Lindsey Morck was a student on Passages Northwest’s very first Summer Adventure in 1997, and has participated in three trips since then. She was an intern in 2001 on the Hiking Summer Adventure for girls going into 5th and 6th grade. Here are her thoughts on that experience.

"There have been uncountable occasions in my life where I have learned something from someone I know. Everything I’ve learned is priceless. Yet far more rare, and arguably more valuable, are the times when I have been the teacher. After all, is there no greater joy than knowing you have made a positive impact on someone else’s life?

This summer I had the opportunity to be an intern on a Passages Northwest course with two extraordinary instructors, Laura Woodcock and Jessica Rice. I have been a student in four PNW courses over four summers, so I was thrilled at the chance to see things from another perspective and continue to work with such a fun and rewarding organization. Therefore, when I joined this trip, I knew how everything was supposed to go as a student while at the same time I knew almost nothing of instructing. Yet watching Laura and Jess was a revelation in itself. Everything from how they handled a change in plans when a road was closed to how they answered the girls’ questions or lit the camp stove helped me with my own teaching skills.

Our trip was the first of its kind at PNW. We were taking five ten and eleven-year-old girls, the youngest students yet on a PNW course, on a five-day hiking trip. This involved a hike of almost two miles with everything we would need on our backs and three days thick with mosquitoes. It was an epic adventure, taking four hours after leaving the van to reach our campsite. Yet it was by no means miserable. Throughout the trip we enjoyed day hikes, variations of hide and seek, and exploring tadpole ponds. While I taught the students how to load backpacks and wear them comfortably, I learned how to keep the group going and how to encourage the girls when the going got tough.

I can think of few times when I have found so much delight overcoming so many trials.

I hope to be a teacher eventually, and this trip has given me not only skills, it has given me amazing confidence. I strove to teach courage and self-reliance to our students, and in doing so I gained those same skills myself. And I can promise you there are few jobs in the world as great."