Gettysburg Recreation and Adventure Board (GRAB)

From hikes near Gettysburg to kayaking in Alaska, the Gettysburg Recreational Adventure Board (GRAB) sponsors experiences for students, alumni and staff.

GRAB reaches out to new students before their first day in class. On five-day Ascent trips, new students  kayak, hike, or rock climb with upper-class facilitators in August prior to Orientation.  Nearly all new students participate in on-campus ropes course activities during Orientation.

Being a GRAB student facilitator is an intense leadership experience. For example, Ashley Bone and Chuck Steiner not only traveled across the nation and exceeded 400 hours of training and field experience, but also participated in a selective hiring process. Local trips prepared them for settings like Yosemite, Baja, and Scotland.  "I love being out in the back country,” said Bone. “There is just something about it that just brings about this true reality of everything in yourself.”

Each spring, facilitators head to an in-depth Wilderness Institute. "it's like the next level--bringing out experts, whether it's expert climber or a kayaker--to give us those hard skills and also work on our facilitator skills," said Steiner. Through a blog, you can share in the 2008’s institute in Colorado’s Southern Sawatch Range and more.

Facilitators often begin as students who "have never been in the outdoors before, or at least at this level, but they've had this eye-opening, tremendous experience, physically, mentally, emotionally, and really end up taking ownership,”  said Director of Experiential Education John Regentin.