Leaning into Winter at COA!
Winter in Maine can be tough for students, especially for those who are not from regions of the country where the cold and darkness seem to trudge on for weeks on end. In Fall 2023, College of the Atlantic (COA) joined with 11 other institutions to explore curriculum and programming with the specific intention of enhancing support for student mental health and well-being. With nearly 1 in 5 students experiencing “winter blues” or seasonal depression, COA identified the importance of “Leaning into Winter”. Inspired by this idea, the Outdoor Program here at COA has decided to take this opportunity to get students outside to enjoy the frozen beauty the state has to offer, and to lean into the unique opportunities winter offers us. Thanks to the Endeavor Foundation’s generous funding of the Endeavor Lab College’s (ELC) Collaborative, COA is able to further support student participation and fund student-led programming beyond our small campus on Mount Desert Island. In this blog, I would like to highlight some activities and the impact “Leaning into Winter” has had on students at COA.
My name is Andreigha Kraemer, and I am a fourth-year student at College of the Atlantic. At COA, I serve as our Presidential Endeavor Student Fellow and the administrator of our Outdoor Program. Part of my responsibility in these roles is to work with fellow student leaders and program activities that support the mission of the “Leaning into Winter” initiative. This past winter, my peers and I created a rich calendar of various recurring and one time events throughout our 10 week term, from early January to mid-March. Here is a sample flyer for a week of programming that we hosted. Our programming is open to all students, but is especially geared toward engaging first-year students and introducing them to the beauty and opportunities offered on our small Island.
In addition to our programming, we have also completed some ambitious building projects that support our on-campus community's well-being infrastructure. In the first year of Leaning into Winter, we periodically rented a local traveling sauna and took students to a local climbing gym to provide opportunities to “lean in”, which got students excited about this initiative and created the demand to make those activities more accessible. Since then, we have renovated our gear storage shed and created a classroom space within it where we host our weekly Outing Program meetings, facilitate gear repair workshops, and have been able to revamp our gear rental system. We also renovated our on-campus climbing shed, which has made bouldering (rock climbing) much more accessible through our weekly open shed nights. Additionally, by popular demand, we have built our own wood fired sauna on campus.
Since being finished in January, we have regularly held three sessions a week, hosted by students who have learned how to process wood, use, and manage a wood stove. These projects have been student-directed, and these new systems continue to be student-managed.
Beyond the building projects, we host regular student-led programming. Here are just two activities that I have helped facilitate. Every Wednesday this winter, a fellow student and I led a program called Coffee in the Park, where we provided some snacks and warm drinks and took students to various spots around Mount Desert Island. The idea for Coffee in the Park was an early way for students to “lean into winter”, and has become a beloved activity that we now offer throughout the year. This winter, our mornings were spent enjoying places like Sand Beach and Little Hunters Beach in Acadia National Park, and Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s Stone Barn Farm. I came up with the idea to play “beanbags on the beach”, so we brought a cornhole set along with us a few times.
The consistency of this event allowed students to build this time into their schedules and to know what to expect. Over the course of the term, we built a small following, and the same six folks would join us and bring friends along, so each week made our small community grow. I felt the impact of this trip through students who would approach me excitedly and ask where we were going next week, and through seeing students really connecting with each other and the places we went. On our adventures, we emphasized Environmental Well-Being and sustainability by encouraging students to bring their own mugs for drinks, journals, and cameras for reflection, and to leave their phones behind. This event was beneficial for everyone involved, including myself; that time spent in the cold morning sun always served as a highlight to my week.
Another favorite student event was our two trips to the Camden Snow Bowl, a ski hill in Camden, Maine. On our first trip, we took one school van which allowed for 12 participants, despite the waitlist being more than double in size! Due to the high demand for and the success of our first trip, we decided to bring two vans of students for a second trip, and bring along a student leader to coach skiing lessons! Everyone was invited to join, beginners and intermediate folk alike! Thanks to the support of the ELC, we were able to cover the majority of the lift ticket and rental costs for people, making skiing and snowboarding much more accessible for everyone! One student shared her positive experience with me, highlighting that “going to a small school, it is really nice to get out to different parts of the state, and the funding made going skiing very accessible as a college student.” We were also able to provide a warm homemade chili lunch for everyone, and enough hot chocolate to quench our small pack.
These events definitely would not have been possible without the generous support of the Endeavor Foundation and the Endeavor Lab Colleges, so on behalf of all of the students at COA, thank you!
Andreigha Kraemer is a Presidential Endeavor Student Fellow and fourth-year student at College of the Atlantic.