Amelia Crakes has become central in the Outdoor Program since coming to PSU. Before choosing to come to this school Amelia had only been to Portland once as a child, but trusted that this was a place she could flourish. Now, in Amelia’s junior year that is clearly the case as she works as a trip leader, student outreach coordinator, and graphic designer for the ODP. A deep connection to the outdoors is nothing new in Amelia’s life. She grew up around the Pacific NW and was always outside, backpacking, building fairy houses, and more. Amelia states that she is, “passionate about keeping the outdoors a space that everybody can be a part of and have access to. Not just an invitation, but instead, inclusion.” So, when encountering the ODP here, she immediately was interested in joining a community of likeminded people.
Now, Amelia has definitely found those people as she feels lucky to get to be around such great peers and role models at work. Further, Amelia loves the community that she gets to foster and be a part of on group trips. “In trip leading, taking people outdoors and seeing people be anxious or unsure, and then just really accepting the experience as a whole and what they want to do, and finding peace and gratitude in that way is really neat. And seeing people come together and create such a tight community in such a short time.” At the Rec, Amelia also enjoys interacting in community settings, she often goes to GroupX classes with coworkers, creating more meaningful connections and strengthening relationships across departments. In her free time, Amelia often finds herself around friends, “If I have free time, it's usually with other people and just like spending time with the people I love and I care about.”
Along with being outdoors and connecting with friends, Amelia has plenty of hobbies to keep her occupied. You might see her anywhere from hiking and backpacking in the mountains to yoga and pilates here at the Rec. Amelia is a big reader and read 9 books last year! She is also enthusiastic about making and listening to music playlists and loves to spend time crafting and making art. She is interested in printmaking and is studying Art Practice in school. In the future Amelia hopes to find a job where can work around seven months out of the year, and spend the rest of the time traveling, and leading trips outside and/or in other countries. She hopes to someday explore Asia, specifically more mountainous regions like Nepal, Mongolia, or Kazakhstan.
Connecting with others through actions like community and inclusion is important to Amelia and some of her most rewarding moments at the Rec have come through the act of helping others. As a trip leader, Amelia says she started off feeling like the role may not be a good fit, because her leadership and communication style felt very different from other trip leads. But, after being hired and gaining the ability to help other people become confident in trip leading, it was really rewarding because she was able to create different notions of leadership and recognize that we all do things very differently. “A larger takeaway from this experience for Amelia was that, “Just because I'm more bubbly and somewhat less direct, that doesn't mean that a woman can't be assertive and gain respect around her peers and that kind of thing.”
Through her time at the Rec, Amelia has learned and grown a lot. Looking back she would tell new staff that a big reason employees stay at Campus Rec is because of the friends and connections they’ve made. “So, just slowly finding your ground and finding a way to make connections is important, it's so easy to say hi to people and to be kind. Then, it becomes more familiar seeing people around and so by just saying hi to somebody when you’ve seen them around is an easy way to find people that are like minded.” In terms of all students, she hopes that they can see past just getting the degree and “Take time to find the people that feel safe to you, instead of just being with a community because it's a community. It's really easy to feel super lonely when you first get here, so take time to find the people that really fit in your life, in your heart, and with your values and your backstory.”