Archival photo courtesy of Nathan Rhodes '98

As new Bowdoin students slowly settle into academic and social rhythms, the centerpiece of students’ introductions to Bowdoin—orientation trips—has started to fade into the background. Even so, many students going back decades frequently reminisce about their wild, hilarious or awe-inspiring adventures for years to come. Today, the Orient looks back on the history of orientation trips, now a staple of the Bowdoin experience that introduces first years to college life.

Orientation trips are currently organized by both the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC) and the McKeen Center for the Common Good. A few days before first-year move-in, student trip leaders gather on campus, preparing to lead trips and awaiting the arrival of the incoming class. The operation, which takes months to plan for each new class, is the product of years of evolution.

The first orientation trips launched in the summer of 1982. At that time, the dean’s office decided to implement a new model of “active education” in hopes of promoting experiential learning and instilling a sense of unity in the incoming class. A September 1982 edition of the Orient reports that that year’s orientation events “ranged from field trips off campus to an evening of rather unusual events designed to demonstrate to each and every freshman the actual humanity of his or her classmates.”

In that same year, a small group of Bowdoin students and a biology professor traveled to the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island in the Bay of Fundy to study local ecology. Upon the students’ return, enthusiastic reports of the trip and a subsequent smooth transition into college life urged Bowdoin to start what would become orientation trips.

By 1992, the BOC was responsible for overseeing orientation trips, which were then optional. Under its leadership, first years gathered in Farley Field House, where they spent the night before their departure—a tradition that endured until 2020.

In 2012, orientation trips became mandatory for all incoming students. This shift exponentially increased the number of trips offered both by the McKeen Center and the BOC. This year, the BOC sent out a total of 42 trips across Maine and New Hampshire as well as to Kent Island.

Samantha Cogswell ’11, associate director of the McKeen Center and two-time trip leader, emphasized that the increase in trips enabled the McKeen Center to expand to new parts of Maine it had not previously engaged with.

“When I was a student leader back in the day, there were only about four trips offered, and they were all locally based in [the] Midcoast, except for one that went to North Haven,” Cogswell said. “And so along with [trips becoming mandatory], we had a rise from four trips to about 15 trips, and so that’s when we kind of started expanding our footprint.”

Associate Director of the BOC Anna Bastidas, who came to Bowdoin in 2016, explained that the trips have always been and continue to be a group effort that relies on both professional and student staff.

“Orientation trips are a ‘teamwork makes the dreamwork’ project,” Bastidas wrote in an email to the Orient. “For example, our assistant director, [formerly] Eric Guiang and now Carrigan Fain, manages our kitchen, so they run all of the food pack-out. [BOC Director] Mike Woodruff does a ton with the gear room and equipment for our 42 trips, and I organize transportation. We work with many different departments across campus—the Dean’s Office, Facilities, Athletics, Events, Residential Life—to organize what are hopefully positive experiences that help new students transition to Bowdoin.”

Archival photo courtesy of Nathan Rhodes '98

As the trips became a staple of Bowdoin orientation, their themes expanded to fit the evolving interests of the student body. In this spirit, the McKeen Center started offering orientation trips in 2002.

Sarah Seames, director of the McKeen Center, recalled that in the early years of the McKeen orientation program, students stayed in Brunswick or the greater Brunswick area and actually stayed with local community members. Today, the McKeen Center has spread its roots far and wide, working with 61 community partners all over the state of Maine.

Cogswell also noted that the increase in trips enabled the McKeen Center to demonstrate commitment to community partners it was forging relationships with.

Like many activities at the College, orientation trips were put on pause during the Covid-19 pandemic. In years following, student and professional staff were forced to relearn how to practice a tradition that had been passed on for decades.

Ellie Huntington ’24 coordinated orientation trips for the BOC in 2022 and 2023 without having gone on one herself. She describes the logistical hurdles of Covid-19 testing on trips in 2022.

“We had to include some Covid tests for students to take in the field [off campus], which was sort of a logistical can of worms because we had to theoretically be able to evacuate everyone who tested positive on the second day,” Huntington wrote in an email to the Orient.

This year, the BOC and the McKeen center were able to return to complete normality. Troy Keller ’26, a McKeen student staff member responsible for planning and executing orientation trips, pointed out that this year was vital in reestablishing past relationships that may have been lost during the pandemic.

“For the last few years, we did not work with some community partners because they were still really anxious about the pandemic,” Keller said.  “This year was sort of the first year where we reintroduced ourselves and our students and the Bowdoin community through orientation trips.”