- [Student] There's no way we're going up that.
(upbeat music)
- The Stamps President's Scholars offers
a Tech Trek to all of our incoming scholars,
in partnership with the Outdoor Recreation Department
at Georgia Tech.
Each student is given an opportunity
to go to a sort of remote location,
with nine of their closest new friends,
and to experience some challenges
that are supposed to mimic a bit
of what they might see at Georgia Tech.
Obviously not with it being outside,
but just the metaphor of difficulties and surmounting them,
in the same way that that might occur
in the academic and extracurricular environment.
- I'd never done anything like this in my life.
I'd gone on like day hikes, but going on a full
like five day backpacking trip in some wilderness place
that I've never been before,
was definitely a new experience for me.
- I decided there was no better way
to start my first year than by
doing something completely new to me.
Because Georgia Tech was completely new to me.
(yelling)
- John Dewey made the comment that,
we don't learn from experience,
we learn from thinking about our experiences.
We intentionally create experiences
that push people not beyond their limits,
but hopefully to the edge.
And then, talk through those.
And then, we push that conversation a little further to,
what do you think this has to do
with your success as a student at Georgia Tech?
- It's not easy, it's like definitely not
a easy experience, you know.
Alaska, the most challenging part was definitely weather.
The weather was just horrible day, after day, after day.
Just that, you know, it was a realization of
hey, you know, I'm here, I am gonna be hiking
for the next three days,
I'm gonna be wet the whole time, you know.
My sleeping bag is wet, and I'm just gonna have to do it.
So, that was probably the most challenging.
- I definitely had some phases in my experience
where I thought, why would they make us
go through something so difficult.
It was raining pretty much every day.
I decided that even though the weather was really miserable,
I knew that it would make me stronger as an individual,
and those experiences were ones I could take back to Tech.
- The biggest challenge I faced was the physical activity,
and the amount of physical activity that we had to do.
It was just the fact that I had,
I knew that I had to keep pushing myself,
and I knew that there was no giving up.
Which was definitely a challenge,
but it was completely worthwhile.
- [Student] We're at the top of the mountain.
Woo!
(cheering)
- One of the great things about the Tech Treks
is there's nothing like difficulty to promote bonding.
And, over that time, because they're working together,
and because at the campfire they're telling stories,
and they're sharing with each other
some of their hopes and dreams.
They come out of this with a really bonded experience.
- So for us, going on the trek, we get there,
and out of nowhere they just drop us off
in the middle of the trail and say, okay, hike.
And, we're like, okay, so we don't really know
how this works, we don't know what we're supposed to do.
Bonding through that, figuring out how to hike,
figuring out how to wear our hiking backpack,
figuring out how to start a fire,
figuring out how to put the tents up, etc.
We all did it together, so we all bonded over that.
First day on the airplane I didn't even talk
to the people next to me, I just slept the entire way.
On the way back, me and the girl next to me,
talked to the entire like what, seven hour flight.
- The relationships that are forged on the trek
have still, you know, been part of where I am today.
So, a lot of the people, we usually go out for dinner,
things like that, most of the days.
If we have projects that we're working on,
and we may ask each other for help, things like that.
- I think one of the best things that you can gain
from this program is one, a very tight community
of people before you get to college.
You know, when you first get to college,
it's, you're almost overwhelmed with opportunity.
And, having a starting point, a very strong starting point
of, you know, the SPS group that you went on
a Tech Trek with, is a really nice thing to have.
- Montana!
(cheering)
- The feedback that we've received from the students
after they finish one of these Tech Treks is,
on one end, that they loved it, it was absolutely great,
wonderful, they really enjoyed the entire experience.
There are other students who'll
take a little time to get to that point.
What they'll tell you, is that ultimately
it provided that launch pad for how they could
experience similar challenges triumphantly
when they're at Georgia Tech.
- I see students all the time who stop by my office
to just talk about their experiences,
sometimes five years later, sometimes 10 years later.
And, they speak of those experiences as if
they are exceedingly valuable.
Many of them will connect that to
their success academically, their confidence as leaders.
Really connect their experiences
in the back country to career success.
- I think the biggest experience is being away
from your family and being away from, you know,
meeting a whole group of strangers.
And, it's just putting yourself way
out of your comfort zone, you know.
You're not gonna be with who you know.
And, I think, the whole point of the,
the whole summary of the trip, I think was,
me getting out of my, where I've always been,
and getting out of that comfort zone.
And, kind of experiencing something new,
something I've never seen before.
- I was one to say that, okay no,
I don't wanna ask for help, I can do this all by myself.
But, that's not the way it is in the real world.
That's not the way it should be in college either.
If you need help, you need to go ask for help.
And, that's definitely one thing I learned on the Tech Trek.
Because there's no part of that experience
could I've done by myself.
I couldn't have pushed myself to those boundaries,
I wouldn't have been able to support myself,
especially when morale was so low on rainy days,
when we were almost running out of food,
didn't have fire one night, in all those instances.
So, it's just the fact that you're able to rely on people,
and the fact that you're able to
really accomplish anything you put your mind to.
- If I had to summarize my experience in a Tech Trek,
I would say one, enthralling.
Like, I don't there was a moment
on the Tech Trek that I was bored.
Second, challenging, it was, I mean,
there were days that were just really hard, right.
Like, you'd be like, physically like, wow,
am I going to make it, you know,
the next three miles until we camp.
And then third, I would say, for the relationships
that formed, I feel like it was just meaningful.
Like, the Tech Trek to me was very meaningful.
- I'm really grateful that Stamps at Georgia Tech
has allowed us, and encourages us to do this every year.
The skills, and the mindset that it's given me
is something that I will be able to use
as a student, as an adult pursuing a job,
maybe in medical school.
Because those things can be extremely difficult.
And, on.
(wind blowing)