Students and staff can look forward to more robust programming with the Grinnell Outdoor Recreation Program (GORP) this academic year, with increased offerings of outdoor trips, clinics and available equipment for rental. With the hiring of Amanda Preperato as program director, the team behind GORP has spent a year refining policies and procedures to allow more Grinnellians to experience outdoor sports.
Preperato came to Grinnell from the University of Maryland-College Park in August 2023, where she also worked in student development and outdoor adventure programs. For her, students are at the heart of what she does.
“We’re a gateway program designed to introduce people to the outdoors, so no previous experience is necessary,” she said. “My goal for participants is that they’re having these positive, introductory outdoor experiences to foster a connection to the natural world.”
According to the program webpage on Grinnell Athletics, this fall semester, the climbing wall opens for two hours everyday, with biweekly belay certification classes. Meanwhile, off-campus adventure trips happen weekly to state parks, with a five-day backpacking trip to the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois taking place over fall break. All GORP activities are free of charge.
Preperato explained that while last year focused more on modifying and developing best practices for managing student employees and participants, this year, GORP would go “full swing” in organizing activities with a greater focus on creativity and accessibility.
For example, Preperato said student trip leaders took a new physical education course on adventure leadership as part of their training last semester. This year, GORP hopes to organize clinics on other climbing techniques aside from belaying, and in other sports like kayaking. Additionally, there is a goal to bring back adventure-based pre-orientation programs for incoming first years.
For Preperato, who came from a large institution, not charging students for outdoor programming has been “great in terms of eliminating barriers to access.” However, she said she now faces a new challenge –– “It’s more likely that people are going to drop out.” Hence, starting this semester, GORP will also switch from a first-come-first-serve registration system to a lottery for their off-campus trips, in what Preperato said will “hopefully offer opportunities to more numbers of unique students” to taste the outdoors.
She explained, “You get three entries into the lottery for that trip, and then it’s randomly-generated who gets to go. If you cancel within five days of a trip, in the next lottery, you’ll lose one entrance.”
Student worker Sam Emison `26 said that “a big piece” behind the program’s growth this past year was Preperato’s advocacy for the program and her emphasis on training student employees. “She knew what we would have the capacity to do with a larger budget and had goals for GORP for the future,” he said.
Anya Troyer `27, another student worker, said GORP was hoping to hire more students in Spring 2025 to further expand programming. She said the opportunity to provide resources and introduce more people to outdoor sports had been very rewarding, while Emison added that the independence required to plan and lead trips had made him “more comfortable taking charge of the group, but also made them feel like they’re in good hands.”
“GORP is student powered … my role is to support them,” said Preperato. “The thing that I think is most fulfilling to my work is getting to see them develop all these skills, and then be the people that are sharing and educating their peers.”
Come the spring, Emison said that he was excited to see more traveling and resources put into GORP. “It’s a great resource for Grinnell students that not everyone really knows about,” he said. “Even if it’s just a day trip on the weekend … GORP is totally here to help you, figuring out what you want to do in addition to getting gear.”
“I’m from the Midwest, but I think even I had a preconceived notion that there wasn’t really much to do in Iowa,” said Troyer. “GORP has shown me that there’s actually a lot of cool things to explore. You just have to look a little harder for it.”
