We love our Apogee leaders and we know you do, too! Our leaders are always getting up to fun and exciting things between Apogee summers. We love hearing about the amazing things that they are doing after they leave Maine and we thought you might, too! Three of our favorite updates are featured below.
Maeve Dick (Costa Rica Language and Community ‘21, Northwest Explorer ‘22)
Maeve in her ballet get-up during the 2022-2023 winter dance season
Maeve recently traded in her hiking boots for ballet shoes! Maeve is dancing as a company member at the Stavna Ballet in Richmond, Virginia. So far this season, Maeve has performed The Haunting, the Nutcracker and Peter Pan.
In between rehearsals, she still works hard to squeeze in some camping. In fact, she just finished a whole year of camping at least once per month! We applaud Maeve’s commitment, especially camping in those chillier winter months! In addition, she makes time to explore the parks and trails around Richmond, sometimes with other former Apogee leaders.
We love Maeve, and are so excited she’ll be joining us again in Summer 2023 to lead our Alps Explorer trip!
Hannah Straughn (Vermont to Lake Champlain ‘21, Alps Explorer ‘22)
Hannah with her Washington and Lee Outing Club crew
For those of you lucky enough to have met Hannah Straughn, you know her as a shining star – one filled with boundless energy and enthusiasm. Hannah, originally from Alabama, is currently in her final year at Washington and Lee University and this semester, she’s been applying that energy to ticking as many things off her collegiate bucket list as she can.
Hannah kicked off the semester leading a pre-orientation trip for first years on the Appalachian trail. Oh, how we wish we could go on a Hannah Straughn pre-orientation trip!
After that, Hannah dove headfirst into the school year and her role on the Key Staff at W&L’s Outing Club. As a Key Staffer, Hannah works together with eleven other W&L students to lead all types of trips, ranging from hiking, biking, paddling, and everything in between for both students and university staff.
A highlight from this fall’s slate of trips? A biking trip she planned to a local brewery one sunny Friday afternoon. Don’t worry – they arranged for the Outing Club van to pick them up after their celebratory beverage!
Overall, Hannah has been having an exciting, jam-packed senior year. But she’s still made time to see some of her Apogee friends, too, and plans to join us in Summer 2023 for our brand new Iceland Mountains and Coast trip!
Ben Thibeau (Cape Cod and the Islands ‘21, Pacific Coast Support ‘22)
Ben soakin’ up some sunshine before heading to American University to get his Master’s Degree
We are so excited to bring Ben back for a third season – he will be leading one of our Europe Coast to Coast (ECC) bike trips this summer. While Ben was a rower for a decade, he has since shifted his focus toward the bicycle (luckily for us!), and considers himself to be proficient in both riding and fixing bikes. (Here at Apogee, we consider Ben to be MORE than proficient at riding and fixing bikes, even downright great at it!)
Ben is in his second semester of grad school at American university in Washington D.C., where he is studying in AU’s U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security master’s program. Before moving to D.C., he lived in San Diego, where he graduated from the University of San Diego and then worked in sales for a year.
In his spare time Ben is teaching himself guitar, digital drawing, and the harmonica. He is in the process of planning a solo bike trip to Shenandoah National park for some time later in the semester (which we are very excited to see the update for!). He is also proficient in German, which will come in handy biking across Europe this summer!
A fun fact about Ben is that he is able to cook minute rice in just under a minute! This inhuman ability has instilled in him a love for cooking that transfers over to the camp stoves. We could not be more pleased to have Ben as part of our Apogee family!