Libby Flaisher ‘25 | Bridget Murphy ‘25 | Molly Ott ‘25
Outward Bound and Middle School field trips will return this year, similar to the return of May Term trips. The previous cancellations have been because of Covid restrictions. Many members of the EA community are excited for the return of these trips, but others, do not feel sorry they weren’t required to do them.
Outward Bound is a five-day hiking trip in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina that rising freshmen at EA attended in August from 2005 to 2020. Due to Covid restrictions, the trips for the classes of 2024 and 2025 were canceled. The EA administration has finally decided that Outward Bound will return with the incoming Class of 2026.
Photo courtesy of Pepper Claytor ‘23.
Outward Bound has been a valuable experience for students for many years. Kimberly Piersall, Middle School Experiential Learning Coach, has attended Outward Bound for 12 years. She says, “It’s been part of the Upper School curriculum for over ten years now. It’s something that you can’t get on campus, and that’s why we go down there. It’s an opportunity to really show kids that they can do more than they think they can.”
She continues, “They give themselves the opportunity and the grace to say, ‘I’m going to try this challenge and see what I can do.’ Sometimes they recognize that it was easier than they thought it was going to be, or that it was really difficult, but they’re glad they tried it because they want to try it again. There are a lot of different ways that it manifests itself.”
Michael Letts, Head of Upper School, explains that the current sophomores and freshmen will not attend Outward Bound. He comments, “Unfortunately, we just couldn’t make the logistics work. We looked at possibly sending both classes at various times and potentially taking away May Term, but we didn’t particularly want to do that. Then on top of it, North Carolina just couldn’t handle the size of our group.”
Murray and kelly (freshman)
Letts, along with Tanuja Murray and John Kelly, the sophomore and freshman form deans, discussed the possibilities with the Outward Bound staff. He says, “We just kept exploring potential options, and their directors down there have based their decisions on the restrictions from the state of North Carolina. What we were seeing was it just wasn’t going to work.”
Some members of the community believe that the sophomores and freshmen missed a great opportunity with the loss of the Outward Bound trip. Piersall remarks on the excused classes, saying, “I feel like it is a little bit of a missed opportunity, so I would really look forward to those kids that haven’t gone yet to be able to go.”
On the other hand, a Scholium survey was sent out to the freshman and sophomore classes asking if they felt they missed an opportunity by not attending Outward Bound. About 65 percent of the students said they did not, and 27 percent said they did miss an opportunity. Max Lubsen ‘24 says, “I probably would be much better suited to do Outward Bound now. I’ve heard very conflicting things: I’ve heard it was the worst thing ever, and I’ve heard it was fine. I generally don’t really care. I do wish that we went on more field trips, but I didn’t really care that we missed it.”
Imana Legette, Head of Middle School, says that Middle School field trips will also return this year. She says, “I’m excited that we can get back to a little bit of normalcy this year. Our kids are going to go to Echo Hill and Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, Williamsburg didn’t quite make it through the pandemic, but a wonderful sixth grade team has created a trip for Boston that is right in line with the curriculum. I think it’s going to be a really fun alternative for our kids.”
Besides the new Boston trip, Legette states that the Echo Hill and D.C. trips will run similarly to past years. Legette, along with other Middle School faculty, decided that after two years of missed field trips, they were “truly necessary for the mental wellbeing of our students and to give faculty an opportunity to have the experience.”
Letts comments that the discussion of field trips also includes conversations about vaccination requirements. He adds, “There are still some locations or museums that are requiring vaccination for entering, so we want to be thoughtful and not feel like any students who may not have a vaccination can’t participate.”
Many students in the Middle School are excited about the return of field trips. Molly Lo ‘27 says, “I’m really looking forward to the trip to Echo Hill this year. We haven’t gone on a field trip for a really long time because of Covid. I feel like field trips have always been a highlight of the year for some of us because they are a little break from super academic work, and they also allow us to spend time with our classmates in a different setting. Echo Hill is supposed to be a really cool experience, so me and my friends can’t wait.”