River Institute Meeting

Today at the Rivers Institute meeting, we were able to hear from Susan Byrnes and Dennie Eagleson about their audio compilations from the orientation trip. Having not been able to go on the orientation trip due to scheduling conflicts, I was very excited to hear what everyone had to say.

Susan Byrnes, the director at Artstreet, compiled everyone saying three words describing the river or his or her expectations for the trip. After cycling through everyone saying their three words individually, she added a beat, some water sounds, and made the words echo. I'm sure Leslie will upload the audio to the blog.

Dennie Eagleson compiled the stewards' reactions after their first day of paddling on the river. It was pretty long but also gave some great insight into how much we love being on the river and how exciting our first experiences always are. The most common description of how everyone felt after the first day of paddling was "tired".

Leslie also brought up the idea of having these clips and possibly some stewards going on air with WUDR. According to Susan, students, as well as parents and alumni, listen to this show quite frequently because the shows are available online as well as on air. This would be a great idea for a different type of publicity.

I really enjoyed this part of the meeting because, having not been able to make orientation, I felt like I had missed out on how everyone reacted and felt about the experience. Now I get a glimpse of how cool it was and it makes me excited for next year's paddle.