Voyageur Outward Bound School
At Earlham, what did you major in and in what kinds of activities were you involved?
At Earlham I majored in biology – mostly field biology. I ran around the woods a lot and looked at birds and plants. I also did a lot of extracurriculars (way more than was probably good for me). I was on the varsity soccer team for all four years, I was a Bonner Scholar, I worked for ResLife as an RA and a CA and I had a stint with the frisbee team. I also worked for the Wilderness Program a bit – I worked at the rock wall, taught indoor rock climbing, and I led outdoor rock and caving trips. During the summers I worked in California in Kings Canyon National Park at a summer camp for kids with type-1 diabetes, which was also part of my Bonner work.
What did you do right after graduating from Earlham?
After I graduated I worked for a last summer at camp, then I moved to Chicago with a bunch of other Earlham grads: Molly Kistin '09, Topher Weiss-Lehman '10, Sam Maier '10, Carly Monnin '10, Maria Salvador '09, and for a time, Chip Trail '11 and Anna Raymer '10. I sold my soul at a retail job in Evanston, but I did get my EMT-B certification. The next summer I started as an intern at the Voyageur Outward Bound School in Ely, MN, and I've been working summers there ever since. I've gotten to run into/work with tons of other Earlham alums there: Ed Joice '09, Dave Hibbard-Rode '08, Anneke Johnson '10, Geer Gillespie '11, Ryan Stewart '11, Robin Zinthefer '01, Josie Caton '05, Sarah Mattox '02, Yuuki Metreaud '02, Liz Yoder '07, and of course, Zoe Wolfe '15. While I worked summers at OB, I spent my springs and falls from 2012-2014 at The Outdoor School in Burton, TX.
What are you doing now and what is awesome about it?!
Now I work year-round for Outward Bound – which is the most awesome thing ever. I get to live in the woods at the edge of the Boundary Waters. I get to work outdoors all year doing stuff I really believe in with some ridiculous, crazy, wonderful, amazing students. I get to live and work in a tight-knit community of incredible people. I get to run with sled dogs, and go on climbing trips, and roll kayaks, and ski under the Northern Lights, and jump off a dock into a lake, and bake bread, and jump through a hole in the ice after a sauna. I get to learn the most random stuff, like how to canoe through ice, or how to make mortise and tenon joints, or how to water-ski, or make yogurt. I think that's one of the most awesome parts: learning cool stuff from great people all the time.
If you are interested in Amy’s line of work, you can contact her at aeboxell06@earlham.edu