Today marks Carrigan Fain’s last day as assistant director of the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC). In an email sent over winter break, Associate Director of the BOC Anna Bastidas announced Fain’s decision to leave the College and accept the position of sea kayak instructor trainer at North Carolina Outward Bound School. Bastidas expressed her gratitude for Fain’s work in her message.

“We are incredibly grateful for all of Carrigan’s contributions over the past semester,” Bastidas wrote. “We will miss the tremendous enthusiasm that she brought to her work.”

Fain joined the BOC early in the fall semester following the departure of Eric Guiang ’18, who had served as assistant director of the BOC since 2018. During Fain’s semester at the College, she helped Bastidas co-instruct BOC leadership training, lead trips and help student leaders plan their own outings.

“You know, to me, it actually felt really natural to see Eric go but then Carrigan show up because of how well she picked everything up,” BOC officer Robbie Mckee ’25 said.

Until a new assistant director is hired, Fain’s responsibilities will be split between Bastidas and BOC Club Director Mike Woodruff. The BOC’s spring semester programming will be relatively unaffected.

“While it’s unfortunate that we won’t be able to work with Carrigan for longer at Bowdoin, I am truly excited for her and think that it is a wonderful next step for her,” Bastidas wrote in an email to the Orient. “The most difficult part of this staffing change was deciding how to adjust our program for the upcoming semester. Now that we made those decisions, we’re ready to launch into a fun-filled winter season and spring semester.”

The search process for Fain’s successor is already underway. Bastidas hopes the position will be filled by the end of the semester or sooner. Bastidas also added that once finalists have been narrowed down, BOC officers will be invited to meet them and offer their perspective.

“I think that the best candidates for that job are people who are [not only] really passionate about the outdoors, of course, but are really good at meeting people where they are,” McKee said. “I think Carrigan did that really, really well.”