Becoming an OA Leader for Princeton and Beyond
Becoming an OA Leader is one of the most valuable things a student can do during their time at Princeton. OA provides one of the most extensive leadership development programs on campus. We teach skills that allow students to develop their confidence to make critical decisions, assess their group and develop effective communication, respect each other, and encourage students to experience outside their comfort zone.
What OA does well is to create an experiential leadership laboratory where leaders-in-training get to practice their skills, and learn through coaching and mentoring of experienced Leaders and Leader Trainers. This model of peer to peer learning, is the most effective way to enhance leadership.
We hear all the time from alumni of the program who tell us that it is the leadership skills they learned through OA that they end up using throughout their life.
Frosh Trip
The Outdoor Action Frosh Trip is the largest single outdoor orientation program in the U.S. As one of the four small-group experiences within Orientation, nearly half of the incoming class begins their Princeton experience with a four-day outdoor trip each fall with activities like backpacking, biking, canoeing, farming, and rock climbing. With the guidance of a dedicated group of Outdoor Action leaders—Princeton upperclass students—new students learn not only about campus life, but also about themselves and their new classmates by learning to work together as part of a team.
OA Leaders, as role models and mentors, serve as a resource for new students on community values and campus social life and academics to support with the transition of new students. Since it began in 1974, more than 18,000 new students have participate in the Frosh Trip and nearly 7,000 leaders. Below is what some new students have shared about their Frosh Trip experience.
I really loved OA and think it helped me so much. Before OA I was really nervous about fitting in and finding friends at Princeton,
but OA showed me how awesome Princeton students are and how easy it is to make friends.
I felt much better going into orientation week knowing that I already had a strong network of friends.
I made friends in my OA trip that I will probably have for life, we became that close.
We all still hang out multiple times every week and I'm just so glad that I have this group to help me transition
and be there for me when times are tough in Princeton. The conversations about Princeton social life
made me feel much more at ease and excited to start my life at Princeton because
I felt confident that I would find a place where I fit in.
The most valuable part was definitely the teambuilding and group bonding that went on throughout the trip.
It was good to first get an introduction to college life in an environment where factors such as
appearance and social status mattered very little. I felt that the OA environment
reduced the tendency to be judgmental and instead encouraged people to search for similarities
and make friends who might otherwise have been outside of their social circle.
This trip really helped me to see that the other students I would meet at Princeton
were very similar to me in many respects, that they had many of the same fears and
apprehensions as I did and that I wasn't alone in feeling nervous or overwhelmed.
It was a huge help to return to Princeton already having a strong network of friends,
especially the upperclassmen leaders that I knew I could turn to if I ever needed help.
Leader Training Program
While Frosh Trip is the single largest part of Outdoor Action, there would be no Frosh Trip without highly trained leaders. The OA Leader Training Program which takes place in both the fall and spring semesters is the ‘engine’ that drives the rest of the program. We believe that all students can benefit from the Leader Training program and should have the opportunity to develop their leadership skills through the training that OA offers. The principle that “anyone can become a leader” is a cornerstone of the program.
Teaching leadership is not a simple task. Becoming an Outdoor Action Leader is much more than learning technical skills. It requires mastering listening and communication, group facilitation, conflict management, and mentoring—all of which is taught through a values-oriented framework that encourages diversity and tolerance. Over half of the students who become OA Leaders had their first outdoor experience on the OA Frosh Trip. This illustrates how effective Frosh Trip is in encouraging incoming students to take on leadership roles on campus. Here is what some leaders have said about their leadership experience with Outdoor Action:
For me, the most important aspect of leadership is self-awareness: Understanding what I am doing
and how my decisions will affect others. From self-awareness comes the ability to reflect,
which is a crucial step towards improving one’s leadership. Also tied with improvement is the ability to both give
and receive constructive feedback on a leadership experience. Finally, a good leader demonstrates flexibility
and resiliency; she is willing to adapt to new situations and is not fazed by successive challenges
that seem impossible to overcome. With these five characteristics, an individual is prepared to respond
to new situations and able to continually improve her course of action; anyone is able to follow a detailed list
of tasks to accomplish a pre-determined goal, but strong leadership is necessary to overcome the new and unexpected situations.
Our trip was successful not only because my Co-leader and I were trained well to lead,
but because OA’s strong foundations gave us frameworks to work with and adjust as we went along.
Our trip had its fair share of challenges, but we were able to comfortably improvise
to keep things safe and fun for our Frosh. I wish I could adequately describe how much OA has meant
and means to me, but I don’t think I can. At best I can say that it has helped me grow,
made me feel like a part of an exciting and welcoming community, and
shown me how it is possible to actually have (and witness) one’s positive impact on another human being.