Story of Self: My Journey to Steering Committee
My name is Beth Larcom. I am a Junior at Harvard studying History and Science with a Secondary in Educational Studies. When I am not at the rink practicing and competing with Harvard’s Women’s Ice Hockey team, you can find me working as a Steering Committee member with the First-Year Outdoor Program.
I joined the FOP leading community my Sophomore year after I realized that sharing the outdoors with people was one of my biggest passions. I enjoy being outside, I always have, but when you can share that with someone else (perhaps even for their first time), it is truly special. Applying to be and becoming a FOP leader was the first step to realizing that my passion for leading and being with people in the outdoors is much more than a hobby. In exploring what I might want my post-graduation plans to be, I have boiled it down to one thing: I want to go into the outdoor industry in some capacity that allows me to share the outdoors with other people.
While my passion for the outdoors and my want to pursue it as a career did inspire me a little bit to apply to be on FOP’s Steering Committee, it was much more than that. FOP as a program is something that combines many of the things I find value in: mentorship, leadership, leadership development, and frameworks for things like conflict resolution, relationship/team building, etc. FOP trips and being a part of the FOP community have given me so many opportunities for growth and meeting incredible people, that I wanted to give back and truly commit myself to the program. I thought, and still believe, that being part of Steering Committee was the best way to do so. While it has been a lot of work and tough decisions up until now, I am so glad to be a part of this leadership group and I’m excited to see the trips we put out in the Fall.
