As a native Californian I have always loved California's natural beauty and all the awesome outdoor activities that California has to offer. My love of the outdoors is one of the reasons I was really drawn to the UCLA Anderson community, there are lots of people like me who love the outdoors, there's even a student club dedicated to outdoor adventures. Anderson also has a really cool series of pre-orientation trips for incoming students, the trips send groups of about 15 classmates to a number of California's nicest areas. Some of my classmates canoed in the Colorado River, others spent time in the Channel Islands and a number of the trips went into the High Sierra's.
I grew up camping and hiking in the High Sierra's so when I saw that one of the pre-orientation trip options was to spend six days backpacking 26 miles in Hetch Hetchy I jumped at the opportunity to go. The trip was held about a week before orientation started, our group was made up of two guides from UCLA Outdoor Adventures, one second year Anderson student and twelve incoming students. I wasn't totally sure what to expect going into the trip, I hadn't met any of the people coming on the trip beforehand but I figured spending six days together would end up being an amazing way to get to know my classmates.
The trip ended up being better than anything I could have imagined. Our guides were amazing, they were very knowledgable and put together a program that facilitated all of us getting to know each other. Our second year student was really cool and filled us in on what life is like at Anderson. And most importantly all of my classmates turned out to be really great to camp with and very interesting to talk to. Through a combination of structured activities and unstructured time while we were hiking, camping, swimming and exploring we really got to know each other very well. My time in the mountains with my classmates really validated the fact that the Anderson campus culture was a good fit for me. And the greatest thing was that after the trip I had a group of classmates who I'm really close to, so when campus orientation started earlier this week I already had friends in all of the sections and two of the people I camped with live within a block of my apartment so we already have a neighborhood hang out crew and carpool to campus.
I had so much fun on my pre-orientation trip that I am already planning to volunteer to go as a second year on one or more of the trips for next year's incoming students. For anyone reading this post who loves the outdoors and is considering Anderson, I can attest to the fact that there are lots of outdoor lovers at Anderson and if you end up coming to Anderson DEFINITELY do a pre-orientation trip. My pre-orientation trip was one of the best trips I've ever been on.
