With sensitivity, compassion, curious minds and open hearts, our alumni and leaders are contributing in powerful and significant ways. Their work has surpassed our greatest hopes. The following is a small sampling of individuals who have enjoyed many years traveling on “The Road” with RLT.
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Jake Berman
Brown University '02, Tufts University School of Medicine '10
RLT Alum: Water and Rocks '95, Leadership Challenge '96
RLT Leader: Trails in Time '02, Crests and Canyons '02, Water and Rocks '03, Pura Vida '04, Namasté '05, Ridges and Rapids '05
The Road Less Traveled has had a profound impact on my life direction. My leadership role helped me to understand just how important forming direct human connections, a central aspect of clinical medicine, was to me. RLT has affected my life deeply by introducing me to a large number of the people who have most influenced my life. The Road Less Traveled gave us an opportunity to get to know each other authentically in an environment that consistently brought out our best, true selves. Most significantly, all of my experiences with RLT helped form a sort of code that I have since aspired to live by; a steadfast, integrated ethic of self-awareness and curiosity, compassion and rigor, that underlies both my attitude and behavior and guides my perspective on most matters in life. Professionally, I hope to use that RLT-informed ethic in working as a clinician, addressing public health challenges, and offering what services I can to those around me and to the world.
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Max Gibson
Naropa University ‘08
RLT Alum: Trails in Time ‘98, Trails in Time ‘99, Leadership Challenge ‘05
RLT Leader: Call of the Wild ‘06, Hujambo ‘07, Water and Rocks ‘08, Call of the Wild ‘08
As a participant, trips with RLT were my salvation after a year of schoolwork. I remember lying in my tent at thirteen, listening to a pack of wolves howl in the middle of the night. The sound gave me goose bumps and awoke in me a raw love for the wild that has never left. Connecting with my leaders had a huge impact on me. I felt like they saw me more clearly and with less judgment than anyone ever had before, and that gave me permission to be who I wanted to be. The profound impression my leaders had on me as a participant definitely led me to become a leader as well. RLT remains my summer salvation. I hope to continue to be of service and to travel.
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Tom Huntoon
University of Pennsylvania ‘02, Columbia University Teachers College ‘10
RLT Alum: Water and Rocks '95, Leadership Challenge '96
RLT Leader: Fire and Sky '99, Wild Wild West Family '00, Trails in Time '02, Leadership Challenge '05, Sigue No Más '06
I measure success in terms of the friendships and relationships that I have had the chance to form, maintain, and relish. Some of the friendships I value the most have come through my summers with The Road Less Traveled. Being a teacher allows me to work with young adults on a daily basis as they are in the midst of an amazing period of growth and self-discovery. I can’t imagine any other work as important or satisfying. I want to continue to work to become the best teacher I can be. I want to continue to travel extensively and to start an international health foundation with some fellow RLT leaders. |
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Nicole Wiznitzer
Rhode Island School of Design ‘13
RLT Alum: Los Cayucos '06, Namaste ‘07, Midnight Sun '08
RLT Intern: Water and Rocks '09
The Road Less Traveled has helped me to remain grounded and calm, and helped me to achieve what I consider my greatest accomplishment over the past few years — getting to know myself and who I want to be. At my school, I am currently co-chairing the community service organization, called Va’ad Tikun Olam (repairing the world). We plan drives, visit the elderly, raise money and awareness about Darfur, and much more. I find that the time I spent with the Kuna Indians in the San Blas Islands with RLT informs and enriches my imagination about all service, reminding me of the power of connection that all service really implies. RLT has taught me to live for the moment. When thinking about the future now, I hope to continue to personally grow, stay grounded, and remember all of the places I have seen and the people I have met. |
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Chris Bremner
Brown University ‘06
RLT Alum: Water and Rocks ‘98, Leadership Challenge ‘99, Midnight Sun ‘00
RLT Leader: Trails in Time ‘01, Fire and Sky ‘03, Water and Rocks ‘04, El Sendero ‘05, Footsteps of Giants ‘06, Baleia Bonita ‘06, Midnight Sun ‘07
The Road Less Traveled has been the seminal experience of my life. The emotional space that these summers hold in my memory continues to prove the deepest well of assurance I possess, assurance of both myself and the goodness of the world. RLT has bred in me a confidence that asserts nothing to be personally impossible, short of something maybe like the NFL. So, for now I am a screenwriter and pursuing private interests in the water sector, but I am also working on my long ball. My only complaint would be that my time with this company nourishes a constant nostalgia. I would like to climb Mt. McKinley in the next couple of years, and run the Iditarod by thirty. I hope to ease the emerging water crisis via international privatization. I could also see myself in Naval Officer Candidate School.
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Annika Swanson
Yale University‘05
RLT Leader: Midnight Sun '02, El Sendero ‘03, Los Cayucos '04, Namaste '05
I hope to create positive change in the world; to run a marathon; to become bilingual; to spend as much time outdoors in beautiful places and to help others experience and enjoy the wilderness; to reduce my ecological footprint and help preserve the wilderness; to help business, social, and public sectors work together more effectively to tackle the world’s greatest challenges; to keep learning about and learning from other cultures; to truly live my values; to grow my own vegetables; to be happy and make others happy. |
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Adele Sweetnam
Yale University ‘06
RLT Leader: Los Cayucos ‘06, El Sendero ‘08
What I love about the Road Less Traveled is how it enables you to connect with others in a very human way. Getting muddy digging ditches, sharing a golden ocean sunset with the group, being invited into the living room of a Kuna family, running through pouring, warm tropical rain, cooking tamales with local moms — that’s how you get to know and enjoy other people. It’s moments like these that you push beyond the structure of school, the norms of your social circle, the barriers of tourism. It’s a powerful experience that I carry with me, and know that participants carry with them, aspiring to find that same depth of connection wherever I go and whatever I pursue.
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Stephanie King
Amherst ‘10
RLT Alum: Trails in Time ‘01, Ridges & Rapids ‘02, Pura Vida ‘03, Great Divide ‘04, Leadership Challenge ‘06
RLT Leader: Los Cayucos ‘07, Call of the Wild ‘08
The Road Less Traveled gave me the chance to challenge myself and to relax at the same time. I gained a greater appreciation for the world around me and became more environmentally aware. My experiences with RLT were so influential that I wanted to return as a leader to ensure that others would have similar experiences. In a few years? Graduate. Down the road? It’s open for discussion — having a successful business would be great (it’s in the works), but I’m also considering working abroad with Doctors Without Borders.
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Guy Henry
University of Colorado Boulder ‘04, U.S. Navy Flight School ‘07
RLT Alum: Trails in Time ‘96, Peaks and Valleys ‘97, Leadership Challenge ‘99
There is no way to neatly sum up the impact of The Road Less Traveled — lessons continue to find their way into day-to-day life more than ten years after the fact. I vividly recall the profound experiences of my three summers spent on The Road Less Traveled. The adventure of the journey is something I try to find in every day. It was through RLT that I cultivated a life-long love of the outdoors and a yearning for remote, far-off places. I began growing the skill set and confidence to explore nature and the wilderness. RLT’s focus on loving the adventure of the journey, not just focusing on the destination, is something I strive to apply in my own life at every step. Currently, I fly SH-60B helicopters for the U.S. Navy. I hope to continue on my current path — it’s not about the destination.
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Meredith Deal
Brown University ‘05, Washington University in St. Louis ‘09
RLT Alum: Crests and Canyons ‘98, Fire and Sky ‘99, Water and Rocks ‘00
Climbing Mt. Rainier with RLT still ranks high on my list of major accomplishments. The group dynamic was a huge building experience for me. I learned how to communicate and depend on people in a group, and it also helped instill in me a sense of self at the same time. I am now a third-year law student at Washington University, and eventually I would like to go into criminal practice and work with law enforcement. I hope to construct and prosecute cases and help make the justice system more fair.
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Tim “Timo” Weymouth
Hamilton College ‘95, Columbia University Teachers College ‘02
RLT Leader: Trails in Time ‘97, The Great Divide ‘98, Water and Rocks ‘99, Australian Walkabout ‘01, Australian Walkabout ‘02, Footsteps of Giants ‘04
For many years, RLT gave me a chance to do what all of the trip leaders love best: get young people out into the wilderness and see the world of possibilities that emerge from such an experience. What I always loved, both in staff training and on a trip, was the obvious synergy that happens with RLT. It proves that people moving toward common goals can truly accomplish marvelous things, whether it is climbing Rainier, trying to buy a simple loaf of bread in a tiny foreign village, or getting our hands dirty helping out the locals. I am now the year-round Upper School Director at St. Peter’s School in Philadelphia, PA. I am happily married to Dr. Kate Weymouth who besides being brilliant, helps me stay out of trouble. My 3-year-old son Jack tends to get me back into trouble, however. After a couple of decades in the education business, I plan on moving my family out west and digging back into the wilderness.
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Kelly Spence
Bates College ‘01, Georgetown Foreign Service Program ‘08
RLT Leader: The Great Divide ‘01, Los Cayucos ‘05
The Road Less Traveled has helped me gain perspective through major life transitions by reminding me of what is truly important. From backpacking the Tetons to paddling cayucos in the San Blas Islands of Panama, to working in the Chicago office, I have been touched by participants, my fellow co-leaders, the Kuna population, and the RLT staff in life-altering ways. Being constantly surrounded at RLT by such positive, balanced people has made me expect nothing less in my relationships ever since — whether professional, academic, or personal. RLT nurtured a passion in me that has driven all my endeavors, from learning Chinese, to two years with the Peace Corps in Togo, to working with USAID in Tanzania. I hope to work for women’s rights and empowerment in regions transitioning out of war.
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Rachel Scott
Swarthmore College ‘05
RLT Alum: Fire and Sky ‘98, Leadership Challenge ‘99, Midnight Sun '00
RLT Leader: Water and Rocks '01, Peaks and Valleys '02, Ridges and Rapids '04
My experiences with The Road Less Traveled taught me some important lessons: how to live happily with almost nothing, how to build a family out of strangers, how to chop garlic (thank you, Jim), how to find joy in simple beauty, how to dig deep in myself for the strength to tackle the impossible. RLT has also directly shaped where I am professionally. Since graduating college, I have worked in Boston as a youth mentor for Summer Search, a leadership development program for low-income high school students. The ultimate goal is to help them become first-generation college students and break the cycle of poverty. A major program component is providing scholarships for wilderness trips. Because of my life-changing summers with RLT, I am now dedicated to helping low-income students use these experiences to catalyze lasting change in their own lives. I hope to take on increasing leadership with Summer Search, helping them to grow in Boston and nationally.
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