About AURORA
What is AURORA?
AURORA is Penn State’s award-winning Outdoor Orientation Program. Operating since 1996, we have supported thousands of students during their transition to life at Penn State.
We have also provided leadership opportunities for hundreds of student staff, developing in them skills they can carry forward to their future careers—be it in the outdoors, the boardroom, or anywhere in between.
AURORA offers five-day backpacking and community service experiences for incoming first-year and transfer students. Our trips provide a unique experience for students to escape life’s distractions, gain firsthand knowledge about life on campus from folks currently living it, and earn class credit along the way.
We seek to share insight into how to successfully navigate the challenging transition to life on a college campus while fostering a sense of belonging and community. Students will also learn tangible skills related to backpacking, community service, and communication.
Experiences are facilitated by our trip leaders, made up mostly of Penn State undergraduate students. Each expedition group consists of 10 incoming students and two to three leaders.
AURORA’s Mission
To facilitate unique outdoor experiences designed to support incoming students during their transition to life at Penn State. To build community, foster a sense of belonging, and instill tangible skills that students can rely on for a lifetime.
Program Goals
- Build relationships with fellow incoming students and leaders
- Foster a sense of community students can lean on during their first semester and beyond
- Encourage personal growth and self-reflection
- Build confidence through navigation of challenging experience
- Empower students as they enter college
- Provide insight into what life is like at Penn State and how to navigate it in a healthy and productive manner
Outcomes – Why do an Outdoor Orientation Program?
Outdoor Orientation Programs foster meaningful relationships that carry through college careers, often leading to lifelong connections. They also lead to increased student engagement while on campus, including a higher likelihood of communicating with professors and higher rates of club participation.
AURORA Staff
AURORA employs a diverse and unique group of full and part-time staff that enable this program to run successfully and provide meaningful experience for incoming students year after year.
- Trip Leaders
- These are the folks that truly make the magic happen! They are boots on the ground with our incoming students leading trips each year. They not only manage the health and safety of each group during the expedition (think food, water, shelter, etc.), but they also create a space where students can share about themselves and their fears about college, learn about their peers, be goofy, develop skills, and face challenges head-on.
- Leaders go through a rigorous training process that includes focus on:
- Technical backpacking skills – knots, backcountry cooking, Leave No Trace, wilderness medicine, and more
- Interpersonal skills – communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, emotional support, empathy, and group facilitation
- Judgment skills
- Logistics & Support
- These are the folks that make things happen behind the scenes. All that food and gear that our groups need? This is the crew that buy, maintain, organize, carry, cut, chop, repackage, and generally prepare all of it each season. They have an answer for every question, a solution for every problem, and smiles on their faces. They support our leaders and groups as they prepare for their expeditions, help with transportation, and are on-call for the entirety of the program week in the event that trail groups need support of any kind.
- These folks are trained in all the same concepts as our leaders, with the addition of more emergency response and medical training.
- Full-Time Staff
- This program doesn’t just come together overnight, it takes months of planning and preparation to make it happen. Our dedicated full-time staff live and breathe AURORA year-round. Hiring staff, managing registration, maintaining the gear inventory, securing land-use agreements – you name it, they can handle it. This crew truly carries the torch of AURORA and hold true to the mission with each new year of programming.
Interested in working with us?
Visit our employment page for more information and to fill out an application.