Freshman Outdoor Orientation Trips, records

FOOT was started in 1984 by two undergrads, Jamie Williams and Greg Felt. They had both just completed a NOLS course and were excited about the prospect of introducing a similar experience as an orientation for incoming first-years. With a group of like-minded students —the first CORE— they started talking to administrators about the possibility of starting such a program. The administration was skeptical at first, and told them to seek out someone they could hire as a coordinator. This would lead them to Cilla Kellert, a NOLS graduate, former Outward Bound instructor and Yale Forestry School graduate, who has been with the program since it started.

At the beginning, FOOT was very small: just 12 leaders on 6 trips to the Catskills. The model they came up with, however, would come to define the FOOT experience — 4-6 day backpacking trips led by two co-leaders, who help to bring a sense of community and fun to the whole endeavor. When students return to Yale, they are pumped to begin college- having had a tremendous experience in the great outdoors and having formed friendships that will last for the next four years and beyond.