r-— NEWS BRIEFS-—-7-1
Vacant staff positions filled
Four staff positions at the Uni
versity Health Center have been
filled in the last month, an official
said.
The physical therapy
department’s new director is Jane
Austin, who took over Monday.
Austin’s arrival will allow the de
partment to offer students full day
long physical therapy services.
David Bower is the health
center’s new alcohol and drug abuse
prevention specialist. His jobs will
include participation in educational
programs and peer advising groups.
The Counseling and Psychologi
cal Services Department added Gail
Lockard to its psychologist roster.
Lockard will counsel students on
EaslCampus on T uesday mornings
and will counsel students on the
City Campus Monday and Wednes
day through Friday.
The health center also added
Mary Lutz to its roster of physi
cians.
• I
Loan exit sessions tms wee*
UniversityofNebraska-Lincoln
students graduating in May and
have federal student loans must
fulfill exit requirements with the
Office of Scholarships and Finan
cial Aid.
Students who fail to attend the
ex it sessions will have a hold placed
on their diplomas, academic Iran
scripts and any tuturc registration
at UNL.
East Campus sessions will be
today at 12:30 and 4 p.m. in the
union. Sessions in the Nebraska
Union will be Wednesday at 12:30,
2 and 4 p.m., Thursday at 9 a.m.,
12:30 and 4 p.m., and Friday at
12:30,2 and 4 p.m.
Room locations will be posted.
ATTENTION!
MAY
GRADUATES
The DEADLINE for return of your yellow
Commencement Attendence form is
April 23,1993
Return it to Records Office, 107 Adminstration Bldg.
i j
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UNL Junior Blake Anderson takes a break from city life at Wilderness Park Saturday.
Anderson’s iob as an Outdoor Adventures leader allows him to experience the wilderness
in many parts of the country.
Challenge yourself
Outdoor leadership breeds personal growth
By Deborah McAdams
Staff Reporter
Money isn’t everything to a UNL
student leader at Outdoor Adven
tures.
The university’s pay rale for
students, around S5 an hour,
provides little incentive for Blake
Anderson to climb rocks in Pali
sades, S.D.
Rock climbing as part of the job
is especially difficult for Anderson,
who has a fear of heights.
“I think I inherited it from my
dad, because he has a real fear of
heights,” Anderson said.
He said that his father won’t
climb a ladder to paint the house.
“I’m being forced to overcome it
because I like to rock climb."
The basic rock climbing in
Palisades is a weekend trip offered
up to five limes a year by Outdoor
Adventures. It’s all lop-rope
climbing.
‘Top-rope climbing is when you
have an anchor at the top of the
rock," Anderson said. “You have
another means of getting to the top
of the rock, like scrambling up the
back.”
Palisades is about a 75-foot,
vertical climb. It’s located near a
small river where the water has
eroded the land and exposed the
rock.
“It gets a lot of use, because
there is nothing else around here.”
Anderson is reluctant to reveal
his most frightening moment on the
job.
“We try not to allow ourselves to
get in that situation because then
we’ve blown our leadership
positions,” he said.
During his two years with
Outdoor Adventures, Anderson has
canoed through rapids, led novice
backpackers into the Grand Canyon,
bicycled hundreds of miles, climbed
up sheer rock faces and crawled
around in caves.
“Caving trips arc one of the
weirdest trips I do,” he said. “It’s so
unnatural, so different. There’s no
light. It’s so surreal.”
Caving the Devil’s Ice Box in
Columbia, Mo., is a weekend trip.
Participants spend about seven or
' eight hours in the cave.
“There’s lots of cold water and
mud.”
A lover of the outdoors,
Anderson’s experience has devel
oped through his enthusiasm for
bicycling.
“I saved all of my money from
my paper route to buy my first ten
speed.”
Anderson has participated in five
Bike Rides Across Nebraska and
once in the Comhusker 500, another
ride across the state. Bicycling led
to his involvement with Outdoor
Adventures.
“I went on a biking trip as a
freshman and it got me interested, “
he said. “I wondered if I could do
it.”
The hiring process is pretty
competitive, Anderson said.
Applicants must pul together a
resume, gather recommendations,
and go through an interview.
Out of 15 to 20 applicants each
year, two or three are hired. They
are asked to make a two-year
commitment with the program. The
first year is considered a training
period, and the second year reaps
the benefits of that training.
Previous experience in outdoor
activities is not crucial to being
hired.
_ il_
I always think about
program recognition
when I read about the
success of sports
teams. This program
Isn’t competitive, but
the people who
complete one of our
trips have a feeling of
accomplishment.
~Anderson
UNL student
“People aren’t necessarily hired
on background experience, but on
potential.
“We don’t necessarily have a lot
of specific experience, but a lot of
general experience.”
Outdoor leaders must have skills
beyond physical ability. They have
to get along with a variety of people
under stressful circumstances. They
have to practice “no-impact”
traveling (leaving no trace of one’s
group on the environment). They
must be ready to handle emergen
cies.
In order to prepare himself,
Anderson completed Emergency
Medical Technician training last
December.
“It was one semester, actually
two weeks longer than the school
semester, for six hours a week,”
Anderson said. “I planned for a year
and a half for when I could take it.
“I don't know if it makes me feel
more confident, but I know that I
don’t feel confident without it,”
Anderson said of the training.
He spent 16 hours in the Lincoln
General Emergency room and 18
hours in an ambulance.
“I’ll never forget the first time I
was in the back ol the ambulance
when they turned on the sirens,” he
said. “I fell kind of goofy. I
wondered what I was doing in
there.”
Anderson has invested a lot of
time and effort into this work with
Outdoor Adventures. He chose a
mechanical engineering major in
order to design bicycles, but he
speculates about his future.
“I think about that on a daily
basis ... whether to use my degree
or stay in outdoor activities.”
Anderson has looked into some
outdoor positions. Both the National
Outdoor Leadership School and
Outward Bound programs encour
age people to develop new skills.
Helping people develop skills is
important to Anderson. He said that
was why many private positions,
such as guiding short raft rides,
didn’t appeal to him.
“It’s not usually an activity
where participants are allowed to
grow,” he said. “They just sit there
and passively experience it.
“We try to push people into the
groan zone. You don’t grow unless
you groan.”
Anderson said growth was a
major part of the Outdoor Adven
tures program.
“Jim says our mission is to put
ourselves out of business by
leaching people to be able to do
these activities on their own.”
Jim Fullerton is the coordinator
of Outdoor Recreation, and
Anderson’s boss.
“I really wish more students
would take advantage of it,”
Anderson said. “Looking at the
private competition, this is very
inexpensive.
“I always think about program
recognition when 1 read about the
success of sports teams. This
program isn’t competitive, but the
people who complete one of our
trips have a feeling of accomplish
ment.’’
Anderson helped nurture that
feeling of accomplishment for 10
panic ipants during a recent back
packing journey into the Grand
Canyon. He will lead a mountain
biking day trip to Indian Caves
State Park at die end of April. He’s
waiting to see where he will go this
summer.
“No trip assignments have been
made for the summer, but I think
I’ll be on the mountain bike trip to
the Slick Rock trail in Moab, Utah.
It is the most famous mountain
biking area.’’
Where he works isn’t as impor
tant to Anderson as what his work is
about.
“My prime focus is the experi
ence; your perceptions of your
environment, your body, and your
state of mind.
More than one of those experi
ences will probably be the growing
pains that he has on the rocks at
Palisades.
