By Hannah Gensheimer
Maine may be known as “Vacationland” with its charming seaside towns and beautiful coastlines, but in the depths of winter, it’s sometimes nice to get away! With trips to similarly frozen New York, Massachusetts, and Minnesota, we may not be hitting up Miami Beach or Punta Cana, but it’s not stopping us from having a great time, and getting us excited for another great summer!
Over the past few weeks, Kevin, Chad, and I have visited 26 different colleges and universities looking for the best new leaders. We have interviewed some amazing college and post-graduate students, all with exceptional leadership, outdoor, and travel experiences. And while we have met great new leaders as we’ve traveled from school to school, we have also had a blast getting to catch up with past leaders.
Last week I met up with Bowdoin super-stars Tim Hunt and John Swords (pictured below with the photo-bombing, oar-carrying moose). The fun continued at Bates with more Apogee alum, including Mia Taggart, Emma Perkinson, Chris Opie, and Matt Neckes.
Chad was lucky enough to spend a night doing trivia at Hamilton College leaders with Izzy Janzen, Jack Messerly, and Nick Geisler, and 4-time Apogee alum, Matt Dickstein (all pictured below, sans trivia). He also caught up with Phil Duvall at Cornell, Kirk Jackson at Tufts, Sam Tripp at Williams, and Shannon Usher at Amherst.
We were excited to expand our leader recruiting to some of the Midwest’s best schools this year – including Grinnell, Carleton, and Macalester. As it happens, we don’t have any alums there yet – so Kevin was left taking a selfie (actually, it looks like you found a purple jellyfish to keep you company…)!
At the end of the day, we interviewed over 240 new applicants for leader positions this summer – and we are so excited about the amazing roster of leaders – new and old – that is shaping up for 2014. Stay tuned for more details!