About
From August 7-10, 2023, The City College Outdoors Project, an initiative run through the Office of the President at The City College of New York, held their first-ever Outdoor Leadership & Team Building Retreat. The program invited students, faculty and staff to the Stephen & Betsy Corman Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) Harriman Outdoor Center, located only 30 miles away from Manhattan in Harriman State Park, which is New York State’s second largest State Park. As part of an outdoors initiative, Dee Dee Mozeleski, Ashley Mastroddi and Akasha Solis specially crafted this summer retreat for students to once again join what is now a 7-year old tradition.
The retreat was led by AMC guides who are outdoor professionals trained in Wilderness Medicine, outdoor skills and natural history. Mrs. Mastroddi and Ms. Solis collaborated with the AMC guides to create this unique program where students, faculty, staff and alumni learned key leadership skills and productive team building capabilities all while being safely immersed in the outdoors. Participants had opportunities to hike, kayak, canoe, swim, stargaze or just sit by a campfire during this immersive sleep-away experience.
Our staff, Dee Mozeleski; Vice President of the Office of Institutional Advancement, Communications, and External Relations, Ashley Mastroddi; City College Outdoor Programs Manager, and Akasha Solis; City College Special Projects Manager, arranged transportation for the CCNY attendees, which aimed at providing accessibility and ease on this short 1 hour drive. Our mission, to democratize the outdoors, is to create accessibility and greater representation in the outdoor community. As we have seen, outdoor organizations are only now starting to include people of color, however, there is still a very long way to go. Our project aims to uplift underserved communities from all religions, backgrounds, ethnicities, and the LGBQIA+ community, to provide our CCNY community with experiences where they can bond with one another, create a lasting community, and connect with the outdoors in ways they may have not been able to before.
In attendance, we had both graduate and undergraduate students from various backgrounds such as Communications: ADV & PR, Financial Economics, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, Political Science Psychology, Computer Science, Biomedical Science and Pre-Med. Faculty members included Ashley Mastroddi, Akasha Solis, Edson Perez Amaya, Project Manager for Office of Institutional Advancement & Communications and Sarai Perez, Alumni Relations & Communications Manager. A dedicated alum, Shawn Chin Chance also had the pleasure of joining for this retreat.
Our team looks forward to providing more safe spaces and inclusivity in the outdoors, and we greatly thank our team at the Appalachian Mountain Club who made this possible.
Last Updated: 03/05/2024 09:16