Every year, the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC) hosts two semester-long Leadership Training (LT) sessions with the objective of training students to lead BOC trips for their peers. For the past few years, the BOC has accepted applications for fall semester LT the previous spring, a departure from the longer tradition of opening up applications during the first few weeks of the fall semester.

This semester, the BOC reverted to its former schedule, opening applications for fall LT at the start of the semester. This change meant that the fall applications this year were open to first-year students, along with all other class years. In an email to the Orient, Associate Director of the Outing Club Anna Bastidas expressed the reasoning for the change.

“[We] decided to return to our former timeline of opening up applications in the fall so new students could apply,” Bastidas wrote. “Our hope was to create an opportunity for new students excited about leading trips for the BOC to apply for this program earlier in their Bowdoin experience.”

Additionally, due to the change, students who applied for LT this fall departed for their first trip only a day after they were notified of their acceptance to the program. Nellie Ross ’26, a BOC officer, commented on this quick turnaround, noting the opportunity it provides students to lead more trips.

“I think it’s definitely been a little rushed, and that could be stressful for people just because the applications were due, and then they got the results, and then the next day they left for their first trip,” Ross said. “But I do think it’s really awesome because it gives first years an opportunity to do LT early on if they want, and that just means you have more semesters to lead trips. I think for first years [who] really know [what] they want to get involved with coming into Bowdoin, they can start right away doing a thing that they’re really excited about.”