BSA:Inspire Grant

OLEEP has won a grant through Brown Student Agencies.

The BSA: Inspire fund is a semesterly award available to student groups at Brown. The award aims to help create or advance programs or projects which benefit the Brown community.  Visit their website here.

The BSA:Inspire grant will assist OLEEP in accomplishing two goals:

1) Sustaining backpacking and camping trips through equipment purchases and rentals
2) Providing educational field trip opportunities to connect workshop learning with environmental issues and programs throughout Providence and Rhode Island.

-Aaron Reyes ’13

Fundraiser: Brown vs. Yale

November 3, 2012

Early on this blustery Saturday, a group of bleary-eyed OLEEPers met at Aaron’s dorm to walk over to Brown’s football stadium, arriving early enough to see the team arrive and get inspired by the pump up music blaring from the locker room. Aaron, Allison, Hannah, Jenna, Jeremy, Lauren, and Tanya spent the day working the concession stands, assembling and wrapping hot dogs (hand crafted!), carrying trays of food and beverage dispensers, sharpening our mental math skills working the registers, ladling out meatball subs, crafting alluring displays of candy, advocating that people drink Providence’s great tap water instead of buying bottles from us (we are an environmental leadership program after all), and making friends with little kids who told us our hot cocoa was “so chocolatey!” Working from warm up to clean up, we each made a day’s wage that we are donating to OLEEP, which we DOUBLED by asking the generous football fans for donations! All things considered, it was a pretty awesome day. Oh, and Brown beat Yale 20 to nothing, not that we saw any of this happen, hanging out in our concession booths all day and all, where the real action happened, clearly.

-Jenna Steckel ’13

Fundraiser: Brown vs. Cornell

October 20, 2012

Aaron, Abby, and Hannah kicked off our first fundraiser of the semester. Brown University Dining Service offers Group Staffing days for student groups at Brown to work a shift either at the Brown Stadium or The Gate to raise money for their group. We had the chance to work during the Brown vs. Cornell football game where Brown won 21 to 14. We worked on the visitors side and served an assortment of food and beverages to customers. Resources like this at Brown help OLEEP to continue its work at the Met while providing opportunities for mentor bonding and informal program discussions, not to mention the experiences of learning new skills like how to make change for $20, how to make a “maet ball sub,” and how to talk about Brown’s happiest students to Cornell parents!

We cannot wait to do this again on November 3, 2012. Look out for another update!

-Aaron Reyes ’13

The Great Outdoors

October 10, 2012

In preparation for OLEEP’s upcoming day hike, today’s workshop
centered on Leave No Trace (LNT) principles, which outline the
behaviors that hikers and campers should observe to protect the
natural environment and ensure an enjoyable experience for others.
Mentors and mentees discussed guidelines like “Plan ahead and
prepare,” “Travel and camp on durable surfaces,” and “Leave what you
find,” and then prepared short skits to highlight their importance.
After witnessing the inadvisability of feeding bears and disturbing
other hikers, we’ll be sure to keep LNT in mind on our future
excursions into the woods!

-Hannah Poor ’13

October 13, 2012

The day hike was a great success! After packing our bags, we gathered at the Met before heading to Lincoln Woods. We started off the day playing an energizing game of Yeehaw under the beautiful fall leaves. Aaron wowed us with his groovy interpretation of kale in the veggie-off. During the next few hours, we hiked through the woods, ate lots of GORP, and bonded before settling down for a delicious lakeside lunch. Abby, Jeremy, and I facilitated a tree-themed workshop. We played Tree Hugger, and “Importance of Trees” charades. After a discussion about deforestation, we learned all about tree identification and made leaf rubbings. Our day ended with quiet reflection time on the water– a perfect finale to our awesome day!

-Jared Rothenberg ’15

Welcome to OLEEP 2012

Our first workshop was absolutely amazing. We started the day with a Post-It activity where we answered some questions on post-it notes around the room. Next we learned everyone’s name through a fun tarp activity and worked on our team working skills in Gold Line Square. Since it was such a nice fall day in Providence, we went outside for those activities. We moved back into Equality to talk about OLEEP and what it means to us. By going through each letter of “OLEEP” we learned a little bit about each other and the program. Lastly, we broke into small groups to get a sense of who was in the room. We answered a few questions about what we know about environmental science, what we would like to do, and what our favorite outdoor experience had been. Overall, it was a really great first day filled with many get-to-know-you activities. This semester and year is going to be amazing!

Outdoor Leadership Environmental Education Program as defined by the members of OLEEP 2012 – 2013! See all the connections?!

-Aaron Reyes ’13

Mentor Training 2012

George Washington Campground, Chepachet, RI

September 21 – 23, 2012: Our kick-off camping trip for the year. Ten mentors, 5 new and 5 returning, joined the community fellows, Aaron Reyes and Tanya Saxena, on our training trip to Chepachet, RI. We covered topics including Leave No Trace policies, facilitation, curriculum planning, and leadership styles. We had great meals (chili, cornbread, burritos, and GORP). We also played some great games like Zoo and Yee-Haw.

We are all super excited to meet our high school students soon and show them the great potential for OLEEP this year.

Stay tuned!

-Aaron Reyes ’13

An OLEEP Fall!

This past fall, Fall 2010, was an incredible semester for OLEEP.  New and old mentors and mentees alike started the year ready to get outdoors, and ready to learn! Our curriculum for the fall included units on plants and photosynthesis, food and agriculture, and energy flows in ecosystems.  Workshop activities included dissecting vegetables, role-playing games to simulate a food web, and using gummy animals to illustrate trophic cascade! Not only did mentors and mentees have a great time in workshop, but headed outside for some fantastic field trips, such as a trip to CityFarm to learn about composting and get up close and personal with all kinds of plants.

The fall semester also included a wonderful trip to Burlingame State Park, where mentors and mentees alike bonded over delicious rice and beans, playing mafia and singing around the campfire, impromptu dance lessons and book-making lessons.  As sad as we were to see the semester end and to say goodbye to some fantastic graduating mentors and mentees, we had a great fall semester and are excited for this semester’s workshops and trips!

To see The Oleep Beat, a newsletter covering the 2010-2011 academic year, click here!