Hamilton’s Outing Club. With the Outing Club, Emily took advantage of hiking, snowshoeing, and canoeing throughout New York, and introduced incoming freshmen to the outdoors as a leader with Hamilton’s wilderness-based pre-orientation program. Since graduating, Emily has been extremely busy; after leading Coast to Québec trips with Apogee, Emily moved to Florida to lead 30-day canoe trips for Outward Bound’s At-Risk Youth program, and returned back the following summer to lead our Pacific Coast trips. Since then, she’s spent the last year and a half living on the big island of Hawaii working as a Program Guide at Pacific Quest – a horticulture therapy program for adolescents. As much as she’s been loving the beaches and sunny Hawaiian weather, Emily is thrilled to return for another summer of adventure with Apogee as she takes her students across the country on our America Coast to Coast trip!
FREDDY RANDALL
Freddy Randall is on board for year number three of leading bike tours with Apogee, and this time he’s headed off on a cross-country adventure on our America Coast to Coast trip! Coincidentally, this will be Freddy’s eighth time making a cross country trip in the past year — he’s flown five times and driven twice, but has yet to make the trip via bicycle! Freddy recently graduated from Maine’s Colby College where he was a member of the men’s soccer team and double majored in Economics and Environmental Studies. The youngest of four, Freddy grew up with a great appreciation for the outdoors, spending vacations traveling and camping with his family. Freddy’s parents are former directors of a much-loved summer camp in New Hampshire, where he grew up as a camper and later moved on to become a dedicated counselor. Freddy also spent two of his summers working as a counselor at a day camp in Cambridge, MA by day, and as a parkour instructor for children and adults by night. On top of it all, Freddy was also a Mentor in Violence Protection (MVP) facilitator at Colby which discusses men’s violence against women. When Freddy wasn’t occupied by his myriad of extracurricular activities or hard at work studying, he spent his free time hiking, playing Frisbee, riding ostriches (well, to tell the truth, he only did that once…), or setting up slacklines and slip ‘n slides on the quad. Over the past two summers, Freddy has led Vermont to Montréal and Montana Service Adventure with Apogee, and we couldn’t be more overjoyed to have him back to lead for another summer!
ANNA KAPLAN
Veteran Apogee leader Anna Kaplan of Princeton, New Jersey, is an experienced outdoors-woman, an EMT, a fantastic older sister, and the daughter of two loving parents. Anna has learned so much from her parents – inheriting her passion for gardening from her mother and her musical talent from her father (Anna plays bass in a popular cover band called “Market Basket”). In addition to playing music, Anna also has a blast broadcasting music on a weekly radio show for the Tufts freeform station. Anna just finished up a five-year program at Tufts University, where she got two degrees: a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology as well as a Masters in Public Health from the Tufts School of Medicine! At Tufts, Anna gained a lot of outdoor experience by leading trips for Tufts’ Mountain Club, playing rugby, and taking plenty of trips with friends that share a love for adventure. Anna is fun, charming, and connects wonderfully with kids – a skill that she certainly put on display while leading our Vermont to Montréal and Montana Service Adventure trips over the past two summers! Anna has taken summer college courses at the College of New Jersey, worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor, and even made time to hike 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail from Gorham, New Hampshire, to Rangeley, Maine. We are so lucky to have Anna with us again this summer as she brings her wealth of knowledge and experience across the country with her on our America Coast to Coast Trip!
SAM CAREY
A rising senior at Dartmouth College, America Coast to Coast Support Staff Sam Carey doesn’t have to travel far to visit his parents and golden retriever at home — just three minutes, to be precise. Growing up in Hanover, New Hampshire, Sam served as captain of his high school’s varsity soccer and hockey teams, worked as a camp counselor, and was a dedicated volunteer for a local soup kitchen. Now at Dartmouth, when Sam isn’t studying Math and Astronomy, or reading David Foster Wallace and J.R.R Tolkien, you’ll probably find him on the ice, where he’s a committed member of Dartmouth’s club hockey team. On top of it all, Sam is a true outdoorsman — from weekend camping trips throughout the Northeast as a kid, to a four week backpacking trip along the world-famous El Camino de Santiago trail in Spain, Sam’s outdoor resume is quite varied and impressive! This past semester, Sam spent three months traveling and working through the work-trade program World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (“WWOOF”). Living out of his tent, Sam’s first month was spent alongside goats, chickens, and donkeys on a livestock ranch in Austin, TX. His next two months were spent in Puerto Rico, first at a fruit tree farm, then at a cacao tree farm. Sam thrived in the the community-minded environment of WWOOF, and also loved soaking up the sun and learning about sustainable living. After college, Sam plans to pursue his passion for astronomy in hopes of becoming an astronaut (have we mentioned he’s a genius?). This summer, Sam can’t wait to take full advantage of the open skies of the southern United States with the America Coast to Coast students to practice one of his lifelong hobbies: stargazing!