Liam Donoghue – Northwest Explorer
Apogee is excited to welcome back Liam Donoghue, a senior at Franklin & Marshall College studying Environmental Studies and Business. He has had an appreciation for the outdoors since childhood and grew up playing a variety of sports including football, basketball, golf, baseball, and lacrosse. Growing up, Liam would also enjoy going on day hikes with friends during the summers he spent in New Hampshire. Two summers ago, Liam was abroad in Australia studying marine biology, marketing, and earth systems. He has also completed a semester-long course with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), where he spent eighty days in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) learning skills in backpacking, rock climbing, glacier mountaineering, keelboat sailing, and wilderness first aid. Liam has enjoyed working with kids since he was in high school. During his sophomore year, he began volunteering for The Challenger Program, an organization that pairs high school student mentors with children with mental or physical disabilities to help them play various sports. Through the program, Liam developed lifelong friendships with his former mentees and continues to stay in touch with them today. At Franklin & Marshall, Liam is a Spring Student Admit Orientation Leader, where he mentors students to help them adjust to campus life. Liam shared his love of nature and the outdoors with his students on last year’s Vermont to Montréal trip, and can’t wait to do the same when he returns to the PNW with his Northwest Explorer trips this summer!
Tess Healy – Northwest Explorer
No stranger to the Apogee family, Tess Healy is back for yet another summer! Last year, Tess and her students biked across international borders on our Vermont to Montréal trip, but this year she looks forward to swapping her bike for a backpack as she shows her students the beauty of Washington on our Northwest Explorer trip. A former Apogee student herself, Tess has previously partaken in four Apogee trips; she has biked along coastal paths on Cape Cod & the Islands, backpacked in Yosemite on California Mountains & Coast, hiked, backpacked, and whitewater rafted in the Olympic and North Cascades National Parks on Northwest Explorer (she can’t wait to be back!), and even cycle toured through six countries from Amsterdam to Venice on Europe Coast to Coast! Whew! Now a rising senior at Dickinson College majoring in Environmental Studies and Minoring in Italian, Tess has become passionate about global environmental issues, especially climate change. Tess spent three weeks in rural Nepal during her junior year to research and study climate change and human security; while there, she conducted interviews on climate hazards and community resilience. Tess also took a gap year before starting up at Dickinson, during which she worked in New York City and traveled to the Bahamas to study sea turtles and other sea creatures. As a runner on Dickinson’s cross country and track team, she’s excited to log some stunning backcountry miles with her students this summer!
Jake Atwood – Northwest Explorer
Jake Atwood will be joining us for his first Apogee summer shortly after his graduation ceremony from Bates College. A native of Natick, Massachusetts, Jake believes he is the person he is today because of participating in outdoor adventure programs similar to Apogee throughout his youth. The traits his wilderness trips taught him – generosity, positivity, and resiliency – have served him in his camp leadership experiences as well. Jake has worked with the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Three Mile Island Camp and with Chewonki, and believes a good leader models goofiness, inclusion, and respect. An enthusiastically positive person, he also believes that great leaders can utilize their sense of humor both when things are going well and when they’re not. Put all of this together and it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that Jake has a knack for creating fun and memorable moments for campers. A notable example being when he built a floating fireplace for his campers, allowing them to roast marshmallows from various flotation devices and enjoy the sticky summer treat from the water. When Jake isn’t inventing novel ways to entertain campers, he is most likely to be tossing a frisbee or describing in detail his eclectic collection of Nalgenes. We’re so excited to welcome Jake and his personality and experience to the Apogee family and to see what he cooks up on our Northwest Explorer trips this summer!
Morgan Pratt – Northwest Explorer
After a successful summer leading our Vermont to Montréal cycling trip, we’re thrilled to have Morgan Pratt back this summer to lead our Northwest Explorer trips! Morgan grew up in New Haven, Vermont surrounded by bountiful outdoor opportunities. In addition to canoeing, fly fishing, and playing classical piano, Morgan loves hiking, road biking, and attending musical theater performances with her family. As a rising senior at St. Lawrence University majoring in Communications, Morgan is a Community Mentor for the Community Based Learning Program (CBLP) and helps connect students with volunteer opportunities in the local Canton community. As such, she works regularly with students in the afterschool program at St. Mary’s School and is also in charge of the Canton Day Care CBLP. At St. Lawrence, Morgan is a co-leader of the Disability Advocacy Group, which strives to make SLU’s campus more accessible for people with physical and mental disabilities. Morgan spent this past semester studying abroad in Nepal – where she honed her Tibetan speaking skills – but also looks forward to returning to campus this fall where she’ll begin her tenure as the Vice President of the Outing Club. Morgan can’t wait to share her passion for the outdoors with her Apogee students again this year, and we’re psyched to have her back!