By Maya Liquigan

October 21, 2024

The Renegades Outdoor Collective club gathered around the campfire during their biannual camping trip to tell scary stories, harmonize with the strum of guitars and reconnect with nature in the middle of the fall semester. 

Faculty advisor David Dolak, a professor in the School of Design, and 17 students traveled to the Indiana Dunes National Park over the weekend to camp. Some students took the South Shore Line train on Friday, Oct. 18, and others drove to the campsite. Students slept in one of four large camping tents or in hammocks hung in the trees.

Ana de Silva, a first-year English major, sat by the crackling campfire and used the firelight to read their book. They joined ROC at the beginning of the semester and said they were worried that they would not get to be around nature as much when moving to Chicago from Minnesota. The trip helped de Silva slow down, they said. 

“It’s such a good refresh, I think, from the fast-paced city life,” de Silva said. 

The Renegades Outdoor Collective holds two camping trips a year, one in the fall semester and one in the spring. Each year they can bring up to 32 students on the trip. During their weekly meetings, the club hosts different outings to local spots like the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Montrose Point Bird Sanctuary. 

When the group arrived Friday evening, they set up tents and spent the rest of the night enjoying the campfire. On Saturday morning, they took off on foot to visit Chesterton’s European Market, where students bought souvenirs, books and snacks before taking off for a two-hour hike.

Lane Dehnel, a sophomore acting major, said that this trip has been better than the first time they went camping with ROC last fall. They said the weather was perfect, and the trip gave them time to get closer to other club members. 

“It’s really nice to have a group of people who all come from the same art school background as me, but all also very much appreciate the outdoors,” Dehnel said. “We have a lot of really good conversations about where we all came from and our lives and we also just get to appreciate the beautiful nature together.”

Sophia Brown, the vice president of ROC, said the club has been where they found some of their best friends. Brown came to Columbia from Puerto Rico and said they were scared that they were not going to be able to feel at home while “surrounded by concrete and buildings.”

Since joining ROC, they said they found an outlet to get fresh air and build bonds with other club members. Brown said that this trip gives students a much-needed break in the middle of the semester. 

“We all know that people are stressed out and people want to, sort of get away,” Brown said. “You have this urge whenever you feel stressed like ‘I just need to get out of here’ and this is the getting out of here. Camping is really, really really important for people’s mental health.”

Students said that the quiet of the campsite was especially peaceful since they constantly heard police sirens or trains in the city. Many also took this opportunity to disconnect from their digital devices. 

Dehnel said that they made it a point to make sure they disconnected from their phone for the trip. Over the three days, their phone notifications were turned off. 

“It’s hard because I want to stay connected,” Dehnel said. “I want to make sure I’m connected with my family and my friends and stuff. But then you remember it’s only a couple of days, the world will keep turning if I’m not checking my email.”

As the light blue sky turned dark, the students huddled together near the fire under twinkling stars. Daniel Sarinana, a first-year music major, said he felt right at home. 

Before coming to Columbia, Sarinana lived on a forest preserve in California and said he has a deep connection with nature. He said “industrialism is not what humans were made for” and that it is important for people to reconnect with nature. 

“Being part of nature literally grounds us to being better, happier people overall,” he said. 

The ROC members packed their tents and food on Sunday afternoon to start their trip back to Chicago. As the trip came to an end, Mahdi Tiry-Garcia, a senior film and television major, said that she felt more at ease and prepared to go back to classes.

As this is her last year at Columbia, she said that she wants to attend the ROC trip in April during the spring semester. Tiry-Garcia said that she hopes the club will continue to grow after she leaves.

“I hope it continues and I hope that the younger kids we got here, just starting out in college, will continue on and be as passionate about it as we are and keep finding even better outdoor activities for future generations to keep doing when we’re gone.”