#WhatWorkLooksLike as an Outdoor Education Program Coordinator
Christina Spohn
Coordinator
Outdoor Education Program at Virginia Commonwealth University
Pittsburgh native residing in Richmond, VA, Christina Spohn is very passionate about bringing outdoor education to people at home and abroad in her role as Coordinator of the Outdoor Education Program at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has spent 250 plus days in the field with students teaching backpacking, rock climbing, canoeing, rafting, fly fishing throughout, and she has worked in 25 states and three different countries. Christina graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management and a master’s degree in Public Administration.
Tell us about yourself and where you work.
I’m Christina! I use she/her pronouns. I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but I live in Richmond, Virginia. I have a degree in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management and a Master's in Public Administration, so my training is in outdoor education, public policy, and nonprofit management. I have spent 250 plus days in the field with students teaching backpacking, rock climbing, canoeing, rafting, fly fishing throughout. I've worked in 25 of the 34 states I've been to, and I’ve worked in three different countries. I'm very passionate about bringing outdoor recreation to people, whether they want to stay where they are in their hometown or they want to go around the world. I currently work for the Virginia Commonwealth University Outdoor Adventure Program, which is a division of our recreation and well-being department.
What does work look like as Coordinator at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Outdoor Adventure Program?
Our program has seven different functional areas, and through my role, I bridge a lot of our functional areas because I do oversee all of our part-time students staff, who help in all those areas. We have free weekly trips. We have a really excellent park system in Richmond called the James River Park System. We take students paddleboarding, mountain biking, kayaking, and things like that, and then we do weekend trips where we drive out to the beach about an hour and a half away, or the mountains, which is like two hours away. We go backpacking, sea kayaking, or rock climbing, lots of different things. We have a team building program, where we actually use a high ropes course like a challenge course, so sometimes I'm out there facilitating groups of people anywhere from like 10 people to 100 people and doing trust building programs and things like that.
For my specific area, I oversee our equipment rental. We have 100 different items for rent, anywhere from a headlamp to a canoe to a tent to a frame bag for your bike. We have a lot of different kinds of things for rent, such as bikes and helmets, and they are available to students. People can buy a membership to our recreation well-being department, like the community can. I do sometimes rent to community members since we’re the only place other than REI that you can find a lot of stuff in the city.
We have a bike shop so we rent out bicycles, and I also offer car maintenance for a fleet of like 40 bikes — mountain and road bikes. We have a climbing and indoor climbing wall, and I oversee the day-to-day staffing for that, and I oversee a team of route setters. I work with one of my coworkers, who does a lot of climbing training and climbing programming, and I assist with that. We do outdoor leadership training, in which we teach students how to lead their peers on trips, so most of those weekly and weekend trips are led by students. They learn leadership, group facilitation, and technical skills of how to go backpacking. I primarily teach backpacking and canoeing to people who may have never been in a boat or canoe before.
We also have an Outdoor Leadership Certificate through our Environmental Studies department. Between the four of us on our team, we all rotate teaching classes every semester. I teach a class called, “Wilderness Policy and Practice”. In the class, we look at land management and public policy issues that affect outdoor recreation and public lands.
Working on a team of four people, I contribute to a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. We each have our little functional area, and I contribute to each of those areas because I started at VCU as a graduate student. I have assisted with all of the programs, and then I got hired on full time, so now I have more ownership over the rental program and the bike shop, but you can still catch me in a canoe or on the challenge course when we need it.
How might your day-to-day schedule differ each day?
Every day is different when I show up to work, and I have different things going on, which is my favorite part of my job. I'm not somebody who can do the same thing over and over again every day. During the semester, I do some teaching, and then just help students get connected to programs and services they want to get connected to. In the winter time, I do a lot of fixing equipment so, you know, running our industrial sewing machine to patch tents, and overhauling bike fleets and things like that. On the weekends, I will help with leadership training to go backpacking with students once or twice a semester, and then the past couple semesters pre-COVID, we would all switch off who led extended trips over winter break, spring break, or summer so I've been to Iceland, I've been to Chile, I’ve been to the Everglades; Red Rocks, Nevada; and Big Bend National Park. We trade off who leads our long-term students.
The trip I led in Chile was a study abroad trip for the students in my class. That was really cool to get a really great local partner down there, and I didn't speak Spanish so it was very much like a cultural immersion for me, alongside my students, which was really cool and beautiful to backpack into beautiful national parks. My trip in Big Bend was my hardest. It was a lot of logistics, we canoed the Rio Grande for eight days, and it's in the middle of nowhere. It is the border between the US and Mexico. So, you were like really out there in the desert, and that was right after I started. I spent a long time planning it, and it was really challenging and rewarding at the same time, so that trip holds a special place in my heart.
What has your experience been with workwear?
The first time I ever bought workwear was when I was 17, and I got on a trail crew on the Appalachian Trail for the summer. My mom took me to the outdoor goods department store, and I bought a pair of men's Carhartts in a size 30/34 — whatever the shortest length was with a really wide waist, and they were so uncomfortable. There's no room for your butt, the hips are super tight, the waist didn’t really fit and it pinched. They had a really long inseam, were really wide in the knees, and just not the right length and very uncomfortable. I did three drill crews so I went through several iterations of uncomfortable men's pants, and then I moved into trail crew so I needed more hiking pants. Unfortunately, they rip all the time! You can get snagged on a thorn bush, and then you have a hole in your backpocket or you have a hole in your knee. I’ve gone through a couple iterations of those when it comes to workwear.
What do you need/want in your workwear to be successful and comfortable throughout the workday?
I teach a three credit class, and I have to be presentable when I go to campus meetings and meet with partners, but I teach students how to use a drill, patch whitewater rafts, and degrease bike chains to help people fix their bikes. I’m the only full-time woman in my outdoor department, and I want to look feminine at work and present myself in a way that I'm confident and professional, but I also don't just want to wear a short sleeve button down shirt and shorts like my male coworkers do. I'm constantly looking for things that can float this continuum between something that I want and am excited to wear, but is very functional for my job.
When I look in the mirror when I leave before my trip or before work, I want to be like, “Okay, I look like I know what I'm doing! I look cool!” I like fashion and style, and that doesn't really fit into my work life, so any little bit of that then I'm like okay, I don't look frumpy. I also don't want to think about it for the rest of the day. I want to focus on what I'm doing, and if I get wet or if I walk through the mud, I don’t want to have to be stressed about my pants not drying. I want to be able to sit down, stand up and bend over without my underwear poking out. I just want to be able to move around and not be thinking about my pants.
What problems have your Glow Workwear Rejuvenate pants solved?
I really like the pockets on them, and the fact that the waistband is high.
When I’m backpacking, I need to have my watch, map, and phone, so I really like the amount of pockets that are on them because that's another issue women have — there's never enough pockets.
I also have wide hips and a narrower waist so I have to wear a belt all the time. I've found that the Glow Workwear Rejuvenate pants do sometimes fall down a little bit, but it's not as bad as stiffer pants that I have to wear a belt with, like Carhartts or khakis. I do appreciate that! There are pants with tiny drawstring waists, and I don't like those because I’m always constantly untying and retying it, and the goal was just to pull them on.
I really like the fabric of the Rejuvenate pants, and they are really comfortable to wear. I am really excited to wear them when it's cooler! I think that they will be a good option that's not too heavy yet breathable, but they will also probably keep me warm.
In the building I work in, we kind of have heat. It's in a 100-year-old barn that we keep all of our outdoor equipment in. It's a little chilly here in the winter!
I also like that I was able to wear the Rejuvenate pants when I went bowling with my friends, and then I was like, “Oh, these pants are actually good for that!” They look nice, but they're really comfortable. I can see myself wearing them on a backpacking trip because they are that synthetic material, which is comfortable, even when it's hot. The waistband is so thick too, I really like it!
What would your advice be to someone interested in pursuing this career path?
You definitely have to be flexible. And I think, for outdoor education and recreation, we're moving in a direction that is more conducive to people. The traditional problem I think with finding people to work in outdoor recreation and outdoor education is that you work really hard, you don't make a lot of money, and it's really hard to have any kind of balance with the rest of your life, like if you had a family or pretty much any other kind of commitment. You really have to be flexible with working somewhere for three months and then working somewhere else for six months.
It's really okay in our field to work in a lot of different places because you pick up little nuggets of knowledge from all those different places. It’s important to find a place that values you and shows their value through competitive pay, intentional work-life balance, or really good opportunities for training, not a place that's just going to work you to the bone and spit you out at the end of the summer and be like “See ya!” I try to caution students against those and remind them to ask themselves if they see themself growing there and if they like the place and region they’re working in.
Once they determine that, then they can actually build connections and community, so that even if their job is only a short contract, they have enough of a community and they like the place enough to go on to find more work and become a better steward of their outdoor recreation resources, if you're more connected to them because you've spent more time and have that homey feeling with the places you're working. I support and encourage students, who want to work in three different states for three months at a time, to do that and soak up as much as they can if they can afford it. I also tell them that there is value in finding a place they like and trying to be in that place.
If there was 1 thing you could ask the world to do that would make a positive impact on the environment, what would it be?
Be conscious of your impact! Every decision you're going to make, and everything you do leaves a trace, if you think about leaving no trace, that is something that outdoor education is very much preaching. That is something that is really hard to do. When I am leaving a trace, I question what that looks like.
First, I’d ask everyone to think about your impact, not only on your micro climate, such as the campsite you’re camping at or your impact on your neighborhood.
Second, make a global impact. Be mindful of how many times a year you’re flying and prioritize where you're buying your products. Think about how much you're getting shipped to your house versus things you could walk to a store and get or barter and trade with your neighbors for something they don't want that you are likely to use. Try to reduce how often you’re buying new products, clothes, and equipment. If you buy an expensive piece of equipment or a garment that fits nicely, then it's going to last longer and you're going to love and wear it more often. You don't need to buy three garments, or three pieces of equipment in a lifetime. You can have one that you paid a little bit more money for, but by putting in the effort to learn how to fix it or tailor it yourself, you can reduce your carbon footprint.