Bears, ‘Hoodoos’ & Nights Under the Stars: C.W. Post Honors Students Experience the Wilderness at Bryce Canyon, Utah

‘Partners in the Parks’ outings connect students with America’s national parks

Brookville, N.Y. – Breathtaking vistas, nights under the stars and even an encounter with a bear – honors students from the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University experienced all these and more on a recent trip to Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.

Students Angelica Atkins, Claire Campanella and Tom Klimas-Mikalauskas and Joan Digby, Ph.D., director of the C.W. Post Honors Program and Merit Fellowship, spent six days in the sprawling national park in southern Utah. They were part of a group that also included a contingent from Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus: Rony Enriquez, Jessica Malloy and Michelle Rodrígez, and faculty representative Srividhya Swaminathan.

In all, 24 students from colleges and universities that are members of the National Collegiate Honors Council took part in the trip. Digby conceptualized the field-based learning adventure as the first in what she envisions as a “Partners in the Parks” series that will foster strong attachments among college students to America’s great natural legacy.

“I learned that I had it in me to push myself through miles of desert and then sleep in a tent for the first time in 30-degree weather in seven layers of clothing,” said Campanella, a junior from Hicksville, N.Y. majoring in finance. “What I’m really saying is that I’m proud of myself, because I had no idea that I could do this.”

Southern Utah University hosted the week-long “Wilderness as Text” experience. The group was guided by SUU professor and Honors Director Matt Nickerson and English professor Todd Peterson, both experienced back country hikers and outdoorsmen. SUU geology professor Robert L. Eves guided students among “hoodoos,” the striking stone formations for which the park is known.  Enriquez at one point came face to face with a bear. Campanella and Klimas-Mikalauskas took a 13-mile hike with an overnight stay in the canyon.

Digby said she hopes to organize more outings in conjunction with the National Parks Service and the National Collegiate Honor Council. The inspiration for the “Partners in the Parks” program came, she said, during a visit to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado in 2006.

“I realized that few Long Island University students had ever experienced the great wilderness conserved by the National Park Service,” she said.

Posted: June 8, 2007

The splendor of Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah	Hiking the trail down “Wall Street”
C.W. Post student Angelica Atkins, left, and Long Island University Brooklyn Campus student Jessica Malloy	C.W. Post students Claire Campanella and Tom Klimas-Mikalauskas