Peaks & Professionals

Credit: Kristina Vateva

What is Peaks & Professionals? I thought you took Professors on hikes?

Great question! Peaks & Professionals is one of our most exciting initiatives and stems from our desire to connect USC students with successful professionals who have made nature and the outdoors an integral part of their career. While meaningful outdoor adventures with professors remains at the core of our mission, we discovered that conversations on our hike often brought up a common issue, an issue shared by both participants and Trip Leads. In short, students had an undeniable passion for nature but when faced with choosing internships, jobs, and a career, they felt they needed to push that enthusiasm to the side and choose a field unconnected to the outdoors. As a group who wants to Think Outside, we thought that was quite a shame and wanted to do something about it.

To address this void of environmental role models in the professional space, we made a commitment to partner with prominent businesspeople, activists, and dynamic leaders who shared a common desire to integrate nature into their various career paths. We kicked off this project in Fall 2017 with our inaugural Peaks & Professionals hike with Casey Schreiner, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Modern Hiker, where he offered thoughts on his experience turning a casual side-project into a full-time job creating detailed summaries of many Southern California hikes.

Our goal with Peaks & Professionals is to showcase how the outdoors can intersect with any kind of professional career and how the interdisciplinary exploration we pursue at USC is also possible after graduation! Professors and intellectual engagement will always be at the heart of our club but now you can explore how to integrate nature into your lifelong career paths through meaningful conversations with professionals who have been in your Chacos.

What kind of professionals do we hike with?

We hike with a variety of professionals! As of Spring 2018, we've hiked with an outdoors journalist, a wildlife biologist, and the regional manager of an organization that protects clean water and beaches. We'd be stoked to connect with anyone who is interested in hiking with us so if you or someone you know is a professional who fits the bill, get in touch with us here!

You can browse upcoming Peaks & Professionals trips in this tag.