News Release

Local angles: Blowing Rock, Greensboro,
Oak Island, Raleigh, Reidsville; Bethlehem, Pa.

Five UNC students face wilderness,
learn survival skills over summer

CHAPEL HILL — Five UNC students learned teamwork and basic survival skills over the summer thanks to Outward Bound Scholarships provided by the Carolina Center for Public Service.

The scholarships fund tuition at the North Carolina Outward Bound School in Black Mountain. Four to five winners annually spend 28 days over the summer living outside and building survival skills with a team.

The five 2005 recipients were Katie Almirall, a junior art major from Oak Island; Lucy Chesnutt, a junior environmental studies major from Blowing Rock; Meredith Gilliam, a junior chemistry and Asian studies major from Raleigh; Bynum Hoekstra, a senior environmental studies major from Greensboro; and Kathryn Leigh Thomas, a senior nursing major from Reidsville.

The students said the experience taught them compassion and teamwork and increased their confidence. "If you find compassion within yourself, not only do you feel that you have challenged yourself, but you have also made an imprint on another life," Chesnutt said.

Thomas used her nursing skills several times during the experience. "Somewhere in the middle of it all, I fell completely in love with nursing," she said. "That revelation was one of the most fulfilling of my life. I felt confident that I was going in the right direction, because I loved helping people, and I will be forever grateful that Outward Bound and the Carolina Center for Public Service afforded me this experience."

Applications for 2006 scholarships will be available in December on the center Web site at http://www.unc.edu/cps/trainings/OB/. Applications will be due Jan. 27.

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Note: Additional student quotes available for publication are listed below by hometown:

Almirall: "Thanks to my crewmates, who helped me understand how to function in the community we built and sustained so carefully, I felt as if all the communities I had belonged to my whole life were boiled down to these two: the woods and my crew. Service became a way of life, it was LNT (leave-no-trace) camping, it was taking a break for a tired crew member, it was making sure we all made it to the top, together."

"It makes me realize how important and fulfilling it is, metaphorically speaking, to get everybody up the mountain. And that’s what community service is all about."

Gilliam: "In some way I want to try to make the world work a little bit more like the microcosm of our crew in the wilderness, as we cooperated and supported each other, pooling our various strengths together to face challenges."

Hoekstra: "After this experience, I feel so much more confident in my ability to achieve things, as well as my leadership ability. Almost every day we accomplished seemingly impossible tasks, and this built up a strong sense of pride. After the course, I feel like I can accomplish anything I set my mind to do.

"I think that the greatest lesson I learned from the course is that no one person can accomplish things on their own. Ultimately, we need a strong network of support when faced with difficult tasks.

"This point is illustrated well by the high ropes course that we spent
an entire day doing. Only three people of our crew of 12 would be on the ropes
at a time, so every other person was on the ground yelling words of encouragement.

"While only an individual can complete the course himself, he depends so much on the encouragement of his friends to help him through the hard parts. Also, I think that this course has reinforced my belief that one of the most productive things we, as humans, can do is to show compassion and care for each other in times of great stress."

Thomas: "Each day was a new adventure and challenge that tested me physically, mentally and emotionally. As a result, the way I live my life has been transformed. I am also more appreciative of life in general with all of its ups and downs. I see each moment as a chance for growth, and I am motivated to not waste on moment of my time. I was to continue challenging myself and working to make a difference in the world."

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Carolina Center for Public Service contact: Elaine Tola, (919) 843-7567 or etola@email.unc.edu
News Services contacts: Print, L.J.Toler, (919) 962-8589; broadcast, Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595